Everything is awesome in a LEGO product! Okay well everything is awesome so long as you’re not the parent dishing out money for the set or stepping on one of those little bricks. Lego’s are cool, they have all these awesome things you can build from plastic little bricks (so long as you follow the instructions), and even encourage kids to go offroading and create new things outside of the set (granted each time I did that I got a crappy airplane).
I actually didn’t grow up with Legos though because my mom said they were too expensive and that I’d just leave all the bricks everywhere to injure both her and my dad (she was completely right and I don’t hold it against her). So I missed out on a lot of Lego shenanigans growing up (it’s cool, I made up for it in the form of books, art supplies, and manga, and admittingly Lego Dimensions is one of my favorite videogames and possibly the best approach of the now dead Toys to Life gaming genre).
I saw the Lego movie in 2014, thought it was one of the most hilarious movies I had ever seen, and wondered what the sequel would be about. Then I discovered the sequel was briefly postponed due to the story choosing to focus on the sensitive topic of how boys and girls play. As I said I didn’t grow up with Legos so I wasn’t aware there was a gender issue with it, but this here video gave me an idea of how bad the issue is.
Spoilers from this point on, maybe you need a catchy song to forget about the spoilers though.
The second movie picks up right where the first movie left off where the younger sister of Finn (Bianca) is invited to play in Bricksburg and as expected, older siblings can never have nice things. Five years after the events of Taco Tuesday. Bricksburg is now Apocalypseburg and everyone is dark, gritty, and tough, except Emmet. Until Sweet Mayhem comes along. Most of the master builders are kidnapped and taken to the Systar System and Emmet takes off to rescue them and prove he’s a tough gritty guy.
I’m actually going to shift away from the story and talk about how the movie possibly made a smart move and rather than focusing on the above mentioned “feminist issue” of how boys and girls play, it focuses more on communication and how Bianca wants to play with her older brother Finn, but the age gap between them and minor different interests make playing together hard at times. There’s also Finn wondering how to stay a nice guy despite movies (and possibly peers) saying that he needs to toughen up. Meanwhile residents of the Systar System adopt a tough and intimidating attitude just to make the citizens of Apocalypsburg listen and acknowledge them, despite most of the residents just being happy, fun loving individuals who really like catchy pop music.
Once again the climax of the movie is resolved in the older protagonist (this time film) acknowledging they messed up, and making up for the mistake made and both siblings playing legos together, except this time Bianca isn’t as rough at play time than she was as a kid and can communicate what plot points she wants in play time.
The toys featured in the film are pretty neat and creative, I find myself almost tempted to dish out 120$ to purchase Emmett’s spaceship house and Sweet Mayhem’s spaceship (almost tempted, but hey I now have a VIP card to the Lego store). It does make me think that maybe I’ll purchase The Lego Movie 2 video game or possibly get Lego Dimensions on Steam (if I can ever figure out how to use Steam).
Sadly, ALOT of this movie was spoiled for me online, and I wasn’t even looking for spoilers so most of the jokes used in the film were spoiled and I didn’t laugh as hard as I thought it would. The film also isn’t as crazy as the previous film or The Lego Batman Movie, but still enjoyable (I haven’t seen The Lego Ninjago movie, I need to see it).
I give Lego Movie 2 The Second Part three out of five catchy songs.
Books and Smizmars 