The LEGO Ninjago movie review: This ensemble animation film is disposable entertainment

When the hilarious The Lego Movie opened a few years ago I really thought this was a whole new direction for animation films and that the landscape of the genre will change for the better. Fast forward to 2017 and we have one fun but forgettable Lego Batman movie and now an insipid Lego Ninjago movie. At this point it feels like more of the same, and much less charming with every subsequent installment.

We are introduced to a teen named Lloyd (voiced by Dave Franco) who is treated like dirt by everyone around him because he is the son of the villainous Garmadon, a monster who lives in a nearby volcano and who often attempts to attack the city. But Lloyd also has a secret job – to be part of an Avengers like ensemble with Kai (Michael Pena), Jay (Kumail Nanjiani), Nye (Abbi Jacobson), Zane (Zach Woods), and Cole (Fred Armisen) and save the city from evil forces. Things go very wrong when an new evil force named Mewthra arrives to destroy everyone and everything, and it’s up to Lloyd and his team to save the world of Ninjago.

As you can guess there’s nothing particularly special about this story seeing as it’s yet another superhero style narrative about saving the world from an evil overlord. The good films that traverse this territory at least make the characters or the battle scenes more interesting, but the Lego Ninjago movie doesn’t have either of those. There’s a lot of explosions, shouting, ass kicking and frenetic action but it’s all loud and generic, bereft of charm or heart.

The bigger problem isn’t the lack of gags – it’s that the gags aren’t memorable. And this is mainly because the film becomes the very thing the original Lego Movie made fun of – disposable entertainment.

There was a whole parody song called ‘Everything is awesome’ which crucified the plastic nature of pop culture and the cinema that normalizes it, but the Lego Ninjago movie very much exists in the realm of that song. It does feel like the franchise has been dumbed down in a swift span of two years, choosing easy fast food style entertainment rather than thought provoking and memorable storytelling.

Maybe some seven-year-olds will like the film because of the constantly busy tone of the film, but that’s pretty much akin to feeding your child a large glass of a sugary drink. Most of the jokes will go over their heads anyway, and the ones that they will get are all related to butts. Lame.

The Lego Ninjago Movie had a lot of potential and should have ideally become a classic like Samurai Jack. It exists in a world with martial arts, fantasy and four armed monsters, it should have been the coolest thing ever. Unfortunately in a corporate controlled world a brand is violently milked till it becomes useless, and the Lego franchise sure seems to be heading that way. If only they could bring Phil Lord and Chris Miller back to steer the ship towards the right direction again.