It has been five years since the animated extravaganza The Lego Movie dominated the screen and we left the first movie on a note of existential anxiety. Showing in cinemas this week is the much-anticipated sequel The LEGO MOVIE 2: The Second Part that reunited the heroes of Bricksburg in an all-new action-packed adventure.
The kid in the real-world basement is informed that from now on his younger sister will be playing and the creatures of the Lego universe were horrified by the appearance of Duplo: great big blocks with new pinky-cutesy colours. The masculine world of Lego is threatened.
At the end of the last movie, we were given a glimpse of the Duplo invaders, who set off on the city of Bricksburg. The sequel gives us a glimpse into their attack and then fast forwards five years, where the citizens and heroes of Bricksburg have gone underground, living in the ‘not so awesome’ Apocalypseburg — A devolved dystopian wasteland —where life is hard and rough.
Emmet (Chris Pratt), however, remains his perky, optimistic self. Efforts to be edgy and moody to impress the badass Lucy are adorably futile. But he finds a real opportunity to prove his worth when Apocalypseburg becomes the target of an invasion by seemingly benign but secretly evil LEGO Duplo creatures from outer space.
The battle to defeat the invaders and restore harmony to the LEGO universe will take Emmet, Lucy (Elizabeth Banks), Batman (Will Arnett) and their friends to far away, unexplored worlds, including a strange galaxy where everything is a musical. It will test their courage, creativity and Master Building skills, and reveal just how special they really are.
This time, we know from the start that certain LEGO creations are the work of that slightly older boy, Finn (played once again by Jadon Sand), and others are the creations of his pesky little sister (Brooklynn Prince). The conflict between them is rendered in animated form, but live-action reality creeps in from time to time.
The creatures of Duplo arrive with an order: Apocalypseburg’s foremost citizens must travel to the distant outpost of Sustar to attend a wedding. Their enemies’ leader Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi (voiced by Tiffany Haddish) has imperiously announced her desire to get hitched to Apocalypseburg’s most eligible unmarried man: Batman
Along with the newly introduced Duplo characters is Lego’s very own Rex Dangervest who through his hyper-masculine personality and attractive stubble along with a shares love for vests, helps Emmet through his own crisis of masculinity.
The second Lego Movie is a worthy sequel to the first: a sophisticated new adventure that gives us a new look at how the universality of the Lego universe was more gendered than we thought. There is hilarious voice-work artistry, ceaselessly inventive pop-culture riffs (“Ooooh – reference!” says someone), eyeball-popping graphics and a 107-minute nonstop gag-storm of a screenplay from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.
This will definitely be a treat to the whole family especially the kids who particularly loved the first one.
TITASH CHAKRABORTY
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