The latest installment in this growing franchise is yet another success.
When The LEGO Movie first hit theaters in 2014, audiences weren’t prepared for it’s refreshingly fast-paced, eccentric style of comedy nor its surprisingly emotional third act. Now, three years later, Warner Bros. has begun its first step towards building out this unlikely franchise with The LEGO Batman Movie and, now, The LEGO Ninjago Movie, which hits theaters this weekend. While both films have managed to maintain the same comedic style and emotional themes of the original LEGO Movie, they’ve also both shown signs of how quickly this formula can start to wear thin.
Fortunately, The LEGO Ninjago Movie has a different enough backdrop and story to keep it from ever becoming too familiar or boring. Based on the LEGO property of the same name, Ninjago keeps the self-referential and parodical style of its two franchise predecessors, but swaps out the underdog and comic book movie settings of those films for a ninja-themed coming-of-age story. The result is an exuberantly told, if occasionally familiar and comedically uneven, story about a family learning how to come together for the first time.
Borrowing the same general plot of the Ninjago TV series, the film takes place in the titular island city where the citizens are left constantly in fear of the frequent destructive takeover attempts by the evil Lord Garmadon (Justin Theroux), a maniacal warlord hellbent on ruling over the city and everyone in it. And when the film begins, the only obstacles in his way are a team of six young ninja, led by Garmadon’s personal archenemy, the mysterious Green Ninja.
Little does Garmadon know that the Green Ninja is secretly the son he abandoned as a baby, Lloyd (Dave Franco), who has been forced to be a social outcast his whole life because of his father’s constant attacks. However, when Lloyd’s identity as the Green Ninja is revealed, Garmadon decides to follow his long-lost son and the other young ninja deep into the uncharted jungles surrounding Ninjago, as they search for an ultimate weapon.
With that premise, The LEGO Ninjago Movie manages to tell a much more emotional story than The LEGO Batman Movie did. It’s still not quite as effective in that regard as the original LEGO Movie, with the film sometimes leaning too heavily into corny territory in its handling of Garmadon and Lloyd’s relationship. Had the film not been able to recover from its clunky first act, which suffers heavily from having to set up the main adventure plot and characters, The LEGO Ninjago Movie would have likely been a major disappointment.
If there’s any reason to see The LEGO Ninjago Movie, though, it’s Justin Theroux, who absolutely steals the film with his performance as Garmadon. He’s a comically evil character, who is both oblivious to and sometimes even hilariously aware of his own self-destructive tendencies, much to the shared frustration of Lloyd and everyone around him.
The film gets increasingly better the more time it spends just letting Garmadon interact with the other characters; the funniest scene in the entire movie is arguably when Garmadon tells his origin story to Lloyd’s inquisitive ninja comrades. Theroux steals the title from Will Arnett’s Batman as the best-voiced LEGO Movie character to date, and absolutely runs away with The LEGO Ninjago Movie.
Directors Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher, and Bob Logan bring the film to life with the same manic energy that Phil Lord and Chris Miller started the franchise off with. But with each successive installment, the LEGO Movie franchise is starting to feel increasingly less fresh and exciting due to maintaining the same style and formula film-to-film. While The LEGO Ninjago Movie largely keeps this franchise's creative success streak going, future LEGO movies should find new approaches to their comedy and storytelling if that streak is to continue.
The Verdict
While The LEGO Ninjago Movie does venture into overly cliched and cheesy territory at times, the performances of its actors and excited attitude of the material keep it from ever going stale. Like with the previous two LEGO Movies from the studio, Ninjago manages to deliver enough intelligent and funny material to entertain both the kids it’s primarily meant for, and the adults who will be coughing up the ticket money to take them to it.
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