**** outta *****

4 outta 5

The Lego Movie in 2014 arrived on a wave of originality, taking an on the surface inane toy ad concept and bringing a unique sense of style, visual flourish and unexpected emotional heft. In the past 5 years, there have been three more Lego movies, Lego Batman, Lego Ninjago and now The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part so inevitably the sheen has worn off.  The rapid fire pace and wit is still there but it doesn’t seem as inventive, however, the movie still offers up some interesting twists to how the Lego universe works with a sprawling, fun cast of characters. It basically settles into the standard sequel formula of making everything bigger. Overall, everything is still awesome and it’s fun to revisit this interesting animated niche.

Five years after the Lego people have been invaded by Dulpo aliens, their town is now the barren wasteland of Apocalypseburg, and while Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), Batman (Will Arnett) and Unikitty (Alison Brie) have broodingly adapted to their new way of life, the ever cheerful Emmet (Chris Pratt) remains unchanged. The arrival of a new alien, General Mayhem (Stephanie Beatriz), brings more problems as the General takes several Lego characters into the outer space realm of Systar System for the wedding ceremony of Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi (Tiffany Haddish). Emmet almost gets blown up in space but is saved by the swashing Rex Dangervest (also Pratt). Now the duo have to get their friends back before Emmet’s apocalyptic visions come true.

The Legos are afraid they’ll be packed away in giant plastic bins never to be seen again in Our-Mom-Ageddon. Unfortunately, the subtext message is cleaning up toys sends them to a hellish purgatory but still it’s a good motivating factor to keep the Legos going on their quest. The last movie played with Special Chosen One clichés and apocalyptic scenarios but found an original way to deal with it. This one, like the movie overall, is slightly less ingenious but still enjoyable. The finale of the original Lego Movie revealed the real world manipulating the Legos in a heartfelt and twisty third act and there are more glimpses of the real world here. It does logically track what the Legos are going through are an emotional reflection of what the people in the real world are going through although it’s a bit more convoluted this time around.

Pulling double duty, Pratt’s characters are both distinct yet both Emmet and Rex feel like different reflections of the same Lego. Emmet is constantly upbeat to the point that things go completely over his head while Rex is an extreme hodgepodge of Pratt’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World characters. There’s a tremendous scene where they encounter a bunch of people who have been brainwashed into a happy suburban life complete with Superman suddenly being friends with his sworn enemy Lex Luthor. Batman is still hilarious, even his solo movie outing is briefly mentioned, as he gets caught in a romantic situation that is completely out of his depth. Unikitty, who also got her own TV show in the last few years, is good for random weird asides along with MetalBeard (Nick Offerman) and ‘80s Spaceman Benny (Charlie Day). The alien Queen is in the movie quite a lot a bit to the detriment of the other characters but the constantly shifting design she has is very original. General Mayhem basically gets to be menacing but has a neat character twist halfway through.

This movie is full of great random gags. The best part is when all seems lost for the Legos as the end title card rolls up with a character bemoaning that the movie can’t end on a downer cliffhanger and the desperate situation makes them feel like “I finally get Radiohead!” The insanely catchy “Everything is Awesome” song gets a few remixes here (especially a fantastic “Everything’s Not Awesome” song medley) and this movie offers up an even more annoyingly perky number called “Catchy Song” that the Legos are helpless to resist. There’re more musical numbers this time around, some are just okay like Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi’s introductory scene where she nefariously reveals her intentions but there’s also a much better duet between her and Batman.

Even though they are simple Lego characters the detail is quite intricate. On closeups there is wear and tear on the paint and even some fingerprint smudges. Most of the characters have gotten an intense post-apocalyptic Mad Max style makeover and the film environments are epic. As befitting a Lego piece, they move in jerky movements that looks like stop motion animation. There’re some trippy visuals like the vision that Emmet has of a disastrous future with lots of random strange images that slowly creep back into his world as his End Times prophecy threatens to come true.

It’s hard to be disappointed with The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part since it just aims to constantly please. The only real fault is that it’s set a bit too hyper-speed for the first hour as it ping pongs between plots however it slows down enough to connect on a more emotional level later on. If not as invigorating as before, The Second Part is a consistently exuberant return.