'The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part' Review

Synopsis: The citizens of Bricksburg face a dangerous new threat when LEGO DUPLO invaders from outer space start to wreck everything in their path. The battle to defeat the enemy and restore harmony to the LEGO universe takes Emmet, Lucy, Batman, and the rest of their friends to far away, unexplored worlds that test their courage and creativity.

Runtime: 106 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG (for some rude humor)

Who should see it? Appropriate for all ages.

The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part may have one of the most redundant subtitles ever, but thankfully The LEGO Movie 2 is nowhere near being an unnecessary sequel. Since Phil Lord and Chris Miller were preoccupied producing Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and *sigh* developing Solo: A Star Wars Story before leaving the project late in production due to creative differences, Mike Mitchell's wound up in the director's chair. It's undoubtedly an unenviable task to build a better sequel considering everyone's unexpected obsession with The LEGO Movie, but Mitchell leans into Lord and Miller's frenetic style that made the original so beloved. However, Lord and Miller are still solely responsible for the sequel's screenplay while Matthew Fogel lent the duo a hand constructing the story.

Picking up right where The LEGO Movie left off, audiences are treated to an opening sequence of the DUPLO destruction teased in the original's ending. After a five year time jump (mirroring the distance between The LEGO Movie 2 and its predecessor), viewers discover that Bricksburg has become a Mad Max: Fury Road-esque apocalyptic wasteland in the wake of said mayhem. Consequently, every citizen of Bricksburg is now edgy and battle-hardened, paralleling the newfound teenage angst of their owner Finn, except for Emmet... Emmet still has the cheery, naive disposition audiences will remember from the last movie, so Lucy asks him to change with the times, believing a tough exterior is the only way to survive in their world. When Lucy and co. are kidnapped, this all sets Emmet's arc into gear.

Also voiced by Chris Pratt, Rex Dangervest enters the picture as an amalgamation of Pratt's live action roles and a fascinating foil to Emmet. Dangervest is the prime example of a hyper-masculine tough hero Lucy wants Emmet to be. Now, EVERYTHING I've mentioned thus far is showcased prominently in the trailers, but I thought it ought to be regurgitated before I continue. I'm about to touch on story elements which could be considered somewhat spoilery, but I can assure you these are things you will quickly pick up on in the first fifteen minutes or maybe have already gleaned from the trailers. They aren't bombshell revelations in the slightest, but if you're sensitive to knowing story information beforehand, I figured I'd give you the courtesy of a warning so you can click away and come back once you've seen The LEGO Movie 2. With that said, the sequel's thematic material is a progression of the original's message to be yourself. This time around, it's more about staying true to yourself and not compromising your identity when growing up. Additionally, The Second Part trades in the parental-child dynamic for an allegory about sibling relationships.

Coexistence is key, and as someone with three younger sisters, I relate to the depicted central struggle between siblings. I've witnessed many overblown misunderstandings firsthand where both sides were well-intentioned. This fits together nicely with the arc mentioned above. Maturing doesn't mean you have to ditch the compassion in favor of cynicism. There's room for skepticism, but also a healthy dose of optimism. It's up to us to find the balance. 

Lord and Miller haven't abandoned the witty meta-humor that popularized the first though. From the get-go, they satirize the concept of darker sequels by offering the antithesis and poking fun at the notion in their dialogue. The LEGO Movie 2 often delves into self-parody by becoming a full-blown cheery musical. If you thought "Everything is Awesome" was an obnoxious ear-worm, you better prepare for a soundtrack filled with upbeat, original pop-tunes (I promise there's a narrative purpose). "Catchy Song" in particular delivers on the promise of its lyrics and WILL get stuck in your head for a while. The music may alienate viewers who perceive it as annoying, but I found the lyrics in most songs to be utterly hysterical. On that note, there's not a post-credits scene, but stick around during the first part of the credits and just listen carefully to the song playing over the credits. Trust me, you won't regret it.

Otherwise, the animation offers plenty of sensational spectacle. In addition to improving on the LEGO animation style, the animators ensure the sequel's more colorful, dynamic, and eye-catching than the original. There's extraordinary attention to detail in the mini-figure's restrictive movement and the reflection of light off the brick-built people which enhances the authenticity of the animation. Regarding the music, Jon Lajoie's responsible for the aforementioned original songs while Mark Mothersbaugh's score serves as an excellent accompaniment to the whole ordeal.

