REVIEW – “The Lego Ninjago Movie”
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The battle for Ninjago City calls to action young Master Builder Lloyd, aka the Green Ninja, along with his friends, who are all secret ninja warriors. Led by Master Wu, as wise-cracking as he is wise, they must defeat evil warlord Garmadon, The Worst Guy Ever, who also happens to be Lloyd’s dad. Pitting mech […]
The battle for Ninjago City calls to action young Master Builder Lloyd, aka the Green Ninja, along with his friends, who are all secret ninja warriors. Led by Master Wu, as wise-cracking as he is wise, they must defeat evil warlord Garmadon, The Worst Guy Ever, who also happens to be Lloyd’s dad. Pitting mech against mech and father against son, the epic showdown will test this fierce but undisciplined team of modern-day ninjas who must learn to check their egos and pull together to unleash their inner power of Spinjitzu. Borrowing the same general plot of the Ninjago TV series, the film takes place in the titular island city where the citizens are left constantly in fear of the frequent destructive takeover attempts by the evil Lord Garmadon (Justin Theroux), a maniacal warlord hellbent on ruling over the city and everyone in it. And when the film begins, the only obstacles in his way are a team of six young ninja, led by Garmadon’s personal archenemy, the mysterious Green Ninja.
From the team behind the blockbuster LEGO movies that have delighted audiences of all ages around the globe, comes an all-new, big-screen event, “The LEGO NINJAGO Movie.”
And like the previous films, can we expect a whole new level of wittiness, ear candy songs and humor? Let’s find out.
The Warner Animation Group dropped two Lego movies this 2017 following the success of The Lego Movie! The 2014 release The Lego Movie was a breath of fresh air, a goofy and charming story about the dangers of conformity as performed by the minifigures that kids and adults alike have played with for years. Early 2017, Warner Bros. released a spinoff film, The Lego Batman Movie, anchored by Will Arnett’s awesome voice acting and take on the world’s favorited Caped Crusader who first appeared in the original Lego movie. For the 2nd half of 2017, Warner Bros decided to take a leap of faith with a different universe, The Lego Ninjago Movie.
The Lego Ninjago Movie fails reach the same heights as the previous films. While the animation is still fantastic, the film seems to be lacking the humor of it’s predecessors. The Lego Ninjago lacks a lot of background story for the audience to relate to its characters. A lot of action scenes, but lacking the heartfelt ones. It’s still not quite as effective in that regard as the original LEGO Movie, with the film sometimes leaning too much on the sappy side with regards to Garmadon and Lloyd’s relationship.
While The LEGO Ninjago Movie has a lot of borderline corny moments, the stellar performances by the voice actors keeps the movie alive. Like with the previous two LEGO Movies, Ninjago manages to deliver enough humor and kickass actions to kids (it’s primary target audience) and adults alike.
And like every successful franchise, The Lego Movie sparked a number spin-off movies and, while The Lego Ninjago Movie has the same spirit as the other two movies, it lacks the comic timing, character development and overall enjoyment felt by the previous films. Yes, it’s definitely the weakest LEGO installment thus far. But, the movie is still quite enjoyable and amusing, and it still has that quirky style that the previous films had. Nonetheless, it was still an overall enjoyable experience. Credit is given to Jackie Chan for making this Lego installment work. And also the giant furball.
Can we expect more Lego movie sequels after this? We hope so. While The LEGO Ninjago Movie continues the sequel’s beautiful animation and art direction, future LEGO movies should find new ways to improve the storyline and humor for the future sequels to come.
Find your inner peace with The Lego Ninjago movie! Catch it in cinemas nationwide!
Photo credits: Warner Bros Pictures
Kimberly Mas
