tek's rating: ½

The LEGO Ninjago Movie (PG)
Animal Logic; Brickipedia; IMDb; Ninjago Wiki; official website; Rotten Tomatoes; TV Tropes; Warner Bros.; Wikia; Wikipedia
streaming sites: Amazon; Google Play; Hulu; iTunes; Movies Anywhere; Vudu; YouTube

This is the second spin-off of The Lego Movie. It came out in 2017 (the same year as The Lego Batman Movie), but I didn't see it until 2022. I found some bits fairly amusing, but I generally didn't think it was as funny as it was trying to be, and certainly not as funny or entertaining as the first two movies in the franchise. And aside from the main two or three characters, I didn't find most of the characters particularly interesting or memorable. Incidentally, I watched it on a Saturday (because that's when I watch most animated movies), the day before Father's Day, because a father/son relationship is central to the plot.

It's bookmarked by live-action scenes, in which a young boy wanders into a shop owned by some old guy played by Jackie Chan, who tells the kid a story, which we see as the main part of the movie, which is computer animated. So, there's this city called Ninjago, which is frequently attacked by an evil warlord called Garmadon. He has had nothing to do with the raising of his son, Lloyd Garmadon, who was raised by his mother, Koko. Everyone knows Lloyd is Garmadon's son, and hate him unfairly because of that. So Lloyd resents his father both for his absence and for his evil. But secretly, Lloyd is the Green Ninja, one of a group of ninjas that also include Kai, Cole, Jay, Zane, and Nya. They are his only five friends. The six of them are taught by Master Wu (voiced by Chan), who is Garmadon's brother. I'm not sure what to say about the plot except that the ninjas have to find a way to defeat Garmadon, but also eventually end up working together with him for reasons I won't get into. Meanwhile, Lloyd and Garmadon slowly begin to bond (though his father still insists on pronouncing both L's in his name, which annoys Lloyd). I don't want to spoil any more details or say how it ends, but while I doubt I'd ever want to watch the movie again, I'm glad to have seen it once. I'm not sure how much sense the ending actually makes, though. And... I feel like I should say more, but that's all there is.

The Blu-ray includes a few short films, the main one being "The Master", in which Master Wu battles a... chicken. It was mildly amusing.


CGI index