A. Mark Wilburn

Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Neeson, and Will Ferrell star in… well, essentially the film that everyone who grew up playing with Lego had imagined in some form. But voiced by huge stars; Morgan Freeman & Liam Neeson in particular add a nice gravitas to the film, which just adds to the enjoyable silliness. Immediately after watching TLM2, we felt it wasn’t quite as satisfying as the first and popped that in for a re-watch. We weren’t wrong. TLM’s simple, staple RPG plot (the undiscovered diamond in the rough will save everyone) flows smoothly from point to point, and with virtually all the Lego licensed properties to parody, one scene in particular always gives me a chuckle: when Morgan Freeman’s Vitruvius is addressing all the Lego licensed characters at once, juxtaposing Renaissance painters and Ninja Turtles, or the fact the Dumbledore and Gandalf are essentially the same character. One of the great joys of this film is the sheer number of licensed character cameos that they simply crammed in because it was funny (and, probably also to sell some of said minifigs). Emmet (Chris Pratt) is a nobody, recruited by Obi Wan (er Vitruvius) and who is predicted to be the chosen one to save Bricksburg from the evil Lord Business (Will Ferrell). So while the plot itself is hardly new, it was all so charming. Set to the tune of “Everything is Awesome”, the bright colourful characters and intricately modeled backgrounds will have you grinning. Plus, you get to hear Liam Neeson yelling “Darn Darn Darn Darny Darn!” Don’t spoil the surprises for yourself if you haven’t already seen this. A-, 8.9/10 Oh, also the 3d was great in this film; clear, not detracting or headache inducing. At least, for the rendered parts anyway. The bit at the end with the reveal could have been clearer, but the film didn’t suffer for it. I’ve yet to see the other 2 above in 3d, but hope to someday to see if they’re better or worse in 3d.

Last month, we watched The Lego Movie 2: The 2nd Part at an advanced IMax screening on Feb 6th. We hadn’t watched the original film in a couple of years, but had enjoyed it, and and *just* recently watched Lego Batman (which we also loved), were really looking forward to this. TLM2 didn’t disappoint, but didn’t feel as satisfying as the 2 previous (no we haven’t seen the Lego Ninjago film); it was full of laughs, and a song called “Catchy Song” that the film will *not* let you forget (think “Upbeat Inspirational Song” from “Teen Titans Go to the Movies”. In fact, I felt TLM2 film echoed the Teen Titans film in many ways, not just in having an intentionally silly & infectious song; from the overall tone, to even the general protagonist’s plot arc. Not that surprising, when both were produced by Warner Bros. Animation. If you haven’t seen the 1st film, the big reveal / twist at the end gave the 1st film a lot of heart. In TLM2, I feel they spent *too* much time on the same ‘reveal’, and it ground most of the plot pacing to a halt; I actually prefered the way that The Lego Batman Movie ignored the reveal at the end of TLM, but to be fair, you can feel this (along with the 1st film) are aimed at an even younger crowd, and I think it works for them (their attempt to inject heart into this film ended up being a little bit cheesy for me, but I think it works for the target audience), but the rest of the film delivers on laughs. Big time. In fact, while the plot was nowhere as coherent or as smoothly transitioning as the 1st 2 films, TLM2 had us laughing throughout; in particular, I loved the meta humour as Christ Pratt as Emmet meets Rex Dangervest, a character who is the combination of Chris Pratt’s Josh Faraday (Cowboy from Magnificent Seven), his Owen Grady from Jurassic World 1 & 2, and his Peter Quill / Star Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy. The fact that Emmet is the everyman from every RPG / hero’s journey from obscurity, who would of course be amazed by a wild west cowboy, a dinosaur cowboy, and a space cowboy. The plot did stall in pacing a few times, especially while the characters were stumbling around, 'bewitched’ by Tiffany Haddish’s Queen (the character’s name will induce eye-rolling) and it felt like the film maker’s themselves weren’t sure how the middle portion of the film should connect the beginning and the end, they made sure there were laughs aplenty en route. And, as I’d mentioned, an ear-worm, catchy silly song that measure’s up to the original’s “Everything is Awesome”. Oh, and stay for the credit’s if you’re also a fan of Andy Samberg’s Lonely Island; unfortunately there’s no post credits scene though. Seriously, the soundtrack is so catchy, my wife immediately added it to her workout playlist. Just going to leave “Catchy Song” from TLM2 here. You’ll love it and hate it all at once. YMMV: it’s skewed a bit younger than the other 2 films mentioned here, so that may really bother some people. Conversely, if you were planning to take kids anyway, you may regard this even more highly. Overall, B, 8.2/10

The first Iron Man film was intense, right from the get go. When I dragged my wife to watch it with me, the first 20 minutes had her going “I was expecting light & fluffy comic book movie, this” Jon Favreau hit it out of the park with his choices; it felt real, except for obvious lapses of judgement due to comic book aesthetics; like the Mark 1 was bulletproof, but had eye holes and a chest hole for the arc reactor. The story would have been much shorter had they aimed for his eyes or glowing target on his chest, but I accept these oversights to make the film resemble its comic book origins. Favreau insisted on RDJ as the lead, I presume due to his similar backstory to Tony Stark. He helped pioneer a new way of doing wire work (which you can tell people are suspended at the waist) and made it look like RDJ was suspended by his heels and hands (by simply re jigging the wires… Which nobody had thought of before. Go back and watch The Matrix and Crouching Tiger to see the difference) IM1 moves along at a very deliberate pace. Not the most visceral of films, but it needed to lay the groundwork for the entire MCU while telling a good story. This film tells a very dark and believable story, keeping that Marvel levity for a few laughs, but also never falls into silly territory. Similar in many respects to Nolan’s Batman Begins (but with a few laughs, and a lot more CGI), this film was good enough to launch the most successful movie franchise in cinematic history. Had the performances not all been top notch (Paul Bettany’s Jarvis was the perfect amount of sarcastic, Jeff Bridges was the perfect blend of comforting and intimidating, RDJ and Paltrow were perfect) and the CGI not been indistinguishable from the practical Iron Man suits, Marvel’s huge gamble (selling off their biggest franchises to Sony and Fox to fund Marvel Studios to launch the MCU) would not have paid off. Thankfully it did. 8.9/10, A- Do not skip.