The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)

Saying that I was reluctant about The Lego Movie is a bit of an understatement as I thought it'd be a dumb kids flick but I gave it a chance anyway and I loved it. So of course I gave The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part a chance. 

Set immediately after the events of the original film, the story follows Emmet Brickowski (voiced by Chris Pratt) and his friends as they face a new threat, Lego Duplo invaders from outer space. When Lucy (voiced by Elizabeth Banks) and others are captured by General Sweet Mayhem (voiced by Stephanie Beatriz), Emmet attempts to rescue them while also trying to stop the Armamageddon.

The film is off to a really good start as the story is engaging and quite interesting to follow; unfortunately, about 30 minutes in, the plot starts to crumble with massive plot holes, a lot of cheesiness, discontinuity and nonsense, and a twist that could catch by surprise only someone who missed the beginning of the film.

There's something worse than a poor plot, poor characters and, unfortunately, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part has plenty of those. Not only development is nowhere to be found and the majority of the new characters aren't really that good, but the writers even managed to ruin some of the old characters. There are some nice additions though, like the dinosaurs. I loved those. But the rest, especially the whole Lego Duplo thing is so childish.

As for the jokes, they are fine but they are not nearly as good as they were in the first film. The problem is that many are recycled from the original film, others are either lame, childish or out of place, and the majority is pop culture references kids will never get —I mean, how many kids will get the Bruce Willis cameo? It's really hard to believe this was written by the same people who wrote The Lego Movie.

Warner Bros. Pictures

That said, the film is not a complete waste of time as it's overall enjoyable —although I lost my interest in the second part—, the voice cast still manages to do a good job despite the poor script, the animation looks fantastic, and some of the songs are not that bad. Not the "Catchy Song" though, that one is a pain for the ears. There's really nothing catchy about that song. It's just annoying.

Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)

I rewatched Pacific Rim (please don't go read the pathetic review I wrote years ago) about a month ago and two things I realised. First, it was not as good as I remembered, and second, it did not need a sequel. But we all know how Hollywood works, so Pacific Rim: Uprising happened. 

Ten years after the Battle of the Breach, in which humanity defeated the Kaiju monsters by sealing the entrance into our world. Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), the son of Stacker (sadly Idris Elba does not appear in this), makes a living by stealing Jaeger parts. While on a job, he meets Amara (Cailee Spaeny), an orphan teenage girl, who gets both arrested by the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps, and Jake is tasked, with the help of his former co-pilot, Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood),  to train a new crop of Jaeger cadets in case the Kaiju return.

And guess what? They do return and the whole movie is about them. It is so much about them that the writers didn't even bother developing the plot. Because who needs not a solid, but at least decent plot when you can have big robots fighting big monsters on the big screen? Okay, I'm not being fair, they did try to do something, like too many subplots --the rivalry between Jake and Nate, Jaeger drones making human pilots obsolete, the rivalry between Amara and another young cadet-- that do absolutely nothing for the film. There's a twist but I saw it coming miles ahead. 

Another issue with Pacific Rim: Uprising is its characters. Every single one of them is one-dimensional. They have no depth, but what's worse is that they are uninteresting and unlikable. How do you even care for characters like these? You can't, that's how. Not to mention that some of these characters --Jake-- came out of nowhere. 

Universal Pictures

With such a poor script, there's absolutely nothing the cast can do. John Boyega is very charismatic and charming, probably even more than Charlie Hunnam, and yet he does not manage to make his character likeable. All the forced jokes he has to deliver are a part of the problem. Scott Eastwood is nothing more than a pretty face who lacks the talent of his father. Cailee Spaeny isn't terrible but her chemistry with Boyega --he's basically Finn, she's basically Rey-- is non-existent. Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day and Burn Gorman reprise their role but they all are quite weak. The teen actors (considering how Hollywood works, they probably are 30 years old or something) are unwatchable.

The action too is a mess. Pacific Rim: Uprising being about monsters fighting robots, there's very little action in this. Also, the sequences aren't exciting and very forgettable. As for the special effects, they are good but nothing above average with today's standards.