The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)

Making a sequel means walking a fine line.  How do you capture the magic of the first movie without doing a remake?  To be, again, yet to not be again.  That’s the problem.  The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part almost gets it.  In fact, I can see a lot of people being polarized.  You’ll either think it was a natural successor to the first movie…or not.

The Second Part picks up five years after the evens of the first movie.  (If you haven’t seen it, you’ll probably want to.  Certain aspects of this movie will make more sense.)  The Duplo invaders have all but laid waste to Bricksburg.  Anything new is destroyed shortly after it’s built.  Nothing is awesome anymore.  Wyldstyle is brooding at the loss of her former life, although Emmett is still as happy and clueless as ever.

Enter General Sweet Mayhem, who kidnaps Batman, Wyldstyle and three other characters.  They’re to be taken to the wedding of Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi.  Being that the queen is a Duplo creature, this can’t happen.  Emmett decides to go after them and stop the wedding.

Like the first movie, the Lego plot is the result of real-world events.  We discover that the story was created by Finn, who was controlling the Lego pieces.  The Duplo characters were controlled by his sister, Bianca, who was seen as an invader.  The Second Part continues this dynamic.

At first, this may seem like an oversimplification, especially considering that both siblings are now five years older.  However, the movie does make use of it with some skill.  Sure, you’re going to see some things coming, like Ar-mom-ageddon.  This doesn’t mean the movie can’t be fun.  I’m not saying the script will win any awards.  Rather, I would advise you to not take it too seriously.  The movie doesn’t even seem to take itself that seriously, which works to its advantage.

When we walked out of the theater, one viewer found it to be confusing.  It’s possible that he didn’t see the first movie, but there were also a lot of references to other movies, such as Back to the Future and Aquaman.  The dialogue can come at you in rapid succession at times and it may be a little difficult to keep up if you’re not expecting it.  Overall, I found it easy to follow.  Then again, I was able to catch a lot of the references.  (I don’t think it will be a problem for most people.)

I would say that this is definitely one of the better sequels.  It doesn’t rely on the original movie too much.  Rather, it does seem to follow the first one, much as a sequel should.  It also has a slightly different message than the first.  If you’ve seen the first movie, I think the coming attractions should give you a good idea of whether or not seeing The Second Part will be worth your time.

(For those wondering, A few of us theatergoers stayed past the credits so that you don’t have to.  There was no post-credits scene.)

IMDb page

Despicable Me (2010)

Sometimes, the coming attractions tell everything about the movies.  Sometimes, they leave out details.  When I saw the coming attractions for Despicable Me, I got that it was about an evil genius, Gru, who has three girls come to live with him.  I wasn’t sure how the children came into his custody, though.  I think I had assumed that there was some clerical error or that he was a long-lost relative or something.

The truth is that Gru has big plans.  When one of the pyramids in Giza goes missing, Gru realizes that he needs to up his game.  He has stolen a few minor things, like the Jumbotron and a few Las Vegas landmarks.  Nothing as big as a pyramid, though.  He’s not getting any younger, so he decides to do the biggest heist he can think of:  Steal the moon.

He has Dr. Nefario working for him and a lot of the yellow Minions on payroll.  You assume that he’s supporting his organization somehow.  He’ll still need a loan from Evil Bank, but the loan officer wants some sort of proof of his ability to carry out the heist, like having the shrink ray that he needs.  Gru tries to steal it, but is unsuccessful.  Vector is the one who gets away with the device, leaving Gru to try to break in to Vector’s fortress.  He fails until he realizes that he may have a way in.

He notices that three girls are able to get in to sell him cookies.  All he has to do is get some cookie robots in and he can get the shrink ray.  He adopts the three girls and promptly starts ignoring them.  All he needs is for them to deliver the little robots.  Once that’s done, he’ll ditch the girls and promptly start forgetting about them.  As you might expect, ditching them isn’t that easy, to say nothing of forgetting about them.

For adults that don’t like animated movies, I have a short list of movies in mind to recommend.  The hope is that it might be able to change someone’s mind.  This movie isn’t going on that list.  It’s enjoyable, yes.  This might be something I’d recommend once you’ve come to like the films.  I don’t know that it’s necessarily going to bring anyone around.

