Film Review: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

"Emmet, You've Gotta Stop Pretending Everything Is Awesome. It Isn't..."

When it comes to 2014's The Lego Movie, it is fair to say in retrospect that everything and everyone involved with such a movie was indeed particularly awesome, with my own personal view at the time of its' initial release verging more on the side of caution when contemplating a feature length movie based upon those tiny multi coloured blocks that really hurt your feet when accidentally stepped upon. With the movie blossoming from the much welcome mix of critical and financial success therefore, including the added impotence of journeys into the realm of equally successful spin-offs, including the ridiculously entertaining, The Lego Batman Movie, which remains my personal of the series so far, here we are again with The Lego Movie 2, the inevitable animated sequel which sees Phil Lord and Christopher Miller drop from directorial duties as they boast both a production role and a screenplay for Trolls and Shrek Forever After director, Mike Mitchell, to work around. With the first film famously featuring a central twist in which we see that the lives of our yellow faced friends are actually being controlled by the hands of Will Ferrell and his playful son, The Lego Movie 2 takes matters a step forward as we see the young sister of the family now being allowed to play with the seemingly endless pool of Lego, resulting in Chris Pratt's (Avengers: Infinity War) Emmett being heart and centre of a series of utmost destruction which turns his world into a post-apocalyptic, Mad Max inspired war zone. 

With Emmett attempting to remain as the same old, happy-go-lucky everyman amidst a wasteland of negativity, he is soon called into action after Elizabeth Banks' (Power Rangers) Lucy is kidnapped alongside a group of fellow heroes in order to satisfy the ambiguous wishes of Tiffany Haddish's (Night School) Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi, the shape-shifting ruler of the wonderfully named, Systar System. Sounds bonkers right? And The Lego Movie 2 is just that, a bizarre but highly comical animated adventure which successfully manages to balance the right amount of cinematic appeal to both older and younger audiences, with the colourful, playfulness of the visuals and the smirk-inducing slapstick guaranteed to keep the children in the audience entertained, whilst the array of constantly smart and well-timed comedic gags and slight, off-hand knowing film geek references, including digs at particular film franchises and comic book heroes, are worked effectively into the narrative in order to make the more mature audience member giggle with glee. Whilst the film does struggle to contain the steady hit-rate of comedy throughout its' slightly misjudged one hundred minute runtime, a weakness which also affects the pacing of the piece, particularly around the halfway mark, The Lego Movie 2 is a worthy successor to a movie which I can admit to being wrong about first time around, albeit one which fails to land the same kind of punches The Lego Batman Movie managed to do. Maybe more Batman next time. You can never have too much Batman.    

Overall Score: 7/10

Film Review: The Disaster Artist

"Just Because You Want It Doesn't Mean It Can Happen..."

Whilst aware of the infamous nature of Tommy Wiseau's 2003 independent drama, The Room, a movie widely quoted as the worst cinematic release of all time, I confess to not ever finding the time to sit down and embrace it aside from skimming across YouTube videos and university students screaming "hey, watch this movie, it's so bad", of which I inevitably and quickly chose not to listen to. Based upon Greg Sestero's 2013 autobiographical book "The Disaster Artist", a first hand account of Sestero's involvement in The Room's troubled production and his relationship with Wiseau, James Franco directs and stars in a dramatic adaptation of the source material with Franco himself starring as Wiseau and brother Dave Franco as Sestero. Whilst Franco-led comedies in the past have somewhat failed to ignite my comical ways, the same cannot be said for The Disaster Artist, a sharp and hysterically funny look into one of the more subversive and mysterious characters to originate in the world of filmmaking since the turn of the twentieth century, and a film which on the one hand shares admiration and on the other pokes holes into the darker side of a man whose name is slowly becoming a cine-literate household commodity.

With Franco's portrayal of Wiseau being introduced in a barmy expose of talentless squander, the narrative primarily follows Dave Franco's Greg Sestero as he begins to pull back the layers of the mysterious Wiseau after blindly following him to Los Angeles in order to fill the craving of success and stardom in the cut throat world of Hollywood. Bringing into conversation questions regarding Wiseau's background, age and financial caterings, Franco's portrayal of Wiseau is indeed one of riveting success, a performance which captures both the comedic traits of the character with a numerous amount of zippy, laugh-out-loud quips, as well as the more subversive, darker means and ways of a person whose societal skills and understanding of basic human conditioning is frankly rather non-existent. With the main comedic bulk of the movie focusing completely on the creation of Wiseau's dramatic project to an alarming top-notch and uncanny degree, The Disaster Artist is an entertaining blend of comedy gold and character examination, and with a person as inevitably ambiguous as Tommy Wiseau at front and centre of the project, there is no reason to suggest why The Disaster Artist might prove to be the ticket to the Oscars Wiseau always dreamed of after all.

Overall Score: 8/10

The Lego Movie! - Review - Possible Spoilers!

Lego stands as one, if not the greatest toy(s) in history. Everyone will remember playing with it at some point in their life and it's creative pliability made it branch across the ages. It's this extensive creativity that has continued to evolve to encompass boardgames, video games, theme parks and now a film! The wide access to Lego makes this movie an instant box office success, but does the movie stand up as a quality piece of entertainment to other audiences. Obviously, The Lego Movie is aimed at children. It's a bright, colourful adventure with light humour that screams a child film that will deter many teenagers/young adults from seeing it. As I'm still a big kid inside with a lot of nostalgia, I felt I needed to go. Upon walking into the cinema, it was filled with children. I avoided looking at how many of the snotty things were actually around me but could easily hear the muttering of what felt like hundreds but could have been one. But, you know, one is enough.

Anyway. The movie is geared towards the younger audience through everything it does. The inclusion of Jonah Hill, Morgan Freeman, Charlie Day and Will Arnett appear more of a gimmick towards nabbing a few extra ticket sales from fans of those involved. It's likely that the voices could have been done by other people without bringing in A list actors to fill the gaps. Jonah Hill doesn't even have a big role so it feels as if the money spent on him could have been used to extend the length of the film. However, being that the movie isn't based upon something already created, Lego didn't have the foundations of Star Wars or Lord of The Rings to develop upon like their games.

Being that the film is targeted at children, the story could have suffered. However, it plays out much like a childs imagination would have played it out. The story of little Emmet in a world so advanced, he blends into the background and stumbles into a deadly situation that leads him on a rather enthralling journey that defies a lot of preconceptions. An evil, corrupt government and police force is quite a shock in a U rated film. Teaching that police are not always these good people is very difficult for children to understand for kids but nowadays the older generations are seeing this more and more. It's an interesting choice that plays towards the demographic but maintains its child exterior. Obviously, there was going to be a love story and I noticed that this connection beats out so many like it that have cropped up in live action. Plastic figures with limited facial movement/expression had more emotion on their faces than Kristen Stewart and a better love story that Twilight could have ever produced.

Lego stands upon the idea of fun. It's a ride that isn't trying to provoke philosophical thoughts. The action was fast, a little jarring at points with the aggressive cuts but flows the way everyone imagines. It's a genuinely good film with so much hard work and dedication that has to be applauded. Perfect for children and is entertaining to everyone else, apart from the god awful selection of music. That truly was horrific. But otherwise, the movie deserves an 8/10. It's a kids movie made by Lego, what the hell did you expect me to say!? Tune in for Monuments Men review and Titanfall videos over the next week!