“Everything is awesome!” – the song that you only remember a couple of phrases of but just put a smile on your face when you listened to it. This time, Phil Lord and Chris Miller aren’t directing the Lego sequel but are producing it as they just did with Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse. The first Lego movie is my personal favorite animated flick of all time and I was absolutely flabbergasted when it did not even get a Best Animated Movie nomination at the Oscars when we all thought it was going to easily win it. Now, here we are… I like the sequel, but just didn’t think it was anywhere as good as its predecessor.

Positives – Emmett and Lucy (Wyldstyle) are just such likable characters and no matter the situation, seeing Emmett and Lucy interact is wonderful. Both Chris Pratt, who voices Emmett and Rex, and Elizabeth Banks are great and seeing Emmett’s endless optimism “clash” with Lucy’s tough exterior made for some emotional moments. Batman, once again voiced terrifically by Will Arnett, has a bit more to do in this movie than he did in the first movie and more self-aware than ever before. There is one song about ‘Gotham men’ which really cracked me up. Speaking of the DC hero, we once again get cameos from the other Justice League-related characters, which I really enjoyed. The animation is great and the movie has some really adult themes like growing up and “closing” your heart in the process, which I particularly responded with. Oh, and the subtitles on Rex’s raptors was a brilliant idea and those moments were funny!

Negatives – The first movie had a novelty to it, and as expected, the novelty kinda wears off in the sequel. Also, the first movie had a great balance of humor that both adults and kids can laugh at, but this movie doubles down on the latter, which is understandable since these are literally Legos. However, it wasn’t nearly as funny (for me) as the first movie. Another aspect of the movie I didn’t find particularly engaging was the (over)-usage of songs. The musical numbers from the villainous Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi (voiced by Tiffany Haddish) just came off as annoying than anything else. Side note – am I the only one getting tired of Haddish’ shtick? Since Girl’s Trip, she has appeared in so many movies essentially playing the same type of character, but I digress. Another criticism I have with the second chapter is with the lackluster “real world” scenes between the siblings. The first movie had a brilliant twist which was that the events of that movie were the creation of a young boy in the real world. And, this movie gives more scenes in the real world, which were fine, but ultimately weren’t as emotionally resonant as the father-son dynamic in the first movie.

Rating – While the Lego Movie 2 is an enjoyable sequel with more adventures with Lucy and Emmett, ultimately, it’s kinda forgettable. It wasn’t nearly as funny as the first movie and the story gets unnecessarily complicated. 3.5/5