The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part movie review — Meta humour, terrific voice acting makes this a winner

It’s always a pleasant surprise when a sequel lives up to the promise of the original and delivers much more than ‘more of the same’. The Lego Movie 2, fitfully titled The Second One, offers a deeper dive into the meta comedy, satirical skewering of shitty pop music and hilarious self referential takedowns of Batman, but there’s a heart at work with a message that is simple and yet rewarding. Picking up immediately after the events of the first film, we’re quickly introduced to the gang of Lego creations in the city of Brickburg terrorised by the arrival of Duplo aliens. Five years since the ‘invasion’, the Lego city has turned into a post apocalyptic wasteland called Apocalypseburg. Things become even more troubling when General Sweet Mayhem (Stephanie Beatriz) from the alien army attacks the city and kidnaps the five most prominent characters, and our hero Emmet (Chris Pratt) embarks on a journey to rescue them. There’s hardly any breathing space here as Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s script explodes constantly with meta jokes and sight gags, balanced by terrific voice acting. [caption id=“attachment_6047381” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  A still from Lego Movie 2.[/caption] Lord and Miller are of course the masters of this genre, and they continue to respect the intelligence of the audience, always keeping two steps ahead of our expectations. But more importantly, they’re also aware of two things: that four years have passed since the previous movie and the novelty of the Legos have worn off a bit since then, and also the previous movie ended on a perfect twist revelation and that doing another twist would be silly. Instead of falling into the ‘gotcha’ trap, the sequel focuses on how to utilise the revelation in the first film to build a gratifying drama attached to the zaniness of everything within the Lego universe. Without giving too much away, the plot wonderfully branches off into two different storylines because of the two different ‘controllers’ this time, and you’re often challenged to figure out the source of the storylines’ imagination. On one prong is a teenage nerd sci-fi fantasy splashing and flailing with all the insanity and inconsistency you expect from the mind of a hormonal boy. On the other is a cutesy universe with puppets and dance parties, and both worlds collide hilariously, often making it difficult for you to figure out which is which. The newness in the familiarity is what makes it all work, and all the things that clicked in the previous film make a comeback – like Batman (Will Arnett) being the heroic moron, Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) coming to terms with her feminine badassery and Lego celebrity cameos. Instead of just putting a Justice League together in Legos, the emphasis is more on Emmet and his arc this time, which carries a surprising amount of thought in the message that his journey ultimately makes. We’re all Emmet and perfectly average at some (if not all) point in our lives and it’s hard not to be a little moved by what he experiences and learns in the film. And true to the film’s themes, even his deeply psychological graph is addressed with a meta joke that makes your belly hurt. Go and book your tickets already. And stay for the amazing end credits. Rating: ***1/2