Oh man, where to begin with this movie! this film was just superb. This review does contain spoilers, so watch out.
When I heard that the film featured characters inspired by the mini-figures from the girly LEGO Friends and "Elves" toylines, I was so sure that they were going to blow it and go down one of those lame, overdone, phony-baloney "Ideal Beauty vs. Regular People" plot lines. But they didn't and for that I am thankful.
At the end of the first film, creatures from Duplo appear and with them some girly UFOs. Emmet offers the heart of friendship and the Duplo creature eats it, sparking a conflict that lasts five years destroying Bricksburg and creating a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Emmet is still as upbeat and perky as always, but is troubled by visions of a cataclysm called "Armomageddon".
In the real world Finn's younger sister Bianca has been taking some of his toys out of the basement into her own room (hence the post apocalyptic setting). In the LEGO world a general from the Systar System comes in and kidnaps Emmet's friends Lucy, Batman, and Unikitty and also takes the pirate Metalbeard and a spaceman named Benny. Once inside the Systar System, the five are greeted by the shape-shifting Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi who's a subtle as a brick and no one can tell if she is evil or not. She wants to marry Batman.
Emmet builds a ship and goes to rescue his friends but gets stuck in an asteroid field on the other side of a dimensional gate. He is nearly smashed when he is saved by the tough-as-nails Rex Dangervest. He agrees to help Emmet get to the Systar System. And time is running out our heroes as Armamageddon is getting closer.
The only downside this film has is that it was pretty predictable where the plot was going; something happens that triggers Armamageddon and the inhabitants of Duplo and the rest of the Systarians were never were evil at all, they were just very bad at communication (kids usually are). Armamageddon is---of course---the mother punishing her squabbling children by confiscating their toys. And of course we can all see the two kids finally putting their differences aside and coming together.
But the sheer predictability of the plot was outweighed by the good stuff in the film. The first movie touched on the idea of Following the Instructions vs. Building Whatever You Want. While it was a good film, the love triangle and the overdone message weighed the movie down. Here, the story was about siblings learning how to play with each other. And it pulled it off magnificently. Finn is a young teenager in this film and his sister Bianca looks like she is in the second grade. Finn wants to go for more dark and gritty "mature" stuff, Bianca likes pretty stuff. this is represented by Apocolypseburg and the Systar System respectively.
The inhabitants of Apocolysburg are your stereotypical hardened gruff guys with the gruff taken up to eleven, with even the animals acting like over-the-top tough guys from a Bruce Willis movie. The Systarians are very girly, even the men, much like characters from chick flicks (one guy is a parody of a Twilight vampire with glittery hair and a love of wearing women's jeans). The Systerians may seem tough and unfriendly at first, but it is later revealed that they didn't fully understand the Apocolyseburgians' tough and brooding attitudes. Just before the climax, they are finally able to understand each other.
The other big theme is the difference between growing up and growing hardened. And this is explored through the character of Rex Dangervest. This guy appears to be an expy of Owen Grady from Jurassic World with a little bit of Dash Rendar from the Star Wars Expanded Universe for good measure. He encourages Emmet to "toughen up" but an unfortunate side effect is that he becomes a big jerk in the process. I was taken aback, though, when it was revealed that not only was he the villain, but he is also an evil version of Emmet from the future (and thus has disrupted the time-space continuum something awful*). He was abandoned under a washing machine and wants to trigger Armamageddon on purpose just to get revenge. And the climax occurs when Emmet destroys the temple cake (Finn in real life punching down Bianca's LEGO creation). But Emmet comes to his senses and defeats his wicked alter ego.
The shape-shifting Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi is the most curious character I have ever seen in a film. She is delightfully unsubtle, with her hammy little song about how she is So-Not-An-Evil-Queen. The crazy part is that she is absolutely right! It's just that she really sucks at communication. Despite the writers throwing in some ambiguity (her evil laughter devolving into real laughter when her talking banana friend keeps tripping on his own peel), her interactions with Batman made it pretty clear that there was some real affection there. What surprised me, though was that she turns out the VERY SAME HEART THAT EMMET GAVE THE DUPLO ALIENS! Okay, I knew that she was secretly good all along, but being the very heart that Emmet made in the first place? That caused my brain to explode.
The other characters were fun too. Lucy a.k.a. Wildstyle has the biggest journey, learning the hard way that you may think you'd wish for someone to be tougher, but it may not be what you truly want, or even what is best. Lucy tries to resist the glittery cheer of Systar, and in particular the demands of the mini-doll Sweet Mayhem. Mayhem herself is forty seven flavors of delightful in this movie, acting as the right-hand gal of Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi. Lucy and Mayhem fight before the climax, and it's afterwards that the truth comes out. And seeing Lucy finally able to show more of her softer side was pure gold. It was also lovely seeing Mayhem bond with Benny the Spaceman (she is a spacegal after all). Mayhem also has a little spaceship that bears a mild resemblance to the one from 3, 2, 1, Penguins!.
Unikitty had less of a role in this film than she did in the first movie. But that doesn't stop her form owning every scene she's in. Batman gets to soften up a lot in this movie; seeing the gruff, brooding Gotham superhero enjoying a back massage or even willingly proposing to Watevra was so awesome. You have the usual array of cameos (Gandalf, Justice League, historical figures, etc.), and it doesn't feel out of place.
Definitely a 10/10 score on this film! The plot is mildly predictable, but that ends up being insignificant. It teaches an invaluable lesson about understanding and communicating, and that being tough and being mature are not the same thing. The characters were likeable, bringing back characters from the previous film along with introducing some brand new ones.
Highly recommended.
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*Stolen from the Nodwick adventure It's a Wonderful Afterlife! by Aaron Williams.
