Sequels to truly original and unique ideas can be really difficult, so I can acknowledge why The Lego Movie 2 didn’t quite resonate with me as much as I would have liked. The first Lego Movie was such a groundbreaking concept, as it took something that I loved from my childhood and made a full-length feature film about it, and somehow it leaned into what made it special and delivered a really great and clever movie. While The Lego Batman Movie somehow ended up being even better, I always figured that following up with a sequel to The Lego Movie was going to be tough, because the gimmick of seeing a Lego movie would have worn off. So, The Lego Movie 2 comes in at kind of a disadvantage, because it really has to rely on its story and jokes since it doesn’t have a unique gimmick to fall back on again.

It’s been quite a bit of time since the first movie, and so enough time has passed here that a lot has changed for the characters. Everything is no longer awesome for our cast of characters, with the world having been thrown into an apocalyptic wasteland. Emmet is the only person that’s still able to maintain positivity, as the rest of the world gets thrown into chaos. However, even Emmet’s optimism gets tested when alien invaders come into their world and take away many of the heroes, like Lucy, Batman, and Benny. As these heroes are taken away to a foreign planet, Emmet must find a way to rescue them.

The best thing that The Lego Movie 2 has going for it is its jokes. I felt like the writing here was still pretty top-notch, and so I found myself laughing throughout most of the movie. These moments come in many forms, from adorable throwing star weapons to meta-jokes about Chris Pratt and superhero movies. The humor is all there, and so what we wind up getting here is a sequel that is, for the most part, pretty fun. I think that if you enjoyed the first movie, you’re still going to have a fun time with this second one.

The ultimate problem just winds up being that there’s a feeling of familiarity to all of this. I’m not saying this in the sense that the story and jokes are the same or anything, but rather that I just felt like I’ve seen a Lego movie done well (twice, actually), and that this one is simply riding along on the coattails of their greatness. It’s one of the hardest kinds of movies to review, because I’m not really passionate about it in a positive or negative direction. I think it’s a good movie, but nothing in it truly dazzled me, and if I’m being honest I haven’t really thought about it much since I saw it. If you wanted a sequel to The Lego Movie, then The Lego Movie 2 is a pretty good follow-up, but just don’t expect it to amaze you as much as the first movie did.

3.5/5