As I previously mentioned, Chris Pratt voices both Emmet and Rex Dangervest, effectively differentiating the two while often bantering back-and-forth with himself. In the meantime, Elizabeth Banks lends Lucy an abundance of spunk to further downplay the character's insecurities. Pratt and Banks once again have a wonderful on-screen dynamic. 

Reprising their roles, Will Arnett, Alison Brie, Charlie Day, and Nick Offerman click into the grand picture as quality comic relief, playing Batman, Unikitty, Benny, and Metal Beard respectively. Joining the cast, Stephanie Beatriz's General Mayhem and Tiffany Hadish's Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi prove to be exciting additions. As a fan of The Florida Project, I was also VERY delighted to see Brooklynn Prince show up in the live action segments as Finn's younger sister Bianca. Acting alongside her are Jadon Sand, Will Ferrell and fellow franchise newcomer Maya Rudolph.

Though it may not be quite as groundbreaking as the original due to some convoluted plot contrivances, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part is a well-constructed sequel with plenty of heart, meta-humor, and exquisite eye-candy!

Film Assessment: A-

Recollection Reflection Review: 'The LEGO Movie'

It's been a while since I last reviewed a non-recent film release, but I wanted to revisit The LEGO Movie before I discuss The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part later this week. The reasoning behind this is that the sequel releases this weekend and the first review I ever shared here was for The LEGO Movie almost five years ago (we're days away from that anniversary where I'll share a 5th-year-anniversary post). In other news, I saw The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part at an advanced screening and hoped to complete and share my review Wednesday, but I may wind up seeing it a second time tonight and just wait till Friday. It really depends on when I finish writing this review.

'The LEGO Movie' Review

Nominated for: Best Original Song "Everything is Awesome."

Recollection- The LEGO Movie Review.

Reflection- I can recall seeing The LEGO Movie with especially low expectations because I figured it would be a feature-length advertisement for LEGOs, but being pleasantly surprised to discover an excellent animated feature brimming with heart, humor, and creativity. My opinion of it honestly hasn't changed much since I first saw it almost five years ago, but I'm excited to share a more in-depth review this time around.

Review-

Synopsis: An ordinary LEGO construction worker, thought to be prophesied as "The Special," is recruited to join a quest to stop an evil tyrant from gluing the LEGO universe into eternal stasis.

Runtime: 100 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG (for mild action and rude humor)

Who should see it? Appropriate for all ages.

Co-written and co-directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, The LEGO Movie is the third feature from the writer-director duo and one of the most unique animated films to emerge in recent years. Moving at a breakneck pace, the brick-built flick is a remarkably kinetic, witty, and self-aware feature that encapsulates the core concept of LEGO better than a commercial ever could. However, the film takes on a much deeper meaning when the central conflict is revealed as an allegory for a struggle between father and son. Rewatching it with that perspective actually reveals layers-upon-layers of subtext about conformity vs. expressive individuality. However, it's very encouraging that a movie about toys which include an instruction manual is endorsing kids to be creative, and more importantly, be themselves.

Lord and Miller take the stock out of Chosen One prophecies by revealing no one in the film to be THE special because everyone is special in their own unique way. What makes you you is what makes you special, and sometimes a simple heart-to-heart conversation is all it takes to cultivate change. Everyone has the potential to be great and the capacity to make a difference in their home life, community, or even the world at large. All that's required of them is self-acceptance and initiative. With the proper motivation, anyone can complete a journey of self-discovery that will maximize their potential and ultimately make the world a better place. Cynics can criticize that optimistic perspective all they'd like, but it doesn't make the message any less meaningful because there's no harm in being yourself.

Stepping down from my soapbox, I must applaud the animators for materializing a brick-built world that's true to the brand. I've said it before, but I'll say it again... The animators captured the stilted, restricted movement of LEGOs so authentically that I often forget The LEGO Movie isn't a stop-motion production while watching it. Additionally, it all takes place within the imaginative mind of a child, so I love the little storytelling flourishes like the casual mixture of various IPs, the incorporation of common household products as mythic objects, and all the lasers, blasters, and weaponry going "pew pew" whenever fired. Each of these subtle details foreshadows the big twist in addition to giving that reveal much more credence. They're nice touches which flesh out the world in a fun, idiosyncratic way. 

