First Take: The Lego Movie 2- so many hours spent building...

SYNOPSIS: It’s been five years since everything was awesome and the citizens are facing a huge new threat: Lego Duplo invaders from outer space, wrecking everything faster than they can rebuild.

A little over 5 years on from the release of the film that gave us Everything is Awesome, the obligatory sequel has arrived (following several spinoffs, for which the quality has been good, bad, and generally mixed)- with a new director, could Lego 2 deliver on the hype, or be as painful as stepping on a brick? Well, it’s good. But not in the upper echelons of awesomeness.

Mike Mitchell takes the directors chair on this one, and knowing his body of work (most notably 2016′s Trolls), he knows a thing or two about how to make a good animated film, and while some elements do drag on, and feel a little bit derivative of the first film, the 1 hour 47 minutes we have here are pretty enjoyable. Working to another incredibly self-referential script from Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the signature humour of the first film is back (alongside some amazing tributes to some classic films), but at points it does feel a little too much like an ad for Lego themselves, so I am a little worried about what they may do if a third film is greenlit. The animation is something that I can’t fault, and Mark Mothersbaugh continues his good run of work with the music once again with this release.

Performance wise, the returning voice cast are brilliant. Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett and Alison Brie are the main people to return for the second instalment, and joining them is Tiffany Haddish, Maya Rudolph, Richard Ayoade, Stephanie Beatriz and a few others- all of them are pretty good in their roles, and while some characters do get some major backstory, one particular character (who I won’t spoil) has a twist that legitimately left me baffled- U films are meant to be accessible. But some of the audience today just didn’t get it. Also, I have to mention that Jason Momoa cameo. It got one of the biggest laughs of the film.

THE VERDICT

The Lego Movie 2 is good. The humour delivers alright, but the subtle pacing issues, a confusing twist, and reliance on putting the Lego and Duplo products in our faces- part numbers and all- does wear thin after several films.

RATING: 4/5