The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
2014’s The Lego Movie was one of those “lightening in a bottle” type scenarios that just took people by storm. No one expected the Warner Brothers animated film to really be anything special, but it side lined everyone by being incredibly sweet, lots of fun, and filled with catchy music (seriously, besides “Let it Go” from Frozen, “Everything is Awesome” is probably the most annoyingly catch song in music history) to make for a wildly fun film. However, it’s really hard to top the first film (which was one of the few 5/5 films of the last 5 years) and Warner Brothers is up against that legacy. The Lego Batman spinoff was a fun bit of fluff animation, but it never really took off past simple entertainment, and the actual sequel to the 2014 film is about on part with the Lego Batman movie. It’s fun, full of bright shiny colors and catchy songs, but can’t seem to capture that incredible magic that The Lego Movie just captured in spades.

It’s been years since we saw Emmett (Chris Pratt) and his ascension to becoming a master builder. However, things have not been kind to the world of Bricksberg. Aliens have attacked the city and decimated with their constantly colorful attacks. The remnants of society have rebuilt into a Mad Max like state of apocalyptic survival in a town they call “Apocalypseberg”. Everyone has toughened up and gotten a hard hard but one man. Yup, you guessed it. Emmett is still the same goofy, carefree spirit that he always was. But when aliens come and abduct Lucy (Elizabeth Banks), taking her to a world far away, Emmett jumps into his homemade spaceship and follows these aliens to the “Systar System” (wink wink, nudge nudge) where the leader of the system is bent on marrying the strongest leader of Apocalypseberg.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part tells a much more straight forward adventure than the first film did. While the first film winked and nodded to the viewers who the real “string pullers” were behind the scenes, it really didn’t come out and spell everything out until the very end and people were surprised about the father/son story that the movie was really about. The sequel is WAY more blunt about it’s message and also incorporates much more live action human interaction as well. They pretty much lay everything out on the table and let the viewer know that this is about the young boy and his sister fighting over the Legos. And while this is all well and good, it kind of takes you out of the story more than once and feels pandering.

The film is at it’s best during the first 30 minutes when the town of “Apocalypseberg” is fighting off the alien invasion, as it brings in all of the qualities and charm that the original movie had. When the location changes to the Systar System things start to peter out. The action is less dynamic, and the twist with Rex (also voiced by Chris Pratt) is seen a mile away. The one good thing is that there is ANOTHER song in here that will be certain to drive parents crazy as kids replay it time and time again (it’s almost as catchy as “Everything is Awesome”).

Chris Pratt is still great as Emmett, and Lucy is perfect too, but it’s really the direction and the simplistic nature of the story that keeps it from being awesome. I personally think that The Lego Movie was a one time thing in reality. The idea of the Legos having their own movie is pretty good, but no one expected The Lego Movie to be the giant success that it was, and everything past that has just been an OK experience and a constant reminder of what big shoes they have to fill. Is The Lego Movie 2 a bad movie? Not at all, it’s a perfectly entertaining family animated film. It just has a very difficult time compared to it’s vastly superior predecessor.




Rating:

Rated PG for mild action and rude humor




4K Video: Video:

Like many modern animated films, The Lego Movie 2 is an upscaled 4K UHD disc from a 2K master. The increases in visual clarity and details aren’t night and day different than the exceptional Blu-ray, but they are noticeable in several distinct ways. The first being light and shadows. The Blu-ray seems a bit softer and less refined in the darker shots as well as the glowing lights. If you look at the 4K side by side you can notice a much sharper and cleaner glow to the lights and no banding whatsoever (which does show up on the Blu-ray. The textures and backgrounds are fantastic, but as usual not a wild uptick from the Blu-ray.

The way this movie lives and dies is on the use of HDR and the colors used throughout. The Blu-ray is jaw droppingly beautiful with the various colors, and the UHD disc just blows the doors off of it in that regards. Pinks, blues, greens, and every other color in between is so richly saturated and deep that it makes the Blu-ray look flat in comparison. I also noticed that the 4K disc is a bit dimmer and less bright and shiny than the Blu-ray as well. That’s not to say that it’s less detailed, but that it seems to have a different cadence with the dimmer colors. It’s a great looking disc, and while not the tippy top of the 4K UHD pile, is still a very nice upgrade from the Blu-ray.






Audio:

As with most newer Warner Brothers films, the 4K UHD and the Blu-ray share the same Dolby Atmos track AND have a 5.1 DTS-HD MA track in English as well. The only thing is, this disc doesn’t follow the annoying Warner pattern of having the 5.1 track selected by default. The Atmos track is actually selected as the default track so those of you who forget to check the audio every time they hit play won’t be sucker punched with the “inferior” 5.1 mix. The track itself is really engaging and fun, with the surrounds and overheads used to great aplomb thanks to the spaceship travel and constantly blaring pop tunes. The new songs literally rock from all angles, filling the room with heavy bass lines and great lyrical clarity. The dialog itself is well situated in the front of the room, and the dynamic range of the track is rather wide and spacious. Space ships crash and roar with authority, and the swooshing sounds shift directions at a moments notice. It’s a fantastic sounding mix for sure, and one of the best parts of t he whole disc.




Extras:

• Everything is Awesome Sing-along – Sing-along, trivia, games and more!
• Commentary – Fun behind the scenes commentary by filmmakers
• They Come in Pieces: Assembling The LEGO Movie 2 – Featurette highlighting A-list voice talent including Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett and Tiffany Haddish
• Emmet's Holiday Party: A LEGO Movie Short – Holiday themed animated short
• LEGO Sets in Action – Animations of the LEGO product tied to The LEGO Movie 2
• LEGO Designers – LEGO toy designers highlight key play sets in TLM2 product line
• Outtakes & Deleted Scenes – Never before seen scenes
• Super Cool Music Video – Music video by Beck featuring Robyn and The Lonely Island
• Promotion Spots – Fun custom spots featured during the theatrical campaign

Final Score:
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I honestly think that we’re a little spoiled these days. 20 years ago The Lego Movie 2 would have been hailed a great animated kids flick, but we’ve been so spoiled with fantastic animated entertainment as Disny, Pixar and Dreamworks have flooded the market with great movies that anything short of greatness is considered “meh” anymore. Honestly, I liked The Lego Movie 2. It’s a good family flick and has a lot of heart behind it, but objectively it’s just nowhere as good as the first movie. However, Warner continues to impress with the home video discs as the 4K UHD disc is quite nice to behold with near demo worthy audio and a very nice looking upscaled 4K video encode. The extras are right smack in the middle of the spectrum and the with the movie itself makes for a fun watch.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Chris Pratt, Will Arnett, Elizabeth Banks, Tiffany Haddish, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Charlie Day, Maya Rudolph, Will Ferrell, Stephanie Beatriz, Jadon Sand
Directed by: Mike Mitchell
Written by: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Croatian, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Norwegian, Polish, Slovak, Swedish, Turkish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German SDH, Italian SDH, Spanish, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Norwegian, Polish, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Turkish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: PG
Runtime: 107 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: Own The LEGO® Movie 2: The Second Part on 4K UHD Combo Pack, Blu-ray combo pack and DVD on May 7, or Own It Early on Digital on April 16!

Recommendation: Fun Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. We saw this in the theater and while my kids enjoyed it a lot, for me, it was nothing special. I did enjoy the first one when it came out and we did see that in the theater.

Good movie for fans of Lego..

 

[Todd Anderson]

I'm disappointed to see the middling marks on this... it'll be a skip in our house.

Mike - love the "sucker punched by the 5.1 mix" comment. Audio geeks unite!!