After 5 years of buildup The Lego Movie 2 was an acclaimed box office flop with debate on whether it was actually as good as the first one or considerably worse. It is considerably darker than an already dark yet comedic movie, and it is now a musical making it a notably different sequel. Despite that it still keeps the pop culture sense of humor and moral around growing up.
To pick up where the first film ends the Duplos attack and eat Emmit’s lego heart offer of friendship, and they then keep attacking and bringing back everything cute over and over forcing the citizens of Bricksburg to become Apokolipseburg. As somebody with siblings I can easily relate to this opening. Trying to make a world by yourself with complete control vs your siblings not following the script (though it misses the part where they leave right when they have important jobs).
Contrarily to what they say Emmitt has adapted a lot. No worry about all the fighting, he is master building frequently. During the Everything is Awesome Song he shows he has learned everybody’s new names and is completely aware of everything they have been doing lately. It is not a contradiction to the first movie about avoiding growing up. It is about seeing how somebody else has grown and making your growing up into a positive change.
I really love the brooding scene. Between Emmit finding Lucy’s brooding attractive and the cute dialogue, and then the call forward to later (more on that when it comes). Emmit explains his nightmare/vision about Ourmomageddon, which will have a bad impact on Lucy later showing most of the plot would have been avoided if she did not try to get Emmitt to brood earlier.
Emmitt shows her the house he built for them (and at least some of his friends like Unikitty), which visually is a call back to their first meeting in the first film. Such a sweet scene.
An alien ship that seems to be invincible, attacks, and destroys the house. It is a darker callback to the house crashing scene from the first movie, and it signifies Emmitt’s dream being destroyed. As dramatic as it is there is a lot of comedy after that like Batman and Alfred dancing, the citizens chanting “time to panic,” and those cutesey star weapons.
General Mayhem Intergalactic Naval Commander of the Systar System breaks in thanks to Emmitt’s compassion for the star weapon. Bats says there are 9 movies about him. Hmmm… When this movie came out there were 10 theatrical movies about him, but also 29 DTV films. A rare case of bats selling himself short.
This next scene was included in the commercial, and I think that really hurt it at the box office. General Mayhem said Emmitt is not a leader, as Lucy did most of the fighting and she struggles to counter and ends up agreeing. For one Emmitt did lots of fighting and completely outperformed Lucy in that regard, and being the best fighter and leader are two completely different films. In the film proper this is presented as a flaw Lucy and General Mayhem have, as they are both terrible communicators foreshadowing Finn and Bianca (the humans playing with them have).
Watching frame by frame made see how great the facial expressions they are. Lucy is pretty expressive. Rex and Batman show some, but hide them. Emmitt and Benny are very expressive. In contrast General Mayhem shows no emotions making her seem more alien and evil.
Using her sticker weapons General Mayhem captures Batman, Benny, Metalbeard, Unikitty, and Lucy and takes them away in her spaceship. On a rewatch I see everything she said about why they should go with her was accurate and sincere, but it is communicated with an overly detailed song making it hard to follow again showing the communication issues. The part that sticks is the need to prevent Ourmomageddon from Emmitt’s vision. While knocked out Emmit sees Bianca snatch up the toys and run up with them to her room.
Emmitt gives his speech on rescuing them, and they all just claim he has not changed with the times, resulting in Emmitt rebuilding his home to prove them wrong and rescue Lucy (and all those other guys). This scene shows the negative effects of listening to peer pressure. It also shows its effects, as Emmitt is oblivious to him proving them wrong by building a spaceship in no time all by himself. Last film this was a hard thing to do, but nobody cares he just showed himself to be the greatest master builder of them all.
After Lucy and Co arrive at the Systar System, and they meet the Queen then revealed to be a shapeshifter. On a rewatch I see her genuine concern for her subjects, but it can come across as cruelty to underlings at first. Queen Whatevriwanabe (Whatevs) has the communication problem of using words like “sinister” when meaning “sincere,” but she gives it in such a great song. Oddly the soundtrack makes her more miserable with some added verses. She sings about being the least evil queen, making Lucy certain she is a villain, but Batman loves her art. He is not ready to commit to marry her, which is her big goal.
