Hang On a Second

The Lego Movie (and spin-off, The Lego Batman Movie) were both fun romps that hit the target of being good for both kids and adults. A sequel was inevitable... but was not alluring enough to draw me out to the theater during the original run. (Ah, a more innocent time: when you could go out somewhere public, but chose not to.)

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part picks up five years after the first film -- as many years as have passed in reality. The world of Emmet and Lucy has transformed into a Mad Max style "Apocalypseburg" that's constantly fending off attacks by enemies from the "Systar system." Hanging over everyone is the fear that if peace cannot be reached, "Ar-mom-ageddon" will destroy the world completely.

In the original Lego Movie -- (um... five-year-old SPOILER warning, I guess) -- the big surprise moment was revealing the Lego characters' connection to the real world, in which a father and son were clashing over how best to play with toys. It was a small but surprising bit of pathos injected into the middle of the hijinks, just the right amount of sentiment to hide inside the fun. That can't be repeated here for surprise, of course, so The Lego Movie 2 just leans into the fact that its audience knows about the real world, winking constantly with wordplay and playful references. This mostly works, particularly when comedy genius Maya Rudolph appears as the kids' Mom.

The stuff inside Lego world falls far short of the first movie, though. There isn't really much of a character arc left for Emmet or Lucy, so this movie fills the space with nonstop gags. Sure, some of them are funny. But the overall effect is just hyperactive and loud, a fire hose with no one holding onto it, spraying chaotically all over the place. ("Sure, it's a movie for kids," I hear you say. "You don't have to flash something new on the screen every .7 seconds just because you think a child is watching," I reply.)

One returning element from the first Lego Movie works like gangbusters, though -- the song "Everything Is Awesome." The earwormy hit from the first movie is chopped and remixed and parodied here to great effect. It's also one-upped, as the movie strives to outdo the original with even more songs. The appropriately named "Catchy Song" is a deliberate attempt to manufacture what "Everything Is Awesome" did accidentally (and nails it), while the end credits song "Super Cool" hilariously breaks the fourth wall to describe its own function as an end credits song.

Still, that might all amount to a reason to buy the soundtrack more than a reason to watch the movie. Where The Lego Movie felt like a good movie for all ages, The Lego Movie 2 felt much more like a movie a parent endures because their kid wants to watch it. Needless to say, not having any kids who forced me to watch it, I was quite disappointed. I give this sequel a middle-of-the-road C.