The LEGO Ninjago Movie - an AFOL's Review

[henrysunset]

I had the opportunity to watch the LEGO Ninjago movie today, as part of a press preview showing in Seattle, WA.  The showing included members of the press, Members of the local LEGO User's Group (SEALUG), and members of the community.

NOTE: While I'm trying to be spoiler-free, please proceed with caution!

As a point of context, I have very little knowledge about the Ninjago world; I haven’t built any of the sets or watched the TV show. My typical focus is LEGO and Architecture, although I dabble in Technic, Creator, and Star Wars themes.


Story

The movie begins with a brief live-action shell story containing none other than Jacky Chan as a real-life Master Wu. We are quickly (and painlessly) transitioned into Ninjago city, a beautiful brick built city which is obviously inspired by Asian architecture. I did not see specific references to China, Japan, Korea, or other countries in the region, so I think they have tried to keep it nonspecific. (I do not feel qualified to determine if this is a sincere effort or cultural appropriation.)

We are quickly introduced to the cast of characters and the conflict between the “good guys” (Master Wu, Lloyd, Cole, Jay, Kai, Nya, Zane), and Garmadon – the seemingly one-sided villain. We are also introduced to Lloyd’s mom, Koko.

 

The film draws obvious parallels to classic Monster / Robot invasion themes.

 

Within the first 30 minutes, the connection between the main characters becomes clear, setting the stage for the film’s core story line.

 

Details

Without going into specific spoilers, I wanted to call out a few details of the film which helped it shine...

1. Music – Through a mix of flute melodies and popular songs, the transitional moments in the film are emphasized with complementary music selections. They are nice easter-eggs for older viewers. It’s a bit heavy-handed at times, but the film isn’t trying to be subtle, so it works.
2. Style – The movie environment is richly detailed and attractively rendered. The film used a blend of brick-built environments and rendered 3d scenes to a positive effect. In contrast to the original LEGO movie, most of the landscape and water details are not brick-built, but I felt like it did not detract from overall effect.
3. Animation – The stop-motion style of animation perfected on the original LEGO movie returns for this film. I think this is a good decision, as the subtle pauses of the minifigures as they move remind the viewer that it is in fact a toy. I did notice that they took more liberties in changing the angle of arms and heads beyond what is possible with real bricks. In this way, the film is a bit less authentic, but I didn’t feel like it was too distracting.

 

LEGO'iness

My biggest pleasure in the original LEGO movie, and biggest disappointment in The LEGO Batman Movie stems from the role LEGO plays in the storyline.

The plot of The LEGO Movie is inextricably linked to the LEGO medium, be it the various historic LEGO realms, the constant re-building of components into creative solutions, or even the moment where Emmet can finally “see” the LEGO elements and their associated Part ID’s. The movie was bursting with easter eggs and natively LEGO moments that were a lot of fun to see as an AFOL.

By contrast, The LEGO Batman Movie was a Batman movie first, and the LEGO aspects felt like an afterthought. The movie’s core plot would have worked just as well as an animated film, a cartoon, or even a live-action film. This was disappointing to me as a fan of LEGO first, and Batman second. (By contrast, friends who love the Batman franchise were more positive about the film.)

The LEGO Ninjago Movie isn’t quite as strongly tied to the brick as the original LEGO Movie, but it’s better. There are lots of clever parts usage moments, and the storyline features specific LEGO elements in a prominent way.

 

For my closing thoughts, and an analysis of how closely the official LEGO sets match the movie, visit http://brickarchitect.com/2017/ninjago-movie/

 

Thanks,

---tom

[Hypernova888]

Thanks for the review--I'm now looking even more forward to my chance to see it, I'm glad it plays its 'LEGO'-ness well! 

[Robert8]

Well, I wouldn't say this is a review, but some sort of "reaction" to the movie

So, it seems is not as good as LEGO Movie but better than Batman Movie. Exactly what I expected. 

[Hart New Bob]

Good review!  But shouldn't this be in the media and gaming forum?

 

[BrickG]

2 hours ago, henrysunset said:

 

My biggest pleasure in the original LEGO movie, and biggest disappointment in The LEGO Batman Movie stems from the role LEGO plays in the storyline.

The plot of The LEGO Movie is inextricably linked to the LEGO medium, be it the various historic LEGO realms, the constant re-building of components into creative solutions, or even the moment where Emmet can finally “see” the LEGO elements and their associated Part ID’s. The movie was bursting with easter eggs and natively LEGO moments that were a lot of fun to see as an AFOL.

That's interesting because I've had discussions with people who aren't into Lego about The Lego Movie and the general thought is that one of the reasons The Lego Movie is so good is because the Lego is completely not important to the story. You could ditch the Lego and it would still be a wonderful story and a very well made movie. I'd say that's a true statement too. LEGO was inextricably unimportant to the overall story and with some clever editing you could have had an amazing movie more akin to Toy Story or something. The big plot things that happened were relatively unique ideas separate from Lego like how they "defeat" Mr. Business.

Don't get me wrong. I loved the LEGO parts. I just think ironically LEGO is not all that important to the story at all! :)

 

I think that's a test of a good movie. If you can take it's basic story and implant it in other places, is it still good?

Something like Rogue One if you took out the Star Wars ships, Darth Vader, etc... it's an example of a movie that IMO would get almost no attention. Take the Star Wars out of Rogue One and you don't have much. Take the LEGO out of The LEGO Movie and I think you'd still have a lovely and wonderful film.

Edited September 17, 2017 by BrickG

[henrysunset]

@BrickG I think you are right that the overarching story in The LEGO movie is a good story and not necessarily LEGO specific.  That said, I was more speaking to the way in which the characters solved problems throughout the movie, which revolved around building solutions.  As a specific example, the scenes where they build the submarine and the spaceship are very LEGO-centric moments which are central to the story.

It's hard to disagree that something like Rogue One exists because of the Star Wars world which preceded it.  It's a great star wars film, since it ties together other story threads, but it might not be a great film in isolation.

 

As for The Ninjago movie, I am eager to hear the thoughts of others once you are able to see it on Friday!

---tom