The Queen has the same role as the mom part of “Ourmomageddon.” “Amusing side character” “not the bad guy.”
Emmitt cannot get through the Stairgate, and he is rescued by Rex. I previously called him one of the two best twist villains in animated movie history, and I stand by that. Between how they hide all the signs behind good jokes, his distinct design and crew, and all the ambiguity about him. Is he one of Finn’s characters? Is he a lego working on his own accord? Is he a figment of Emmitt and Lucy’s imagination? The last one does require Emmitt is doing stuff like fighting while talking to himself and imaging Rex doing it. Either way Rex is the same thing. Emmitt going too big on improving himself and loses who he once was instead of making it for the better. Rex is a wonderful example of how great twist villains can be. The versatility, backstory, and rewatch ability. I really wish I was not spoiled about him.
It makes sense why they both admire each other beyond Rex protecting himself. Emmitt wants to change, and deep down Rex wants to go back to being Emmitt, and he admires all the great things Emmitt did forgetting all the help he had.
Does his reliance only on himself contradict his crew? No. They are lower life forms renamed after movie characters, and he is a celebrity, not a friend to them. He even signs an autograph for one.
Remember how his old friends kept complaining Emmitt was not tough enough? Well now all but Lucy are enjoying being pampered, and it is revealed Lucy used a permanent marker to make her hair darker. It shows how she has lost herself, and she needs to be the one who changes.
The next scene shows Rex turning Emmitt into him, and some comedy with it being slow to catch on. On first watch it seems Rex is just frustrated he is playing, but I later know he is upset it is taking longer than expected. That or Emmitt is upset with himself for playing after building his super spaceship.
On the planet they explore at random all the raptors are captured, and they get ready for the duplos big finishing move, as Lucy gets ready for the finishing move on her, “The Catchy Song.” I love this part. Mainly for how funny it is, but it gets darker after that. Emmitt did not know he could do the worm, and Rex is also surprised foreshadowing that he did not know he could do that either.
Emmitt becomes a master breaker to get away. Rex taught him this, but it might all be stuff Emmitt already knew and could teach himself. He did it during the first film. Being a master breaker is breaking things down to their most basic parts and destroying them, a clear metaphor for ruining a relationship.
Lucy escapes and reunites with Emmitt. It is so sweet until Rex emerges from his hiding place very unnaturally. He looks at Lucy with complete disgust, while stealthily praising how wrong she was about himself/Emmitt. To her surprise Lucy is not happy to hear Emmitt has mastered breaking and is changing.
Next scene shows Emmitt carrying the three with his creative and successful master building and knowledge of construction, which has closeups of Lucy loving it. I love every scene these two are together. It starts to go South when Emmitt and Rex see her hair is a different color, and Rex says that means she was brainwashed and is a spy. This results in a reversal from the first film. Instead of Emmitt desperately calling for Lucy’s help it is Lucy desperately begging Emmitt to believe her. Emmitt still believes her, and his scene shows more of Rex’s brilliance. Instead of being loud and charging he is quiet and planting seeds. When it does not work then he does not try to force it. He moves on knowing he can try again and again until he succeeds.
Meanwhile Bats and Whatevs really fall in love in the best Batman ship ever (BatCat is the worst). They are both orphans taken from their creators who find themselves lonely at the top. In addition they both love their dark and broody art and devotion to the theme.
Lucy and General Mayhem battle in what I presume is a copy of Finn and Bianca’s fighting about who started it. It is a really good fight with plenty of improvised weapons, and banter that they both lose track of. Meanwhile she loses her earpiece, and Rex keeps putting the idea that she was brainwashed and not disabling the shields. It does not matter as a strong enough fit of rage will destroy the shields too. Rex gives him a Rex vest further turning his younger self into himself and tells him to “thank himself.” Also apparently Emmitt is stronger than Wonder Woman, as Rex then completely outmuscles her.
