LEGO Ninjago, the strangest and most grounded brick flick yet

In 1989 Faith No More released The Real Thing, an Epic, tour de force album that had many hit singles and propelled the band out of cult status to mainstream success. Their next LP (ask you parents what that is kids) was Angel Dust.  It was a great album that was drastically different, but still had the quality of its previous release. To an extent, LEGO Ninjago is the LEGO movie brand equivalent of Angel Dust. Aspects of the film are so different, weird and utterly out there that at times the film has more in common with an Asian kaiju movie.

Mild spoilers follow…..

Lloyd is a high school student who is also the Green Ninja, the leader of a group of ninjas that protect Ninjago City from Garmadon. Each of the ninjas has their own powers and personality quirks that are sung out in the opening song. Garmadon lives in a volcano in the bay, just within striking distance of Ninjago City and conducts almost daily attacks on it that are thwarted by Lloyd and his friends.

What’s unique about the film is that there are several key non-LEGO elements that are utilized in it. Personally, I loved this fact and the way that they used these real-life was refreshing and gave the movie a quirk factor that the other LEGO films didn’t have.

The downside is that some adult audiences will find the second big reveal live action character a bit too strange.  I went through three stages: denial, shock, acceptance and laughter. That’s not a, what’s a cat doing  there, oh, of course it would be there and finally, this is a whoot-very funny, well done LEGO.

Our 7 and 5 year olds both enjoyed the film, but didn’t laugh as much as they did in the first film or LEGO Batman. However, our older son immediately asked about the LEGO toys and wanted to build some of the vehicles that they used in Ninjago. It’s not that the film directly wants to be an ad for the toys. It’s that the previous LEGO films had known properties, like toys that Batman would use or large scale city scenes, but didn’t speak to building freaky, new fun things.

It’s more experimental than the previous LEGO films-and that’s a good thing; but it also holds onto one of the plot points that became all too predictable after LEGO Batman. Garmadon is voiced by Justin Theroux in Ninjago. His voice, tone and attitude is so similar to Will Arnet’s in LEGO Batman that some will leave the theater thinking that it was the same actor. This fact is further complicated by the almost identical plot line of an absentee father that runs through both Batman and Ninjago. Audiences need an absentee dad in another LEGO film as much as we need to see a Spider-Man origin story.

What’s even more ironic is that despite all of this, LEGO Ninjago is possibly the most human, real and emotional LEGO film yet. Once the film gets past the daddy issue its footing is strong, effortless and a joy to watch. It goes back to the ninjas working as a team, has them overcoming evil, focuses on family-especially their differences and goes back to silly, stupid fun again.

LEGO Ninjago will not as enjoyable for all audiences. The pacing of the film is as fast as the others, but it also tells you not to think too much about it. Some of the jokes will float over the heads of elementary school students because of the speed at which they fly out of the screen. Middle school students and up, who can still embrace good silly fun will really enjoy LEGO Ninjago.