Neil Welch
Lloyd and a small group of high school friends are secretly a group of ninja/heroes operating mechs in the city Ninjago: this is handy, because Lloyd's father, the villain Garmadon, launches hugely destructive attacks on Ninjago every day or two from his volcano base on a nearby island. Lloyd, when not disguised as the Green Ninja, is shunned by his peers, and harbours great resentment towards his father. He is mentored by his father's brother, the ancient mystic ninja Wu.I understand Lego as a toy. It is a brilliant toy, even if the Americans do insist on incorrectly pluralising the individual bricks as Legos. Bless. And I understand using Lego as a vehicle for combination spoof/homage movies like The LEGO movie and The LEGO Batman movie.This isn't a spoof. It's based on Lego sets and spin-off TV series, so the casual viewer is probably not familiar with the source material (not so with the two previous Lego movies). This makes it a little more difficult to get into the specific world of the film.Of course, it is straightforward to spot influences. Power Rangers is the most obvious one, but all the way through the film you find yourself saying "That's the New York battle from the Avengers". "That's from Enter The Dragon" and so on. Which is perhaps a way of saying that the film is built from recognisable bits and doesn't have an ounce of originality other than that everything is built of Lego.As usual with Lego films, the action is so frenetic that it's difficult to follow. The voice work is good except for Justin Theroux who overdoes it as Garmadon. The script has some chuckles, but far too few (I liked the fact that Garmadon calls Lloyd "Lu-loyd" because of the double L, and that the main monster is Meowthra).Kids in the cinema were restless. Maybe they hadn't watched the TV series.
leonblackwood
Review:
Although the plot of this movie was completely ridiculous, I found it pretty funny in parts, and the action scenes were well put together, even though the cast was made of Lego. The main character, Lloyd (voiced by Dave Franco), did get on my nerves after a while but the rest of the cast were hilarious, especially the evil Garmadon. The animation wasn't that great and it did seem to drag in parts but the witty script made it watchable. Anyway, the movie is based in a city called Ninjago, were the main character, Lloyd, is struggling to deal with day to day life, because his dad, the evil Garmadon, keeps on attacking the city. Although everybody in the city dislike Lloyd, he has 5 close friends in school, who he teams up with to fight against his father in disguise. On Lloyd's 10th birthday, Garmadon attacks the city once again but the secret Ninja force, lead by Lloyd, manage to defeat him. Garmadon retreats to his cave to build a new suit to defeat the ninja warriors, while they try to perfect there individual specialities, with the help from there master, Master Wu (Jackie Chan). When Garmadon returns to the city with in his new suit, Lloyd decides to use the ultimate weapon against him but Garmadon manages to retrieve the weapon from Lloyd, which causes mass destruction to the city. When Lloyd reveals his true identity to Garmadon, he tells him that he wished that he wasn't his father, which leaves Garmadon confused. Master Wu then tells the ninja warriors that Garmadon could be defeated if they get the Ultimate Ultimate weapon, so they set out on there journey to retrieve it. On the way there, they come across Garmadon, who has been following them for some time, and he battles with his brother, Master Wu, who he manages to defeat him but he's put in a cage and becomes the ninja warriors prisoner. On there journey, Lloyd bonds with his dad but when they finally come face to face with the Ultimate Ultimate weapon, Garmadon betrays his son, and he goes back to Ninjago to try and kill Meowthra, who is a cat that was a woken by the first Ultimate weapon. Will the ninja warriors save the day or will Garmadon become the ruler of the city....... I know that the plot sounds confusing but it's straight forward when you watch it. I must admit, for an animation movie, the storyline was pretty intense, and there are some emotional scenes between father and son, so I'm not sure if the kids will totally get it. From an adults point of view, you can't help but chuckle at some of the outrageous scenes, just like the previous Lego movies but I can't see it becoming an all time classic. It's definitely worth a watch, especially if your in a bad mood but don't expect a cinematic extravaganza. Average!Round-Up:
This movie was directed by Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher and Bob Logan. Although they haven't made any full animation movies before, they certainly gave this movie there all, and it fits perfectly into the Lego Movie franchise. Jackie Chan was a great addition to the project, because he used his Kung Fu choreographers to perfect the action scenes. I personally can't see there being a sequel, mainly because it didn't really blow up at the box office, and the buzz around the film was short-lived but I'm sure that were going to be seeing new projects from the Lego Movie franchise.Budget: $70million
Worldwide Gross: $123.1millionGenre: Animation, Action, Adventure
Cast: Jackie Chan, Dave Franco, Fred Armisen, Michael Pena, Kumail, Nanjiani, Abbi Jacobson, Zach Woods, David Burrows, Justin Theroux, Ali Wong and Randall Park. 5/10