Lucy beats General Mayhem and then saves her. The more honest and vulnerable side of Mayhem then is what finally starts to beat the communication issues, and the finishing touch is seeing Whatevs’s original form,
the heart Emmitt made for the Duplos (Bianca’s attempts to play with her brother and hold on to the time it happened).
Next is where it gets really dark. Trying to stop Emmitt from Master Breaking Lucy breaks down and tells him everything about how she loves his kind and gentle self and Emmitt responds “The real Lucy would never say that.” That is the real Master Breaking right there before he literally Master Breaks the entire set, and cuts to live action show Finn destroying the set, Lucy getting knocked away from the game and seeing the real world, and Finn and Bianca fighting.
Next Rex reveals all, that he is Emmitt from the future. After some great double acting by Chris Pratt Rex’s backstory is shown from a new perspective. It is no longer nameless friends, but the friends who kept complaining he was not tough enough now watching them dancing like idiots instead of saving him. He decides the only way to move on from trauma is to prevent it from happening, save his past self and just get him to become him in a relatively gentler way.
A living toy manipulating the children from a distance is surprisingly scary. Take careful notes Small Soldiers. Rex points out to Emmitt he did not make him do anything. He just did exactly what Emmitt asked. To Rex’s annoyance Emmitt refuses to then become him willingly, so he banishes him to under the dryer to become him the hard way.
Meanwhile Ourmomageddon starts when their mom makes them put all the legos in storage after their latest fight, and it is dark enough that the citizens of Bricksburg getting their comeuppance is surprisingly not a little happy. I appreciate Aquaman accepting he might as well enjoy it. In another dark callback to the last movie Bianca picks up Lucy’s lego when she asks for help just like when Finn piced up Emmitt in the last movie, but this time the human throws the lego in the bin and leaves.
Emmit lies there brooding “War hardens the heart,” which is exactly what Lucy told him to do earlier, and the screen cuts to the end with only around ten minutes left before the credits. I knew from pop culture osmosis it did not end like that, but I really wonder how I would have felt if I actually had money to go see it in early 2019. I did not expect this film to be darker than the first one, but it is.
Then they lie down and all but Lucy accept their miserable fate and sing the best song in the movie, “Everything’s not Awesome.” Back when I first saw this movie I was thinking this is my favorite movie song. I kept waiting for the recency bias to end, but I still think that every time I watch it. It starts so depressing and ends so uplifting. Seemingly being able to somewhat hear them Finn opens up both bins and rebuilds the heart as a peace offering.
Was the flashback to making the heart filmed back with the first movie? It does work, and them playing together does ease their mom.
At the end it is revealed Lucy was the original performer (and presumably writer) of “Everything is Awesome.” It goes from a song she hates, to a song of destruction all around her, to a song she uses to save everyone.
Meanwhile Emmit gets up when Rex goes to kill him when he is not breaking. They have an epic battle of stop motion legos body slamming each other.
Some dramatic battles are more comical than others. I like the irony that the source of Rex’s pain is his friends not rescuing him, but when Emmit’s (his own) do come to rescue him (exactly what he wants) he goes viciously after them, and he gets upset when Lucy actually does arrive to save Emmit/himself. Rex calls himself not real then. It could mean he is just a figment, and the dinosaur fighters were set up by Emmitt previously, and he no longer has control. It could mean the real battle is Bianca and Finn’s fight, and Rex has no idea he already lost. It could mean Rex is a living toy, and he knows he will never have to worry about facing justice as a result. I love this guy so much.
When Lucy comes back Rex is erased from existence, and he is interestingly treated sympathetically. Sure he takes getting beaten up first, but he then graciously accepts his defeat, praises Emmitt for being better than him, and he thanks Lucy for rescuing them all while joking around to ease his pain at being erased.
I have not kept it secret in at least three post and all throughout this post that I love this movie. Five Tree Stars and the best animated movie in a year where I have already written multiple five Tree Star reviews. This is a masterpiece of going through despair and coming out of it by overcoming personal demons.
Since I just reviewed a wonderful movie it is time for a terrible movie.
Bring it on. Curious George Go West Young Monkey is next.
The Animation Historian 