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The Lego Ninjago Movie
A third main picture from the people who brought us The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie. I'm not looking forward to this one as much as I was for The Batman instalment but with a decent cast, this one can still have a lot of potential. Dave Franco, Justin Theroux, Michael Pena and Jackie Chan gave their voices to this movie and comedy techniques along with them. The story revolves around a boy, who is shunned by everyone because his dad is an evil warlord, looking to take over the city. The son becomes a ninja and along with his friend, look to stop his father. Is this Lego movie going to be a masterpiece or a demolition job for the franchise?
The film begins with live action, as a small boy walks into an old relic shop and meets the owner, Mr Lui, played by Chan. He shows the man his Lego toy, one that is battered and scratched, missing an arm, until the old man takes it from him and adds some Ninja clothes, making him look brand new. The man has cat scratches all up his arm, from his pet cat, which he calls a monster and clearly isn't fond of. He then proceeds to open a small wooden box, which contains a wooden Lego man, dressed like and old Ninja Master. He starts to tell the story of Ninjago and we are transported into animation of the Lego world and instantly into an attack by the warlord, Garmadon. The city despises Lloyd for being the son of Garmadon, which puts the boys until massive emotional stress, with the unwillingness to go to college. His mother, Koko, clearly resents Garmadon for being the person that he is. The zoomed-out area of the city is seen to be a real, toy set, with stop motion action scenes for certain parts, until we are back to animation. Again, the group of warriors come to the aid of the city and Garmadon is sent back to his volcano to hatch up his next plan, which will be to make a giant mech that is immune to weapons. Throughout the fight scene, we could see some hidden jokes regarding a father and son's relationship as Lloyd couldn't catch things properly and his throwing was even worse. When Garmadon gets back to the volcano, the background noise is a tannoy declaring to cancel the celebration cake. The construction of the Mech is very much as you would expect from Lego. Popping out the parts and adding the stickers from a sheet, very much taking the piss out of itself.
Back in the city, the group of Ninjas find out that Master Wu is back, voiced by Chan. He tells them that they all have their own special abilities, which they must use, instead of their own giant mechs, if they intend to be true warriors. These include the control of water, earth, fire, electricity, wind etc but Lloyd is confused when he gets told that his element is green. Wu mention something called the ultimate weapon, giving him the hope of defeating his father, despite being forbidden from using it. Garmadon attacks again and this time Lloyd wants to use this forbidden weapon, which turns out to be a laser pen. The size of a human one, compared to the Lego figures. Although Lloyd is defeated at first, he finally uses the weapon, which attracts a real-life cat. Why not? Cats are attracted to laser pens and Chan's character called the cat at the beginning a monster. Meowthra starts destroying the city while trying to get the laser. Garmadon notices this and turns the laser onto the other mechs in order to take them down one by one. Once Garmadon states victory, Lloyd reveals that he is the Green Ninja and tells the warlord that he wishes he wasn't his father. This leaves the guy confused, mainly because he was never around to be his father anyway. This guy has no chill. Lloyd heads to see if Master Wu has survived and is cornered by his team, who are angry that he used the weapon. The team must travel over the vast beyond in order to find an ultimate, ultimate weapon, in order to stop the cat. The group travel far and are tailed by Garmadon, before Master Wu and the warlord have a fight, ending with Garmadon in a cage and Master Wu falling off a bridge, before being washed away by a river. That was too poor of an exit for him, I'm sure he'll be back.
The team decide to carry on and to Lloyd's disappointment, they are being led by Garmadon. They come across an army of fired staff from Garmadon's former army. The warlord and his son are the only two captured, until the rest of the Ninjas save them from certain death. We finally see a bit of building as they make a make-shift helicopter and the father and son bond as a result. Back in the city and there is a news report from a TV show called Good Morning Ninjago, which is a parody of the British show, Good Morning Britain, which has the same presenters. As the group of Ninjas escape, Lloyd has lost his arm, could this be the moment it links to the little boy's toy from the beginning of the movie, which had lost its arm too? One thing that I noticed from the movie is the good use of music. They have real songs, to link in with the certain scenes. As they first entered the jungle, it was 'Welcome to the Jungle' being played on Master Wu's flute. Then this changed to, 'I've got the power', as they were training. Another, would be the scene of the father and son bonding, which used the song containing lyrics, 'Like my father did'. These are very clever moments. The story continues as Lloyd's arm is put back into place and the gang fly off in a helicopter, before accidentally clipping a mountain top and crashing down just outside the Temple of Fragile Foundations. Garmadon reveals and show old pictures to his son, showing that his mother also used to be a warrior herself. This was their family home. He shows some humility regarding his mistakes, which include leaving his family to conquer the city. They find a chest containing the ultimate, ultimate weapon, before Garmadon steals it and offers his son the position of General. He obviously rebuffed in his advances and in a state of anger, he locks the gang in the Temple. From what I seen about the ultimate weapon, they are representative of each of the Ninja's powers. A Lego piece that looks like a flame, lightning bolt and so on, but Lloyd's green one is very plain and he doesn't know how to use it. It looks like of like a tree, but is clearly a base piece, one that has holes in its ends. My guess is that this is something that all of the other Ninja's pieces stick into, symbolising that the green one is needed as the main connection between them all, in order for them to work, which would be the same as Lloyd in the Ninja Warriors. We'll see. Lloyd remembers what Master Wu had told him, regarding inner peace. Each one of the tries to find their inner power and successfully escape the temple, but Lloyd didn't have a hand in the escape, apart from the idea of it. The cliff collapses, but they are saved by Master Wu, who was never really going to be dead. Garmadon has flown back to the city, in the helicopter which I though was broken. The Warlord is trying to control Meowthra, who ends up eating him instead and as the Ninja's return, Lloyd walks up to the cat, talking to it, but really talking to his father inside the beast, he mentions of forgiveness. Stating that the green means life, he reveals himself to the public to be Lloyd, the hated boy of the city. Listening inside, Garmadon cries tears of lava, which makes the cat spit him out and the movie draws to a close. The family have moved back in together and the Warlord meets his match in his ex-wife. The cat has become the city's mascot and Lloyd is finally accepted, being called a hero. As the story fully concludes, we are back to live action and the boy and Chan's character. He gives the toy back to the boy, but this time, it has its arm back. Mr Lui tells the young lad that he shall train him as a ninja. The boy has explained that he doesn't really have any friends, so was this Lego story about this boy all along?
This is definitely the weakest of the three Lego movies that I have watched but that isn't really a bad thing. It had its funny moments and some clever ones too, which made this an attractive feature, but that's kind of where it stops. It seemed to become a movie that the other two were poking fun at. Lego did make fun of itself but the storyline was very cliché. An outcast in school being the hero, fighting his Dad and if you've ever seen any movie ever, you'll guess the rest. It doesn't take itself too seriously, which are the parts that we have come to love in the first two Lego movies, but this just didn't seem to go that extra mile. Yet again the animation as great and along with the fast-paced action scenes, there was plenty to enjoy. Kids can be laughing at this humour for days, but for the more adult viewer, this movie seemed to limit its jokes to maybe one or two. Apparently, there is a TV series of Ninjago, but this movie was completely separate from that. Overall, this would be a brilliant film for a family sit down, but if you expect it to be as strong as the first and second, unfortunately, that's not really the case.
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