Lego Movie 2: A Review

I'm afraid I'm rather lax about reviewing movies. I usually excuse myself by the fact that I almost never watch newer movies, and on that rare occasion that I do, they are usually ones that have already been out and reviewed for a while. Nobody wants to hear reviews of old or obscure movies, so I just disappear from the movie-reviewing scene. However. I committed the every-so-often atrocity of going to a theater to see a movie, so I suppose in this case, I have no excuse not to provide a comprehensive review of the movie I saw - that being The Lego Movie 2. The trailer is here.
[*Spoiler warning*]

The Plot

As a plot is generally what carries a movie, I chose to review this first. The plot consisted of the Duplo aliens, played by the little sister of the boy, (they were seen at the end of the first movie) having successfully terrorized the Lego world and left, only coming back to destroy whenever something that caught their interest was built (e.g. something shiny, colorful, or creative).

Thus, the world had degenerated into a teenage apocalypse in a few years, and everything built was dark and uninteresting. The conflict begins when another spaceship from the aliens arrives, this time apparently bearing a beacon of peace - all the strongest leaders of this Lego world are to come to attend a marriage ceremony on one of the alien planets for the purpose of making peace. Obviously, Emmet and Lucy (previously known as Wyld Style) are suspicious of this, particularly the latter.

But it is left completely up to Emmet, the apparently spineless sap, to save Lucy and the others when Lucy, Batman, Captain Metalbeard, Benny, and Unikitty are all forcibly taken in the spaceship by an ambassador, to go to the aforementioned ceremony. Emmet is quite alone and quite unprepared for the job, being apparently helpless despite the abilities seen in the first movie. On setting out, he is aided and saved from near failure and doom by a mysterious and ultra-masculine space wanderer (who drives a time-traveling spaceship manned by a raptor - yes, dinosaurs - gunning crew) by the name of Rex (or REX).

Now. When all turns out, *large spoilers alert* the bad guys turn out not to be bad after all - the aliens really do merely intend to make a marital alliance. The real bad one, apparently, is Rex, who merely wants some sort-of vague, unspecified revenge upon vague, unspecified persons, for an event that took place years ago and changed his sweet personality of Emmet to the  (allegedly) toxically masculine one he now possesses, as REX (Radical Emmet X-Treme, if my memory serves me correctly). *spoilers end*

The plot had some good points to it - it certainly surprised me on the matter of the queen of the aliens, partaker in the marriage ceremony, who had a relevant identity unrevealed until the end. And while the choice to make other certain parties evil or incompetent was a rather cliché one, they involved another plot twist which was worthy of an eyebrow-raise.

Overall, the plot was fairly typical of the modern children's movie - rather unimaginative at its core but having a few worthwhile surprises to keep one from boredom.

The Characters

The characters I expected to know and love from the first movie were, unfortunately, rather changed. While Lucy (Wyld Style) was essentially the same, the light taken with the character of Emmet was not that he was a simple person eager to please and help, nor that he was a blind half-witted follower, as many think in the first movie. Rather, he was put up as a sort-of archetype for a femininely-caring and rather spineless, optimistic idealist who always thinks everything is awesome no matter what.

The character of Batman was also, sadly, not its formerly exaggerated and comical image. Batman was not only not in the movie a great deal, but spent most of it brainwashed (though we are made to believe in the end that he was not brainwashed at all) to love the effeminate and do whatever he is led into. Unfortunately, there was not much of Batman's ridiculously rude script which I personally found one of the entertainment highlights of the original movie.

Unikitty, Benny, and Metalbeard likewise are absent during much of the movie and do not seem like themselves much, except perhaps the former (though an amusing poke is made at the rather embarrassingly true fact of Benny not having much consistent character anyways).

Rex was easily my favorite character in the movie, I'm afraid to say. His gruff and hands-on personality was infectiously smiling, and, due to the lack of traditional gender roles in modern movies, it is always nice to see an unapologetically masculine character like him. The characters of the two main aliens, General Mayhem and the queen (don't ask me to spell her name, because I believe it would be futile to try) were ambiguous - General Mayhem had little to no character, and the queen's was hard to riddle out, as she never at any point, per the plot of the movie, seems to have clear intentions or characteristics, though I might say that a little less singing on her part to illustrate her hazy motives for her would've done her characterization a great deal of good.

The Themes

As you can probably tell from a few snide comments above, the I most certainly did not enjoy the theme. The main theme interwoven throughout the movie was an anti-masculinity, holding that it was toxic, destructive, and against true personality - even for those characters who at least aspired usually to be masculine, such as Batman. The feminism throughout the movie was, unfortunately, a killing disease. The movie was very good all but for this overwhelming propaganda-feel that was one of its unfortunate foundations. Just the blatant, in-your-face, constant feminism masked as femininity throughout the whole movie was sickeningly saccharine to me, making even the spectacles of the movie unbearable for the sheer sparkliness and colorfulness of it all. Everything masculine was choked out or vilified for most of the movie, which made it, unfortunately, a great deal less enjoyable and less skillfully done of a movie in comparison to the first one.
The Music
To me, the music is one of the most important things about a movie, but I realize that not everyone agrees with that, so I'll be brief. For the most part, the score consisted of fragments of the first movie's music and then the addition of a handful of rather irritating pop songs that did not quite measure up to "Everything is Awesome" in the first Lego Movie. Enough said.

There Were Good Things About It...

There were a few moments of sheer hilarity, I'll grant. The down-to-earth sense of humor that needs no reference to the crude or banal for its self-assertion which we saw in the first movie was again present in most of the second one (with an occasional exception concerning male-bashing jokes). And, obviously, the animation was amazing, just like the first one, and the Lego scenery was inspiring to any aspiring Lego creator, of course.

In Summary

The theme was terrible - feminist propaganda never showed its face so blatantly, I believe. The humor, aside from feministic traces here and there, was splendid, and was not dependent on rude gags and gross characterizations as most modern children's movie humor seems to be. The characters did not act like themselves, and it was a rather sad change, honestly. The plot mostly was a reflection of the theme. The Lego spectacle was, again, aside from feministic parts, quite stunning. The music was, well, rather forgettable. On a whole, I thought it was a slightly sad tribute to the first movie, which to date is one of my favorite CGI kid's movies. The only big moral problems with it were a feministic political correctness interwoven (plus, a brief appearance of a Lego Judge Ruth Bader-Ginsburg). It did, however, for its very denial of the need of traditional gender roles, accidentally reveal the differences between the genders: the male characters, even Emmet, all are active, generally wishing to protect and fight rather than be protected or fought for, and the female characters, even Lucy, had a nature more built on understanding and feelings (which... got a bit sickening as it was exaggerated considerably, but whatever).
Overall, I would say that the movie's probably not worth a second watch at least for the theme, but if you want to go and try it for yourself, there are definitely parts that would make it worth the time... just... don't buy a super expensive movie ticket for it.
What do you think? Have you seen this movie? Do you agree, or did you enjoy it more than I did? Planning on seeing it? Anything to add or argue? Chat with me!