Most of the time sequels, prequels, franchises and the like drive me crazy, especially when Hollywood goes down this rabbit hole time and again. When I saw the first trailer for the original "The LEGO Movie", I felt it looked inane and wouldn't give it the time of day. However when I decided to finally go see it, I was stunned how well it was written not to mention it was visually stimulating. I was hooked, so when "The LEGO Batman Movie" came along, I thoroughly enjoyed that one as well. Next? "The LEGO Ninjago Movie" was entertaining along with be cutting edge.
Six young ninjas Lloyd (Dave Franco), Jay (Kumail Nanjani), Kai (Michael Pena), Cole (Fred Armisen), Zane (Zach Woods) and Nya (Abbi Jacobson) are tasked with defending their island home called Ninjago. By night, they're gifted warriors, using their skills and awesome fleet of vehicles to fight villains and monsters. By day, they're ordinary teens struggling against their greatest enemy: high school.
Stunned by everyone for being the son of an evil warlord, Garmadon (Justin Theroux), Lloyd seeks to defeat him with the help of his fellow ninjas, but even though they are experienced warriors, their ability to be true ninjas need work. So they ask Master Wu (Jackie Chan) to show them the ropes of what it takes to be the ninja that is in all of them, otherwise conquering Garmadon will deem fruitless.
Others to round out the cast are Dave Burrows as Fuchsia Ninja, Alex Kauffman as Ninja Computer and Olivia Munn as Koko.
This was creatively directed by Charlie Bean (TV and shorts), Paul Fisher and Bob Logan. Considering the lack of experience in the director's chair, these filmmakers were able to bring out the sardonic humor and expressive emotion out of their actors to bring these characters to life. It was well executed by writers Logan, Fisher, William Wheeler, Tom Wheeler, Jared Stern and John Whittington based on a story by Hilary Winston, Logan, Fisher, William Wheeler, Tom Wheeler, Dan Hageman and Kevin Hageman. With all the writers in this, the story did get a bit bogged down and there were a couple of places of slowness. Usually when there is more than two or three writers on any production, there tends to be problems--too many hands in the pot. Otherwise this story was, as usual, powder dry in its humor and cleverly written as with the other installments of this LEGO franchise. The visual effects and main titles both designed by Animal Logic were incredibly well thought out and, of course, made this production worthy on the large screen.
As an animated flick, this is the quintessential popcorn film replete with satirical humor, action, adventure all with a fun storyline. There's no message, nothing controversial to bring the audience down, so if you like well executed fluff, this is the film for you. And who doesn't like LEGOS?
Out of 4 Stars: 3 Rated: PG 102mins.
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