As for the stacked voice cast, everyone constructs a memorable min-fig from the pieces of Lord and Miller's script. Chris Pratt provides the ideal excess of optimism and naivety required for the role of Emmet while also selling the character's self-doubt. Opposite Pratt, Elizabeth Banks' Wyldstyle (Lucy) is the sidekick who's clearly a more qualified hero. Banks strikes a wonderful balance juxtaposing Lucy's go-getter attitude with her underlying insecurities. Of course, I'll also never pass a chance to hear Morgan Freeman's voice share sagely wisdom through the mini-fig form of Vitruvius. Amongst the ensemble, Alison Brie's bipolar Unikitty, Charlie Day's space-ship obsessed Benny, and Nick Offerman's swashbuckling body-less pirate captain Metal Beard each serve as effective comic relief.

If there's a stand-out of the bunch though, it's undoubtedly Will Arnett's LEGO Batman. Arnett's narcissistic, self-serious take on the Dark Knight is legitimately a stroke of satirical comedic genius. Listening to him brag about his edginess will never cease to make me chuckle. It's no wonder he was the first to get a LEGO Movie spin-off!

Meanwhile, Will Ferrell delightfully chews the scenery as the megalomaniac Lord Business and even explores a more nuanced side to the character towards the film's conclusion. Serving as dual-personality law-enforcement, Liam Neeson quite literally spins his head around between voicing Good Cop and Bad Cop which remains an utter treat.

With plenty of heart, humor, and worthwhile messages to impart, The LEGO Movie proved itself to be much more than an hour and forty-one minutes of product placement. Impeccable animation, a charming voice-cast, distinct direction, and a smart script all worked in tandem to build a solid franchise foundation that likely won't get knocked down any time soon. After all this time, I'm happy to report that everything in The LEGO Movie is still awesome!!!

Film Assessment: A

Star Wars Speculation: Why 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' Is Gonna Be Ok

Welcome to my fourth installment of Star Wars Speculation! This installment will straying further away from my last three entries, and diving into the territory of dissecting rumors/reports rather than Star Wars itself. For those wondering, this isn't me assuaging my upmost confidence that there's no possible way Solo: A Star Wars Story could suck. The movie could come out and be terrible, but I don't really see that happening considering the latest news about Solo: A Star Wars Story reshoots that I'll breakdown in a second. The entire reason I'm publishing a post is that I feel there's been a toxic mindset about any reported reshoots these past few years. The panicked hive-mind mentality that a film is in trouble just because there were reshoots is a little absurd if you ask me, and I'll explain just why right now!

Why 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' Is Gonna Be Ok

The Scoop

For those who haven't heard, it was recently reported on Star Wars News Net‘s The Resistance Broadcast that Ron Howard (the replacement director for Solo: A Star Wars Story) reshot an estimated 80% or more of the film after taking over this summer and that the reshoots nearly doubled the film's budget. The Resistance Broadcast is a podcast put on by Star Wars fans, but they've had reliable scoops in the past so this news shouldn't be entirely discredited. In fact, it makes a lot of sense given the film just recently wrapped production after about four months of shooting. 

So, what even are reshoots?

I figure not all my readers may be up-to-speed on the process of a film's production, so I'm going to briefly explain the process and the concept of reshoots.

Film Production Process

The film production process can be broken up into about five stages depending on who you ask. The stages are development, pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution. Development essentially revolves around selecting a story, putting together a story treatment, the early stages of screenwriting, pitching the project, and getting it financed. Next, the pre-production goes into fleshing out the story with storyboards, concept art, etc. and hiring a cast and crew for the project. Then, the actual production is the process of creating props, sets, and shooting the film itself. Then, the post-production process typically involves editing the film, development of sound design/mixing, composition of the film's score, and adding any digital effects. Lastly, the film is distributed to theaters. The amount of time spent in each phase varies from project-to-project based on scale and the people involved.

Reshoots

Reshoots are exactly what the name implies, reshooting a movie. This typically happens during post-production when the director and studio decide that they need to rework part of the film, and so they coordinate reshooting certain scenes. As I said, reshoots normally fall into post-production, but Solo: A Star Wars Story's a very special case... 

Solo: A Star Wars Story Behind-The-Scenes Drama

So what makes Solo: A Star Wars Story so unique? If you didn't already know, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller departed the project on account of creative differences on June 26, 2017. They were supposedly nearly 70% complete with filming before departing. This is where I have to cite rumors and reports as evidence rather than actual concrete facts, so don't rely on the all information I'm about to present as 100% factual. 

