Review of The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017) by Gavin P — 23 Sep 2017

'The Lego Ninjago Movie' is the third Lego film and while still good silly fun, it's not as good as 2014's original 'The Lego Movie'. It's definitely not bad, but seems to lack a little something - possibly due to their being three directors and nine(!) writers. Not sure why a straightforward kids' movie needs so many cooks... I should also say that I've never watched the TV show, so have no background, other than having played with ninja Legos as a kid! Plot's simple - Garmadon (Theroux) keeps trying to take over their island, so a group of ninjas fight him to protect it.

The 'twist' is that Garmadon's estranged son, Lloyd (Franco) is the green ninja, leader of the Secret Ninjago Force. Along with fire ninja (Pena), ice ninja (Woods), lightning ninja (Nanjiani), earth ninja (Armisen) & water ninja (Jacobson), the six of them are trained by Master Wu (Chan). The all have awesome robot-things to fight Garmadon's army (hilarious to see the actual Lego sharks that used to come with pirate sets!), but when a 'monster' is let loose in the city, they have to go on a journey of self discovery to save the island.

Obviously some father-son moments, but Jackie Chan is great as the narrator and Mr Miyagi figure. As with the other two Lego films, the best bits are the adult-oriented quips that go over the kids heads - the goat bit springs to mind! The best gag is a recurring one where Garmadon refers to his son as "La-loyd" - great point, why is there two 'L's in Lloyd? Really poor pop soundtrack and it did drag for a bit in the middle, but a satisfactory ending, with enough colour, action and jokes to make it enjoyable.