: (Mark
Mothersbaugh/Various) The "be ye disabling of yon shield" asininity
factor of 2014's surprise hit,
, was tempered by
the fact that it was, at its heart, a tender and authentic family story.
The imaginative, animated world of the Lego mini-figures and how they
intersect with the real world that guides their destiny proved to be a
fascinating idea, and while the numerous cinematic and video spin-offs
of the Lego animations have often dwelled completely in their
marketing-oriented domain, 2019's
returns as a direct sequel to the world-spanning original film.
Although the first movie set its competition between the mini-figures of
the lead, real life boy and his "Lord Business" father (whose Lego
incarnation still faintly reminds of polished American politician Mitt
Romney, for some reason), the second entry forces the boy's characters
against his younger sister's Duplo block equivalents. (Indeed, Lego and
Duplo are worthy adversaries for any parent.) Dual lines of action
follow the lead mini-figure, Emmet, and his alter-ego, Rex, along one
path of discovery while the leader of the Duplo blocks, Queen Watevra
Wa'Nabi, is deviously matched up against Batman. The voice talent from
the original film returns, and a significant number of cameos from the
DC Extended Universe of films await your enjoyment as well. These Lego
movies are wildly hyperactive by nature, and that demeanor carries over
to their music. The first film's main song, "Everything is Awesome!!!,"
was nominated for an Oscar and a Grammy, and while the surrounding
original score by Mark Mothersbaugh was generally insufferable, at least
it made reference to the memorable melody of that song. Mothersbaugh's
music also introduced several motifs for the mini-figures, including a
serviceable anthem for Emmet, but the personality of the 1980's-inspired
electronic-orchestral blend was too disjointed to really function on
album. Ironically, the heart of the score was solidified by the
conventional symphonic passages for the real-life sequences, and it's no
surprise that this tend continues in the sequel.
Unfortunately, the soundtrack for
The Lego Movie
2 is even less cohesive than that of the prior film, five new songs
by Canadian songwriter Jon LaJoie existing alongside Shawn Patterson's
"Everything is Awesome!!!" song from
The Lego Movie and both of
them maintaining almost no relationship with Mothersbaugh's score.
Ironically, while Mothersbaugh wrote music for three of the first four
cinematic Lego scores (including
The Lego Ninjago Movie), the
strongest of the lot was by Lorne Balfe for
The Lego Batman
Movie. The failure of Mothersbaugh's music for
The Lego Movie
2 is compounded by LaJoie's strong set of songs for the picture. The
replacement for "Everything is Awesome!!!" is "Catchy Song." It will
purposefully drive you insane, but your kids will love it. The other
four original songs are all strong, the brief, wishy-washy "Welcome to
the Systar System" leading to a hysterical, nicely brass-aided
performance by the main cast in the awesome "Not Evil." The performance
by Tiffany Haddish as Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi is superbly entertaining
here, and her infectious personality extends to the equally funny and
ultra-smooth "Gotham City Guys." The latter contains Danny Elfman's 1989
Batman theme during Batman's rap sequence in the middle. Will
Arnett's singing in these films as Batman has always been intentionally
terrible, though he does at least make an attempt to properly harmonize
in "Everything's Not Awesome," Patterson's song adapted by LaJoie to the
extent that it eventually merges with "Catchy Song" as appropriate.
Elizabeth Banks' performances as Lucy are redeeming as the voice of
reason in these songs. If you sense a vague similarity between the
inspirational interludes in "Everything's Not Awesome" and the song
"Come What May" from 2001's classic musical,
Moulin Rouge, then
perhaps the common involvement of arranger/producer Marius de Vries is
the reason. The songs in
The Lego Movie 2 present a handful of
thematic opportunities for Mothersbaugh, and while he directly adapts
"Catchy Song" into one cue, "Fresh Nightmare," the score is otherwise
badly disconnected from the songs. Instead, the composer inexplicably
strips all his themes from the first film away and doesn't attempt to
establish new ones that recur with any frequency.
A few new ideas from Mothersbaugh for
The Lego Movie
2 do begin to emerge in the final ten minutes, but the score by then
has exhausted you with nonsensically unique personality in each of its
haphazard orchestral and synthetic romps. Digital manipulation is
aplenty, and the heartwarming real-life passages for strings in "House
Tour" and "Brother Gives Heart," the latter the choral highlight of the
score, are not enough to save the entire work. Occasional temp track
inspiration is tiresome, though it does produce a few of the more
accessible moments, including the Elfman
Beetlejuice tribute
early in "Heck Town," a nod to David Arnold's
Independence Day in
"Emmet the Hero," and heavy shades of Jerry Goldsmith bravado (via Brian
Tyler) late in "There I Was." Moments of kick-ass electric guitar
attitude like "Crank the Warp Drive" and the choral melodrama of "What
Did I Just Do?" are not developed enough to save this score from its
otherwise anonymous, procedural handling of each moment in lieu of any
larger musical narrative. The "Main Title" sets a chaotic mood, with
poor edits in its final moments, and the orchestral performances are so
flat that it's difficult to gain any sense of wonder from them.
Undoubtedly, "Emmet Saved by Rex" has to be among the worst cues
produced for film in quite some time. Parody sequences like "Queen
Watevra Wa'Nabi & Batman Falling in Love" are often passionless, and
moments primed for creative allusions for Batman, such as "The Man of
Bats Welcome," fail to reference Balfe or Elfman material. Mothersbaugh
and his team of ghostwriters seem to have lost this battle in the
spotting sessions, though with the full ensemble renderings for
important moments like "Rex Vanishes" sounding flat (cymbals crashes
rarely have so little impact), the entire process was flawed. The layers
of post-production electronics aren't terrible, but they serve little
purpose when paired with the aimless orchestral recordings. Ultimately,
the loss of the themes from the first film's score and the lack of clear
interpolation of this film's song melodies into the score are
disqualifying alone. Add to that an indecisive and meandering new
narrative in the score and you get a very disappointing score-only
product on album. The worst offense of all was WaterTower's decision to
split the songs and score onto their own albums; they would have fit
onto a single CD, and the strength of LaJoie's songs would have
bolstered Mothersbaugh's mediocre score. Everything's definitely not
awesome here.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
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