‘The LEGO Ninjago Movie’ – Review
The LEGO Movies have been crushing it lately, providing entertainment for both children and adults that features plenty of laughs and some particularly zany characters, and The LEGO Ninjago Movie takes its audience into a brand new world.
Set in the far away world of Ninjago, young hero Lloyd Garmadon (Dave Franco) has to continually deal with the actions of his evil father Lord Garmadon (Justin Theroux), who continually messes everything up while trying to destroy Ninjago. Together with his friends, The Secret Ninjago Force, Lloyd decides to put a stop to his father’s dark plans forever. But when their actions unleash an unspeakable monster, Lloyd and his father must rekindle their lost relationship and work to save Ninjago together.
I absolutely loved The LEGO Batman Movie and was very pleased that The LEGO Ninjago Movie offered more of the same quirky humour and off-beat character moments. Directors Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher and Bob Logan take the trope of the traditional heroes journey or monomyth and add a good dose of comedy to it. As a lifelong fan of martial arts films, I was also pleased to see how they took the genre and added LEGO to it. The Secret Ninja Force have plenty of unique ninja powers and matched with their off-beat comedy, leads to some particularly funny moments.
While Dave Franco puts in a good performance as proto hero Lloyd Garmadon, it’s Justin Theroux as his father Lord Garmadon who really steals the movie. Bound by a super-sized ego and plenty of ‘big’ ideas, Lord Garmadon is an evil showoff who has an affinity for shark themed mechs and a desire to continually conquer Ninjago. Theroux’s comedic timing is perfect and you can hear the breadth of his improvisational skills at work here. But what warmed me here was that this film is ultimately about a family finding its way back together, and how important and healing family can be to one another.
The LEGO Ninjago Movie offers plenty of fun for the whole family, and if you’re looking to learn some groovy ninja moves then you should definitely check it out.
Image: Roadshow Pictures
