The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part starts where the first movie left off. At the end of the original Lego Movie Bianca (Brooklynn Prince), Finn's (Jadon Sand) sister, is allowed to come down to the basement to play with the Lego. She brings with her an invasion of malevolent alien Duplo which is intent on raining death and destruction down on the utopian town of Bricksburg. For five years indestructible alien ships terrorise Bricksburg, reducing it to a pile of bricks. There is a flood of references to the likes of War Of The Worlds, Independence Day, Terminator Salvation and Pacific Rim, and to computer games like Fallout. There are so many references it feels like there isn't much else to the film. After each attack the citizens of Bricksburg rebuild. Eventually they create Apocalypseburg a grim post apocalypse town made from plastic bricks and Mad Max: Fury Road references.

In the middle of this future hell is Emmet Brickowski (Chris Pratt). His optimism and sunny disposition are seemingly unaffected by society collapsing around him. He has been building a suburban dream house in the middle of the war torn wasteland. A place for himself and his girlfriend Lucy/Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) to live. His halcyon vision is intruded upon first by a prophetic nightmare in which the Lego world is destroyed in Stor-Age and then by the final attack by Duplo in which General Mayhem (Stephanie Beatriz) kidnaps the leaders of Apocalypseburg and spirits them off to the Sis Star system for some nefarious purpose. Now all that's left is for Emmet build a space ship, meet mentor Rex (also Chris Pratt), save Lucy and the other leaders, defeat the Duplo leader Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi, do the plot twist and save the day. Oh and pack in an hour or so of pop culture jokes, film references and songs.

Although The Lego Movie 2 is fun it relies on too many throwaway jokes and references, some of which are unfortunately repeated ad nauseum. They get in the way of the plot and interfere with the film's pacing. Some work well, like Lego Bruce Willis crawling around air shafts Die Hard style or Batman's comment "Well you should check out Elliott Smith," during the song Everything’s Not Awesome.

The music is a bit of a let down. The afore mentioned Everything’s Not Awesome works until it morphs into the forgettable This Songs Gonna Get Stuck Inside Your Head. The end credits song is fun however, and Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi's is catchy and is accompanied by some of the most inventive animation in the film.

The Lego Movie 2 also feels thin. The first film said stuff about consumer and corporate culture and the death of imagination whereas this one says not much: children squabbling is bad, they should play nice. The interface between the real world and the Lego one is done in a heavy handed way. There is the Sis Star System, Bianca's room, or Stor-Age, the storage bin in which all the Lego will be put if the children don't stop fighting. The destruction in the Lego world is a direct result of one child smashing another's stuff. The subtlety of the first film is missing.