*In the new “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” – which opens in theaters this weekend – Margot Robbie voices Harley Quinn, replacing Jenny Slate, who lent her vocal chords to the character in 2017’s excellent “The Lego Batman Movie”.
So, this is a great thing, right? I mean, at this point Robbie has become synonymous with the character.
Unfortunately, no. It symbolizes why this movie is inferior to its predecessor. As does the attempt to push Cobie Smulders aside as Wonder Woman in favor of Gal Gadot (Smulders kept the role) and the introduction of a figure of Aquaman that looks like and is given voice by Jason Momoa.
OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Gucci Apologizes and Removes Crazy Looking ‘Blackface Sweater’ Following Backlash – VIDEO
This is a movie that seems to prioritize having as many big names on it’s marquee and introducing as many figures as they can instead of telling a good story.
Yes, EVERY big-budget franchise, from “Star Wars” to the Marvel Cinematic Universe to Transformers, is advertising toys to some degree. There’s a reason Steve Rogers looks different in every movie he’s in and part of that is to sell more action figures. But with those films and others done right, it always feels germane to the evolution of character and serves the story.
You never quite get that sense with “The Lego Movie 2”. You get a sense that everything was bigger and better not just because of succumbing to sequel-itis, but that they wanted to fit as many characters as possible, whether they served the script or not in any meaningful way, in order to advertise for as many anthropomorphic minifigures.
So we get Chris Pratt playing two characters this time – the eternally optimistic Emmet Brickowski and Rex Dangervest, who is seemingly an amalgamation of all Pratts’s heroic roles to date.
We get tons of cameos and stuff thrown at walls to see if it sticks. A lot of it doesn’t work. This is a movie that has some great gems but doesn’t know how to make them shine.
For example, Tiffany Haddish absolutely IS awesome when we first see her as the villainous Queen Watvera Wa-Nabi, the shape-shifting alien queen of something called the Systar System. Then she’s matched up with another strength of the film, Will Arnett as Batman. The stage is set for a great clash..and then they neuter Haddish’s character and go against Batman’s by having them…fall in love, with the universe at stake over whether they get married or not.
The best character is Elizabeth Banks as Lucy / Wyldstyle, a Master Builder. Her toughness and grit in what is now a dystopia is very cool. But even she gets bogged down a bit, as the audience is beaten over the head with the main conflict of the story: Lucy’s “realistic” take that “Everything is NOT awesome” and Emmet’s perennial optimism.
In more capable hands, that could have been truly magical. Hands that were not stuffing the movie with more and more characters and cameos to make the toy sellers happy. In the end, we’re left with a film that may be too complicated for kids and that will likely drag for adults.
Pratt, Banks, Haddish and Arnett elevate the material they’re given, but they can only do so much.
Grade: C+
We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!