What We Do Know

This is the only information that we truly know is as follows:

-Lord & Miller left due to creative differences

-They were quickly replaced by Ron Howard with the announcement filming would resume on July 10th 

-Ron Howard wrapped filming and a title was announced on October 17th. 

The Uncertain Territory or Rumors/Reports 

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lord & Miller were operating in a more relaxed manner and encouraged improvisation contrary to the wishes of screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan that they adhere to the script. Essentially, it seems that the filmmaking styles of the various parties were at odds. This report actually seems fairly believable considering Lord & Miller had previously only dealt with smaller-scaled comedy-oriented projects such as 21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street, and The LEGO Movie. It seems like the problem was that Kennedy didn't properly vet the duo before hiring them on for the project, and even proceeding into production. There was clearly a huge misunderstanding, and I think Lucasfilm has learned their lesson about hiring hot talent after Colin Trevorrow recently left Episode IX. If you'd like to read more information about the report, just click on the "Hollywood Reporter" hyperlink to the article.

The Stigma Around Reshoots

As I attested to earlier, there's been a recent misconception that reshoots are a bad thing. Reports emerge from various sources, and almost every article presents the reshoots as a troublesome thing. Therefore, people read a report that a movie's under-going reshoots and anxiety almost instantly intensifies regarding the film's quality. However, it's worth noting that reshoots are totally normal for big-budget blockbuster movies. What's not normal, but is becoming increasingly more frequent, are extensive reshoots that rework large sections of the film. This isn't always a bad thing though... Just look at World War Z or Rogue One. The third acts of each of these films were apparently almost entirely reworked and I think it's fair to say both the finished project turned out well. It can even be argued that the third act of both films are the best part of each respective movie. In Solo: A Star Wars Story's case, it seems that almost the entire film has been reshot once Howard took over, and contrary to the popular belief, I don't believe this to be a bad thing...

Why These Reshoots Are For The Best

If Lord & Miller's creative process didn't align with Lucasfilm's, wouldn't it stand to reason that Lucasfilm would want something else entirely from someone else? I think Lucasfilm didn't approach this project with the intention of going through all of this, but it happened because they weren't careful when hiring a director for the job. It's certainly possible, and very likely, that some footage shot by Lord & Miller will wind up being part of the finished project because I highly doubt the two were incapable of shooting entirely un-useable footage in their five months working on the project... However, it does make sense that large portions of the film would need to be reshot for numerous reasons. 

During this period, a lot had to be changed on account of scheduling. For example, the removal of Michael K. William's character due to his unavailability. It stands to reason that they would then have to reshoot any scenes his character was involved in because he's no longer part of the story, and they had to rework another character (played by Paul Bettany) in his place to serve a similar story purpose in the grand narrative. Also, it should be remembered that much of the cast involved with Solo: A Star Wars Story are big-name actors. Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson, and Thandie Newton are each apart of big television or film franchises, so therefore they probably had a tight schedule and it would have been difficult to bring together all the actors needed for unplanned, extensive reshoots. As for doubling the cost, it makes sense to me that if Howard shot about equally as long as Lord & Miller, then the reshoots would be about equal cost. Therefore, the film's budget probably doubled...

The reason I think this is for the best in the end is that it demonstrates Lucasfilm and Disney genuinely care about getting the best possible film out into the market. They're well-aware Star Wars is a very commercially-viable property, and they don't want to taint their IP with a mediocre movie. The fact they're willing to double the budget of a massive blockbuster shows me that they care about making this movie as great as they possibly can, and correcting any mistakes already made along the way. I suspect the long-standing impact of this debacle will be that Lucasfilm is going to be very cautious from this point on in regards to hiring writers and directors. They won't just hire a seemingly sure-fire director to make a quick buck. I think this is actually the reason that Lucasfilm still hasn't announced any projects beyond Episode IX, because they want to ensure they get the right director for the job.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again. I'm cautiously optimistic for Solo: A Star Wars Story's release on May 25, 2018. I'm prepared for the possibility that the film is not great, but am still holding out hope it will be! I think a guarded enthusiasm is a good approach for this film, although a great trailer could easily unbalance that mindset!

So that's about all I have to say on the matter. Otherwise, I hope you're enjoying the varied nature of this Star Wars Speculation series. I thank you for reading my thoughts on this topic, and I would love to receive any feedback via comments/messaging on any of my initial social media postings! 

-May the force be with you, always!