Everything isn't awesome with Lego Movie 2, but it's still pretty good

Lucy (Elizabeth Banks) and Emmet (Chris Pratt) in Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. Image courtesy Warner Bros.

What is moderately miraculous about the Lego Movie franchise is its ability to find quality despite being a blatant piece of toy marketing. The first movie, the Batman spin-off, and the new one – The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part – are all entertaining and fun, often cleverly written and with at least a modicum of feels to go with it. Lego Movie 2 retains the franchise's commitment to entertain audiences and shift a little merchandise in the process, although its method of entertaining comes at the expense of some of its heart.

Lego Movie 2 picks up right where the original left off, with the introduction of the toddler-based Duplo toys as they invade Bricksburg. Jump ahead five years and Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt) and Lucy (Elizabeth Banks) are surviving in a prototypical Mad-Maxian wasteland, trying to stay out of the sights of the odd alien creatures. That is, until the powerful General Mayhem (Stephanie Beatriz) kidnaps Lucy, Batman (Will Arnett), Unikitty (Alison Brie), MetalBeard (Nick Offerman) and Benny (Charlie Day) and take them to meet Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi (Tiffany Haddish). Fearing for his friends' safety, as well as a prophecy documenting the end of the world, Emmet races off to save them, getting help from the dashing Rex Dangervest (Pratt again) and his crew of raptors along the way.

And, yes, the raptors – who are a comedic highlight – are a direct reference to Pratt's role in the Jurassic World franchise. This is a small taste of Lego Movie 2's general sense of humor, a machine-gun mentality to target as many jokes as possible and see what hits. The example above is one of the stronger references, as the movie never explicitly links Pratt to Jurassic World; the suggested implication is much, much funnier. Most of the references land thanks to the writing team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Lord and Miller, who helmed the first movie, take full advantage of Lego's deep reservoir of franchises to toss in jokes subtle and broad. If a Lego version of Sheryl Swoopes exists, give her a line in the movie. If Bruce Willis has a few minutes to spare, let him have a line or two and see what happens. But the real target of Lego Movie 2 is, well, the Lego Movie franchise. The film goes out of its way to mock itself, making fun of everything from character motivations to Everything is Awesome!!! Even the numerous musical numbers exist less to advance the plot and more to outline how an infectious tune is far more notable than a good lyric. The existence of the movie is a joke to Lord and Miller, and they stretch that joke about as far as they can without shattering the film completely.

The ability to consistently tell a good joke is Lego Movie 2's strength... and the source of its weakness. There are so many jokes, so many things to make fun of, the film never develops the strong emotional resonance it seeks. The movie's tone is too silly and self-aware to take any of the action or consequences too seriously. So when the film introduces the real-life consequences to the plastic shenanigans, the emotional punch is weaker than intended. Which is pretty odd considering how well Lord and Miller connect the real-world action to the Lego adventure. It's written so well, almost immaculately structured that the emotional payoff comes very close to working despite the tonal discrepancy. But the feels they go for never quite arrive as they did in the first film, undercut by the plethora of meta jokes. It's really, really difficult to be sarcastic and sincere simultaneously, and LEGO Movie 2 isn't the first film to miss the mark.

This isn't to say Lego Movie 2 doesn't have a heart; rather, there is nary a mean bone in this movie's body. Like Steven Universe, the enemies are less evil than misunderstood, making a peaceful resolution to the film's conflict logical and satisfying. The emphasis on fun ensures the movie is never boring; something is always happening, and it's often joyous and exciting. Given its predecessor and the talent driving its creation, Lego Movie 2 isn't quite as great as it could be, but it is pretty gosh darn awesome for a movie about building blocks.

Review: Four out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

 

Rating: PG

Run time: 106 minutes

Genre: Animated

tl;dr

What Worked: Sense of humor, writing.

What Fell Short: It gets a little too meta.

What To Watch As Well: The Lego Movie, The Lego Batman Movie

Dinosaurs, excitement in short supply in Fallen Kingdom

Chris Pratt in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Image courtesy Universal Pictures.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is not a good movie. It is, in fact, a remarkably bad movie whose sole enjoyment comes from its lack of quality. Fallen Kingdom is mind-numbingly awful, a disgrace to the legacy established 25 years ago. This movie serves as yet another reminder of mankind’s hubris, a testament to the dangers of recapturing an extinct past.

Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt are back a few years after watching an entire island of dinosaurs attempt to eat its guests. This time around, they want to save those dinosaurs from an impending volcano eruption on Isla Nublar. They're joined by a pair of dinosaur fanatics (Justice Smith and Daniella Pineda), and a collection of soldiers to save as many dinosaurs as possible. At least, that is the idea, although those plans go to pot once some of the pool of Toby Jones, Rafe Spall, James Cromwell, and Ted Levine, try to once again profit off the poor creatures. Jeff Goldblum makes a brief return as Ian Malcolm, although his shirts remain fully buttoned. And there are the dinosaurs, with a few standbys (the T-Rex and the Velociraptor named Blue) and a new dinosaur that will make for a mediocre toy.

Essentially, the thrill of seeing a dinosaur has gone away. The previous Jurassic Park franchise entries possessed at least a modicum of wonder for the dinosaurs, using John Williams' brilliant score to convey their inherent majesty. With Fallen Kingdom, the dinosaurs serve as pets or menaces, in both scenarios representing a step toward humankind's eventual self destruction. But they aren’t magical anymore, the brilliant impossibility of the premise has become lost and nearly forgotten. The one moment Fallen Kingdom takes to absorb the spectacle of it all is ultimately lackluster and marred by an incredibly stupid decision by one of the main characters. Even after a decade-plus siesta to recharge and come up with new and better ideas, this franchise is so tired the minds behind it can't make the classics work anymore. 

 

The beats in Fallen Kingdom belong to the franchise's previous entries. The looming threats of menace, the dinosaurs lurking right behind characters waiting to bite, the T-Rex that comes out of nowhere to wantonly save the protagonists or punish a villain at the exact right moment. All have been done before in earlier Jurassic Park movies. And, frankly, all of those movies did it leagues better than Fallen Kingdom. It's gotten to the point where the beats are so obvious, so telegraphed and silly, the series has become a parody of itself. Fear has transformed into camp, the dinosaurs devolving from the things that go bump in the night into comedic prompts with fantastical timing. Camp could work in a series like Jurassic Park, taking a little bite off of the seriousness and just letting the dinosaurs frolic and eat people because people are more filling than small critters. Fallen Kingdom has a lesson to teach about valuing life in all of its forms, a fairly important message that is both poorly conveyed and very much inappropriate in camp. Camp works because the point doesn't ultimately matter; a sincere message is the death of good camp.

Fallen Kingdom is bogged down by incompetence. The movie is rife with bad dialog and worst exposition, a premise that effectively makes the characters from Jurassic World look like idiots, and awkward plotting that leaves many a dangerous plot hole to fall into. But it's the characters themselves that make the best worst decisions, constantly engaging in activities whose repercussions greatly outweigh the benefits. Even the intelligent characters make some really, really bad choices, decisions that are asinine even before a dinosaur or two starts chomping on them. Yet the dumbest decision of all is the continued push by characters to monetize the dinosaurs for nefarious reasons. From the first film until through this one, there is always at least one character who decides they can make more money off the dinosaurs by being shady. Despite a whole universe in which the dangers of Jurassic Park were publicized and repeated, this one basic lesson has still not been absorbed. This lack of additional motivation is a clear failing for a franchise it has not found a way to create new, interesting motivations for their characters. Given a real world in which cloning is an ethical issue and the existence of dinosaurs conflicts with some religious philosophies, the screenwriters have ample material to build from. And yet they don’t pursue something new, instead relying on old tricks that can’t succeed with uninteresting filmmakers driving them.

Review: One and a half out of Five Stars

Rating: PG-13

Run time: 128 minutes

Genre: Action

tl;dr

What Worked: Some of the dinosaurs, James Cromwell, Geraldine Chaplin, Chris Pratt’s physical comedy skills.

What Sucked: Plotting, dialog, tone, directing, screenwriting, the score, uninteresting CGI.

Watch Instead: Jurassic Park

Infinity War a big, bold Avengers installment

Thanos (Josh Brolin) in a scene from Avengers: Infinity War. Image courtesy Disney.

