Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Tiffany Haddish, Stephanie Beatriz, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Charlie Day, Maya Rudolph, Will Ferrell, Jadon Sand, Brooklynn Prince, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Richard Ayiade, Ben Schwartz, Noel Fielding, Jason Momoa, Cobie Smulders, Ike Barinholtz, Ralph Fiennes, Will Forte, Jimmy O. Yang, Jorma Taccone, Bruce Willis, Gary Paton, Sheryl Swoopes, Todd Hansen, Doug Nicholas.

The sound of success can be a very hard one to ignore, especially when a film is a surprise hit, the call for a sequel from the fans who see such an enterprise with a sense of purity, of opening up their imaginations to worlds ready to conquered and the executives who smell blood, who see a franchise and the coins continuing to drop into their bank accounts; for the most part both parties are satisfied, the impressionable and the loved up find the furthering of the tale enchanting, the people with the money at least offering a token of acknowledgement to keeping the story going, praising the accomplishment whilst relishing the prospect of a realised domination at the box office.

It is when the sequel is made and it has all the hall marks of being only made for the sake of it, that is when the sense of franchise overkill starts to infect the purity of the fan’s wishes, one hand you have for example the belief in keeping The Back to the Future franchise to a trilogy, of opening up scepticism in the face of overwhelming pressure in continuing the Star Wars saga, there is a natural ending to everything, even in art, and the triumph that met the original Lego Movie somehow has magically disappeared in the wake of its follow up.

That said, there is a lot to take from The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, the animation and skill required to bring such a film to the screen is beyond impossibly special, the painstaking depth and intricacy shown in the detail is superb, the trouble is the whole exercise feels fake, a film released not to satisfy the curiosity and give a warm glow to the fans who bought into the idea in the first place, but to add a buck to the coffers of the studio. A film having all the appearance of love but when delved into between the covers is, regrettably, only to be seen as filling.

There are moments in which the fourth wall and dimension of the film gains appeal, the use of imagination is heartening, and by placing together the issues and delicate balance of a boy and a girl’s way of seeing the world and how they fit into it, The Lego Movie 2 then becomes a film with a semblance of humanity attached to it; the whole venture may be an executives dream, but it does have that small sparkle of enjoyment placed within it.

Filling, high in empty calories of value, low in substance, but when the moment does come on screen, it is to be savoured; the cotton candy of films, the sugar high excitement overflowing the actual need for it to be in the lives of those who ordered it.

Ian D. Hall