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Review of The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (Mark Mothersbaugh)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only on the song compilation album if you want to enjoy
the true musical personality from this film, Mark Mothersbaugh's score a
tediously anonymous and pointless exercise.
Avoid it... if, along with the frenetic personality of this concept's hybrid electronic/orchestral music, you appreciated the thematic consistency of the first score; all of that strength is lost in the sequel.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part: (Mark
Mothersbaugh/Various) The "be ye disabling of yon shield" asininity
factor of 2014's surprise hit, The Lego Movie , 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 The Lego Movie 2: The Second
Part 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. **
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 51:35
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes a list of performers but no extra information about the score or film.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part are Copyright © 2019, WaterTower Music and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 3/9/19 (and not updated significantly since). |