Avengers: Infinity War makes it clear from the start exactly what the eponymous superhero group faces. The movie kicks off showing the brilliant power its villain Thanos (Josh Brolin) possesses, while hinting at just how zealous he is about it. Stakes matter in a movie as big and bold as Infinity War; viewers need to respect what the nearly two-dozen heroes have to battle against to make the necessary bloat worthwhile. The heroes in this movie aren't simply fighting the concept of amazing destruction, but a being legitimately powerful enough to make that happen. What they face is important, and the movie never lets up on how much they have to accomplish to win.

Infinity War is both the movie one would expect from Marvel's years of buildup and something largely unexpected. It's as big as it should be, littered with heroes ranging from franchise staples to new additions in the last decade or so of movies. Viewers get barbs lobbed between Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Star-Lord (Chris Pratt). Thor (Chris Hemsworth) chills with Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) and Groot (Vin Diesel). Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Vision (Paul Bettany), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Captain America (Chris Evans), Mantis (Pom Klementieff) Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Bucky (Sebastian Stan), and Drax (Dave Bautista) take on aliens and other malevolent beings. Spider-man (Tom Holland) is around being all doe-eyed and awkward. Almost everyone of note from a decade of movies is here, and Infinity War spends a lot of time ensuring they all get a few moments to shine. The result is an immense run time, although directors Anthony and Joe Russo keep the drag to a minimum, making for a pretty smooth 150-minute movie. 

 

Pretty much every aesthetic selling point is handled well in this movie. The action sequences are well coordinated and range from small melees to epic battles against alien beings. The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s trademark jokes work more often than not, in large part because the addition of so many otherwise unconnected characters adds a new dynamic to the banter. On the most basic level, Infinity War is the movie people who have followed this franchise would want; the good stuff is there, and it's done rather well. And yet there's still a lot of unexpected bits to Infinity War. With the high stakes established so early, the tone of the movie is not as bright as the banter makes it appear. The jokes aren't as jovial or friendly as they usually are in Marvel films; in this case, the humor is rooted in fear and stress, a reaction to the situation the heroes face. The tone is less hopeful than before, more desperate and worrisome.

A lot of that has to do with how writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely plan their narrative. The film’s focus at first glance is stopping Thanos, the actual protagonist is Thanos himself. It's his quest to collect the Infinity Stones that drives the movie, his journey toward what he believes to be a better universe. The heart of Infinity War lies not amongst the collection of heroes, but with its villain. Brolin's Thanos is not a simple monster bent on destruction for the sake of destruction, or evil just because the film requires him to be the villain for the heroes to fight. The methods to his goal of creating balance in a chaotic universe are horrifying, but there remains an iota of logic to what he wants to accomplish. In his mind, he’s performing a selfless act, and its his fervor as much as the abundance of power he seeks that makes him so dominant. Fanaticism is incredibly dangerous, especially for an infinitely powerful being capable of sacrificing everything for what he deems to be a necessary cause.

 

Making a superhero movie based on the villain is an interesting, albeit counterintuitive choice. What it does though is give Infinity War a sense of urgency it didn’t have before, selling Thanos’ power and conviction to his cause. It makes for a fairly dark superhero movie, adding enough shade to a sunny franchise to keep the audience guessing at what comes next. There’s still reasons for optimism in the Marvel Universe, but they are far more difficult to find than ever been before.

Review: Four and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: PG-13

Run time: 150 minutes

Genre: Action

Ask Away
Target audience: People who have watched MCU movies for the last 10 years, as well as anyone else into comic book movies.

Take the whole family?: The tone gets pretty heavy, and families who prefer to limit their children's exposure to violence should keep the kids home. Generally though this isn't too problematic.

Theater or Netflix?: Totally worth a trip to the cinema.

What happens next?: That is an enormous question. Looking at the upcoming slate of films – Ant-Man gets his sequel in a few months, followed by a Captain Marvel movie – gives a little idea of how things will play out. But given how this movie goes, there's a whole lot of room for interpretation for the next installment. Although that is half the fun of these movies; trying to figure out what happens next.

Watch this as well?: Just pick just about anything from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and you'll be in pretty good shape. D.C. has Wonder Woman, but that’s about it.

Guardians 2 finds comedy in violence

Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) in Guardian of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Image courtesy Disney.

