Warner Bros. Animation released a new installment of their LEGO movie franchise with a sequel to their first film The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part. After viewing the film, I can say with certainty that it’s one of the more refreshing movies that I have seen in recent years.

For this review, I will focus on five major aspects of the movie: the plot, characters, soundtrack, action, and humor. I will then finish the review with a 1 to 10 rating of the film.

In the first film, we met Emmet. A nobody who just wanted to fit in with the rest of the crowd, but this all comes to an end when he comes in contact with the secret weapon to stop the evil Lord Business. He becomes the special and goes on an epic journey to stop the evil Lord Business.

The plot follows Emmet, Lucy, and the rest of the gang on a journey through the Systar System. The characters and story are all a part of a young boy, Finn’s imagination, who we saw at the end of the first film, and his younger sister Bianca’s imagination, switching between LEGO and live-action scenes. 

The movie opens right where it left off in the original film; the LEGO DUPLO aliens from the Systar System outside the stairgate come from outer space and invade Bricksburg. Emmet and the gang attempt to fight off the aliens, but when the aliens leave and the citizens of Bricksburg attempt to rebuild, they keep coming back and destroying what the characters have been trying so desperately to rebuild. Bricksburg soon becomes Apocalypse-Burg, and everyone realizes they need to toughen up and prepare for another attack.

After continuous invasions, General Mayhem, comes to Apocalypse-Burg from the Systar System under order of their ruler to find their fiercest warrior. Everyone looks to Emmet since he was the hero, and people realize that he has kept his cheery and upbeat attitude instead of toughening up like every else. This realization causes General Mayhem to capture Lucy and the rest of the main cast except Emmet. Determined to save his friends, he builds a spaceship and goes after them. 

Along the way, he meets Rex Dangervest, an extremely mature space daredevil that travels through space with his crew of vested Raptors. Rex takes Emmet under his wing and helps him to get to the Systar System to save his friends while also teaching him to mature and toughen up so he can prove himself to the others.

Once in the Systar System, they meet Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi, who is the supposed villain of the story and the absolute ruler of the Systar System. She claims she needed them for a matrimonial ceremony, and they need to be prepared for the ceremony. 

Everyone except Lucy goes along with the ceremony, claiming that Wa-Nabi is an evil queen attempting to brainwash them, even though she ironically sings a whole song about being the least evil queen in history.

The rest of the plot follows Emmet and the gang as they try to stop the queen’s evil plan.

All of the characters from the original movie are very similar in the sequel; however, Emmet and Lucy experience major changes. 

The movie’s strongest points and arguably the whole message of the movie comes into play when Finn begins to mature where he purges everything colorful and innocent in his life. His actions can ultimately be transferred to how he plays and portrays his LEGO character. In apocalypse-burg where the world is lacking of of childhood innocence, no one is happy. Everyone acts mature, gritty, and is devoid of any color.

Compared to the sister and how she portrays her LEGO characters, where everything is bright, colorful, and full of childhood innocence, the brother’s portrayal is what leads the main characters to believe that the sister is the villian.This movie carries an excellent message of how important it is to never abandon your imagination. It conveys that growing up doesn’t have to be all serious, which I believe is something that everyone has been told at some point in life

Believe it or not, this movie is, in fact, a musical! It has an array of catchy pop songs that are the textbook definition of an earworm, and once they were in, they would not come out until at least a week after my first viewing. All of the songs are so well crafted and add a good amount of charm to the film. 

Next is the action. The main action is seen in fights between characters, but it is all really well done. The way Warner Bros. was able to animate the LEGO pieces to form one coherent movement is phenomenal. All of the action is so fast paced because of this, yet it still carries a very smooth animation style to it without it looking choppy.

The humor was overall the best aspect of the movie. Taking the same self-aware, quick fun humor as seen in all the other LEGO movies and is implemented perfectly into the film. The entire film is absolutely hilarious and almost always got me laughing. However, it did all feel like it was just a rehash from the original film, while it was still funny, the repeated humour caused it to fall short slightly in that department.

Overall, this film is absolutely stunning it does everything a sequel should do– continue the story in a meaningful manor by expanding upon the themes of the original and adding on to the films universe, which is often hard for a sequel to do. It does an excellent job in all aspects, leading me to give it a 9/10. While it doesn’t carry quite the same charm as the original, it still almost perfectly lives up to the original film and would be great for the entire family and anyone who was a fan of the original film.