This isn’t a movie that you think hard about or that has any strong message.  You look at movies like Zootopia and you can tell that there are messages that aren’t meant for children.  Usually, it’s the message.  (Zootopia takes on racism in a somewhat blunt fashion.)  Here, the only part of Despicable Me that I would deem too much for children is one of the girls getting trapped in a coffin with nails in it and ostensibly being hurt.  Of course, being more of a comedy, she‘s not injured.

There are a few references, like the Evil Bank formerly having been Lehman Brothers, that adults will get.  However, it’s one of those family movies where family skews more towards the younger members.  Much of it comes off as a little silly, like the Minions talking in gibberish that Gru and Dr. Nefario being able to understand.  It’s the kind of thing that’s almost safe to show in school, although not quite.  It does have its fair share of cartoon violence, like Gru being hit with a few dozen missiles and surviving when he shouldn’t.

I had rented this movie to decide if I wanted to rent the rest of the franchise.  I may wait for it to become available streaming.  I don’t have plans to rush to see the third movie, especially since I haven’t seen the second yet.  There is also the Minions movie, which I may check out.  (It looks like there’s a Minions 2 expected in 2020.)  I’ll have to see how the other movies turn out.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

April O'Neil: So, you're…Ninja Mutant Turtle Teenagers?
Donatello: When you put it like that, it sounds ridiculous!


It seems like everything I grew up with is being made (or remade) as a movie.  There’s supposed to be a new live-action He-Man movie.  Pee-Wee Herman is getting a new movie courtesy Netflix.  Star Trek has a reboot of the movie franchise and will apparently be getting a new TV series.  Even Battleship was made into a movie, and a somewhat decent one at that.  I guess it should come as no surprise that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was rebooted.  You get to use a proven idea on a whole new audience.

I don’t recall the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a kid.  I remember watching the show, but not regularly.  I wasn’t even sure I wanted to watch the new movie.  However, like a lot of movies I’ve seen recently, the fact that Netflix had it streaming played a big part in my decision.  I didn’t have to wait for the DVD to come by mail and I didn’t have to pay for it at Redbox.  I could watch it the first chance I had a few hours to spare.

The basic story is the same.  Four turtles are mutated and subsequently trained by a mutated rat.  The turtles are named for Renaissance artists:  Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Donatello.  (For some reason, the rat is called Splinter.)  A reporter named April O’Neil discovers their secret and helps them in fighting Shredder and his Foot Clan.

A good chunk of the movie is buildup.  We get to see how the Turtles (and Splinter) came from their humble beginnings in a lab experiment.  At a young age, they were dumped in the sewer and left to fend for themselves, which they did.  Splinter has always been protective of them, but the Turtles feel that they’re ready to go out and fight crime, being that they’re teenagers and all.  Enter Shredder and his Foot Clan.  Shredder is very evil and very powerful while the Turtles have very little practical experience of their own.  Ready or not, the Turtles have to step up.  Will they save the day and live to see a sequel?

Like the prior media, this movie is geared towards a younger audience.  I don’t recall much that would have been geared towards adults, but I don’t think most adults would be watching the clock.  I understand having to introduce the universe to a new audience and have April find the Turtles and all.   At least it was handled well.  If this is your first TMNT movie, I don‘t think anything will drag.

The second half does have some nice action sequences.  Being that they’re Ninja Turtles, this is to be expected.  My only complaint would be that they saved the one big battle for the end.  You’d think we’d get to see more fighting than we did.

There were a few scenes that I think were meant for 3-D.  I wonder how hard it would be to make a set of durable 3-D glasses that could be used for DVD rentals.  I’m thinking that the big obstacle is that 3-D movies are far enough between that people would lose them before using them a second time.  There’s also the issue of possibly needing to have a separate disc for the 3-D version.

It’s kind of hard for me to pan the movie.  For what it is, it was pretty good.  I doubt many people my age will be renting it for themselves, except out of curiosity like I did.  I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  (When you can get the movie streaming, it’s a lot easier to give it a try.)

I wondered if this was another case of someone trying to cash in on the name.  I don’t know that I’m far off.  There are a few throwaway references to the TV shows.   (Vernon Fenwick: So, they're heroes in a half shell?)  For the most part, though, it seems like the movie is trying to stand on its own ad set up a new franchise.  I’m not sure I’ll be sticking around for the sequels, though.

IMDb page