Writer/Director James Gunn sets the tone for his second entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, with an opening credit sequence featuring both a brutal brawl against a tentacled space creature and Baby Groot dancing along to Electric Light Orchestra's Mr. Blue Sky. The latter is Gunn's focus – watching the tiny version of the Vin Diesel-voiced Ent-like creature dance is adorable on so many levels – but the battle that causes Baby Groot to bust a few moves is never too far in the background. Even amid the laughs and the goofy tone Gunn has gifted his little franchise, someone somewhere is about to be or has already been murdered viciously, which somehow remains part of the joke.

This is essentially Gunn's modus operandi, as seen in films like Slither and Super, films that feature far more gore than what either Guardians of the Galaxy or Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 can offer. But Disney has granted Gunn a far longer leash than it has with the other MCU movies – no other Marvel film boasts a sequence as bloody as the one involving Michael Rooker's Yondu and his whistling arrow of death – and Gunn uses that leeway to put his stamp on what a Guardians movie can be. He revels in the fighting and bloodshed, reinforcing the comic book aspects of a medium that can pushes violence as a ritual. In many comic books, a hero isn't heroic until he or she has punched out a few bad guys for fun. Gunn does this with a wink and a laugh, mocking the very conventions and mores he promotes. Much of the violence is played for humor, like the opening credit sequence and especially the aforementioned Yondu path of destruction – setting such a bloody seen to Jay and the Americans' Come a Little Bit Closer is a strange bit of funny lunacy. The bloody mayhem and wanton shootings sometimes serve as build ups to punchlines, for Chris Pratt's Peter Quill and Bradley Cooper's Rocket Raccoon and Dave Bautista's brutally honest Drax. Gunn and crew never miss a sliver of a chance to insert a joke, making it difficult to take things too seriously.

That backfires a bit with the conflict between warring sisters Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Nebula (Karen Gillan), whose tragic childhood is lost in the shuffle of comedic elements. It also diminishes the quietly sad backstory for Mantis (Pom Klementieff), a being who exists solely to help the aptly named god Ego (Kurt Russell) get a decent night's rest. She's effectively a slave, and the melancholic nature of her existence is mentioned in passing. There are a lot of characters to service in the more than two hours Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has to tell its story, so the movie inevitably skips on a few beats it could have hit.

Fortunately the misses are outweighed greatly by the hits. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 keeps its comedic flow going in moments both sad and triumphant – only a Guardian could get hit in the head with debris while calmly reflecting after winning a major fight. The Guardians are the losers of the MCU, the characters who are dumped on the most by their creator and thrown into situations well beyond their capabilities. Their success is rooted in the inevitability of their failure, their need to improvise a key testament to their characters’ respective resolves. Heroes like Captain America, Iron Man and Thor are less interesting to watch because their challenges are large but surmountable; the Guardians are thrown against a literal god and an armada of combat droids at the same time while using outdated technology. Even though the MCU won't allow the Guardians to lose, they come the closest to possibly succumbing to the impossibilities in front of them, which is a bit thrilling for a production company that talks about a third or fourth installment before film two is released. To paraphrase Don Delillo, Marvel and D.C. Are trying to prove there's little danger left in the new. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 at least tries to be a little newer than the rest of the stock, daring to open a film with a monster fight serving as a backdrop for a dancing tree. Gunn trades some depth for jokes, an exchange that ends up mostly in his favor.

Review: Four out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: PG-13

Run time: 136 minutes

Genre: Action
 

Ask Away

Target audience: People who continue to follow the Marvel Cinematic Universe and need to complete all the homework assignments until next year's Avengers: Infinity War.

Take the whole family?: Considering there's an entire sequence where bodies are impaled in slow motion, I'd keep the really young kids at home.

Theater or Netflix?: This is totally fine for a theater trip, especially if you can catch a matinee screening.

How cute is Baby Groot?: Mostly all the cute. Still voiced by Vin Diesel, Baby Groot loses the strange sweetness of the adult version but gains a level of innocence that fuels the little guy's violence. He is a rather good encapsulation of the fun and frustration of a toddler, a creature that invokes chaos but gets away with much of it thanks to a hug or a slightly tender moment.

Watch this as well?: You can watch the first Guardians of the Galaxy to catch up on the series, along with a fair chunk of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Highlights include The Avengers, Iron Man, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.