The LEGO Ninjago Movie: Review

• Dangit LEGO why you gotta let me down now?!

• Plot Summary: "Shunned by everyone for being the son of an evil warlord, a teenager seeks to defeat him with the help of his fellow ninjas."

• I absolutely LOVE The LEGO Movie and The LEGO Batman movie. I love them both equally but in different ways. I am in love with spoof humor. I recently watched Airplane! and Spaceballs for the first time. I loved those too. I just absolutely love humor that's making fun of other movies or movie clichés or just movies in general. And the trailer looked like that same humor that I've loved. But this movie did not come close to hitting the mark the LEGO Batman hit for me.

• I don't have a lot of good things to say about this movie. So let me just get the positives out of the way. It's not that I think this was a bad movie. For me, it's just a big disappointment. This movie is not a chunk of dirt. If you have kids, I think they'll enjoy this movie. Not love but enjoy. And you'll get SOME laughs too. That's what I predict. It felt like the writers of this movie were trying to make their own movie but at the same time trying to imitate the LEGO Batman's amazing comedy. The director hasn't directed anything before this. And half that writers are first-time writers. And the other half wrote both the Hotel Transylvania movies....................that explains it.

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• That's not the say that all the jokes don't land. Because it does sometimes. There was some quote worthy spoof humor that I laughed at. But in LEGO Batman as soon as the movie started I couldn't stop giggling. Literally, the first thing that happens in LEGO Batman I was laughing at. This movie has a "not bad" joke every now and then. Some other complaints I had - I really didn't like the music they used in the movie. They used the Annie soundtrack for crying out loud. They use the song It's a Hard Knock Life from the 2014 Annie. The freaking Annie soundtrack???!!! I thought that was just completely dumb and weird.

• There were a few scenes from the trailer that were really funny. There was a scene with a LEGO bride and groom running away from destruction. And the groom's foot gets caught on something. And the bride says something like "I know you just want me to save myself so I'm gonna run. I PROMISE I WILL NEVER FORGET YOU!" And the groom yells "I never said to leave me! Come back!" THAT is the spoof humor I love. That scene isn't in the movie. So some of the best jokes from the trailer are either not in the movie, or they're heavily altered. It's the same dialogue and mostly the same joke but in a different place. And the scenes that were altered I found really jarring and the joke just didn't land nearly as well.

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• I think the part when this movie really lost me is when they took the scenes with real humans from the first LEGO movie up a notch. The movie opens with a real Jackie Chan telling a kid the story of Ninjago. I thought Jackie Chan was really great in these scenes and really drew you in. But when you have a real cat show up in Ninjago you immediately lose me. That's not a spoiler, it's been on posters. They bring in a freaking real cat people! I found that really stupid and desperate. Why a cat!? WHY!? And they kept having these weird montages with real humans with weird graphics all over their faces. I just don't like it when they throw in real people into this movie. It completely takes me out of the LEGO world. It mostly worked for me in the first LEGO Movie, but not in this one.

• I don't think kids are going to go to this movie and say "I want a good oscar worthy performance from these LEGO people." Now I am not against an emotional story from a family movie. Watch Toy Story 3 for goodness sakes. I just think that if the movie isn't focused on being fun first, then you're setting yourself up for failure. They tried so hard to make you care about the father and son relationship between the main character and the villain.

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• They could have made a really fun comedy with this fun ninja group fighting the villain. I think kids would love it if you give them some awesome ninjas and you make them laugh at the same time with a taste of emotion. That's exactly what LEGO Batman was. But instead we get some okay jokes and you don't really care about the ninjas and you have an attempt at having a family version of an Oscar movie. I just don't think it works that well for this movie at all. And I didn't feel any urgency or a goal any of the characters had.

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• So my closing thoughts are this. I didn't hate this movie. I found it mildly enjoyable. In my opinion, I don't think any kid is gonna walk out of this movie wanting to be a ninja. The kids in my theater were laughing more at the slapstick. I am not a little kid nor am I a parent. So I'm not going to be able to tell if your kids will like this. Kids in my theater seemed to enjoy it. But I don't think you're going to love this movie. If you take your kids to see this movie, my guess is that you'll find some enjoyment out of it. I don't go to LEGO movies for a drama. I go to have a laugh. It's okay to have emotion in a comedy but this movie's primary goal is the have a dramatic story and I don't like that. I want to laugh in these movies. If I want drama I can watch Oscar movies and those movies will do it 10x better. ET is a great example of a family movie that's incredibly emotional. But ET isn't pitched as a comedy. The first two LEGO movies understood how to balance this perfectly. I'm sad to say I was disappointed guys. Hopefully, this movie makes a lot of money so they will make more LEGO movies. My grade for The LEGO Ninjago Movie is a B-