Lego Movies

[Ben X]

Regarding the Lego Movie, I said:

 

Quote

Lego Movie - very disappointed. No story or characters (which fits with later developments but still doesn't make for a good movie), and the humour feels more like a bunch of Youtube videos stitched together than a feature comedy. It has a lot of muddled themes and descends into mawkishness at the end. It reminded me of the equally-mawkish Toy Story 2: that film tells us that a rare toy should not be displayed in a museum; this one (after a lot of confusion) tells us that if you want to enjoy Lego in a less imaginative way, you are doing it wrong.
 
It generally looked nice, though the 3D was barely existent, and the action was messily directed. It did look gorgeous when they were doing big water or explosion effects.

 

(if you do a search for "lego" in this board, you'll find a bunch of other, mostly positive opinions)

 

I watched the Lego Batman Movie and enjoyed it a lot more. Funny, a solid story and actually quite touching.

[Kolzig]

Lego Movie had some fun bits for me, but overall it was a mediocre mashup of a lot of ip and Lego mixed together in a weakish plot.

 

Lego Batman movie was also having some fun bits, but I got also the feeling that the end side of it was quite messy and did not flow so well. But the first half of the movie was awesome.

[Roderick]

Next up: the goddamn Ninjago movie. Which has at least going for it that it has this amazing (and expensive) set coming out soon:

 

[Ben X]

Trailers are out for the sequel. Interestingly, (spoilers for stuff in this trailer)

 

Spoiler

they're fully lampshading the 'male chosen one gets to be the hero even though they're less proficient at everything than the lead female character' trope that showed up in the first movie. (However, this directly leads to her being a damsel in distress, so...)

 

 

[Roderick]

Funny, at the time I felt they were rushing these Lego movies, but I see that the first one was released in 2014. Doesn't feel rushed that they're releasing a sequel now.

 

I have reservations, though. Putting Beastie Boys in your trailers feels way too obvious - why not go with Who Let The Dogs Out and be done with it entirely? I like the Chris Pratt in-joke, though the big 'laughter -> I don't get it' zinger is again used before and not actually a joke. Eh, we'll see.

[Merus]

I said this in the Slack, but I feel like I can predict the arc of this movie based mostly on the way the first one's metaphor worked - not just the obvious conflict, but a lot of the themes.

[Roderick]

Visited The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part: Part Deux twice now, like I'm on some kind of goddamn Two-Face scheme.

 

It's fun! I'd say it's just about as accomplished and fun as the first movie, which is quite an achievement. You'd expect the freshness to have worn off, and though it has, here and there, it becomes obvious they can still get tons of mileage from both the world and the (still hilarious) notion of animated Lego minifigs. It's playful and cute and has another 'real world connection'. This time around it's less surprising, but I found myself humming and bopping along and being generally impressed and mightily entertained.

 

I hear it's not doing so well in theatres, maybe due to the shine being off Lego films after Batman and Ninjago releasing in the meantime, the latter only a year ago. Shame, because this is a fun movie. Easily more entertaining than the average mawkish kids' 3D movie with facially over-gesticulating characters (I'm looking at you, Wonderpark trailer).

[Ben X]

Got round to seeing Part 2. I didn't think much of it until the last section where the metaphors and twists come out in full force and it reveals itself as an anti-MRA, anti-toxic-masculinity, pro-genderqueer movie, and it all works really well. Also, the song over the credits is Beck in a more modern Midnite Vultures mode with The Lonely Island rapping about credits, and it's fantastic.