Author Topic: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part  (Read 971 times)

MattDrufke

  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 738
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
« on: February 10, 2019, 10:42:50 AM »
This is a movie I liked a whole lot, but it suffered from a problem a lot of family movies have, and I want to address it.

Late in the movie, the characters are in song talking about how sad they are, and one character says that he's so sad that he's finally starting to understand Radiohead. I laughed and my wife laughed (a few other adults in the theater did too). It's a solid joke. But, like... why? Why is that joke in there?

One of my big pet peeves in film is when family movies include jokes that children wouldn't understand. I don't know why studios/writers think they're needed. As a parent, I'm already in the movie. You've got me there. Making a reference that I get but my kid doesn't isn't funny or cute or needed.

If Paddington 2 taught us anything, it's that a great family movie can be a great family movie for anyone.
@ihatemattdrufke

1SO

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 36128
  • Marathon Man
Re: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
« Reply #1 on: February 10, 2019, 02:01:19 PM »
Plenty of jokes for the grown-ups in Paddington 2, though maybe not as obvious. From the overall portrayal of declining actors, ("the most devious people on the planet,") to the parade of cameos to the Wes Anderson style. Hugh Grant does an entire scene bouncing between famous characters (Richard III, Hercule Poirot) I wouldn't expect kids to get.

Bondo

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 23082
Re: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
« Reply #2 on: February 10, 2019, 08:48:53 PM »
I thought the film as a whole fell a bit flat compared certainly to the first and even to Batman. But that song salvaged things for me in terms of binary yes/no approval of the film as a whole. I'm not going to write a whole review but that song I think perfectly captured the Millennial/Post-Millennial mood. Having grown up amid 9/11 and the Great Recession and now Trump, we have shocking rates of depression and anxiety...everything is not awesome. Yet as generations we are also strivers and developers of movements to try to make things more awesome (through socialism).

Also, between the dad being the bad guy in the first film and the son being the bad guy in this film, the series successfully targets the problem (plus more specifically, the toxic masculinity version of Emmett is the in-story character creating problems). But yeah, I didn't laugh much.

Junior

  • Bert Macklin, FBI
  • Global Moderator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 28709
  • What's the rumpus?
    • Benefits of a Classical Education
Re: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2019, 09:29:04 PM »
I had a very similar read on the song/theme of the film. It's also nice to have a movie where Rex's toxic masculinity is both prayed as coming from a real (if misunderstood) place and roundly rejected.
Check out my blog of many topics

“I’m not a quitter, Kimmy! I watched Interstellar all the way to the end!”

 

love