The Lego Ninjago Movie - Movie Review

'The Lego Ninjago Movie'
U; Animation, Action, Adventure
Director: Charlie Bean, Bob Logan, Paul Fisher
Cast: Jackie Chan, Dave Franco, Michael Peña, Abbi Jacobson, Fred Armisen, Kumail Nanjiani, Zach Woods, Olivia Munn, Justin Theroux
Rating:

This feature-film version of the animated TV series 'Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu' may be a sort of an upgrade but it's not exactly ground-breaking or unique in any way conceivable. It's also nowhere close to matching the smarts of 'The Lego Movie' or even rising up to the average humour level of 'The Lego Batman Movie.'

The battle for NINJAGO City is on and young Master Builder Lloyd, aka the Green Ninja, along with secret ninja warriors, led by Master Wu (Jackie Chan), have the bothersome task of defeating the evil warlord Garmadon (Justin Theroux), Lloyd's dad. So it's basically a father against son confrontation.

The film credited to three directors (Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher and Bob Logan) and a rather large clique of writers, has very little to show considering all that brain power backing it. The ideas are all old hat and the humour is rarely even chuckle worthy. A live-action cat, Meowthra, who terrorizes Ninjago City when she's accidentally summoned with a red laser pointer, adds some much needed mayhem but even that track runs out of ideas.

The bookend narrative structure puts the pacing off to such an extent that it begins to feels sluggish and uninteresting much before it's runtime ends. The world building is rather flimsy and un-substantive. The voicing though is quite effective. Looks like the only possible reason for this exercise is to promote an all new line of merchandise!

Watch 'The Lego Ninjago Movie' Trailer