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The LEGO Ninjago Movie
Starring: Dave Franco, Justin Theroux, Jackie Chan
Directors: Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher and Bob Logan
Genre: Animation
Rating: PG
RUNTIME: 101 Mins
When The LEGO Movie first hit cinemas in 2014, none of us were prepared for its refreshingly fast-paced, eccentric style of comedy nor its surprisingly emotional third act.
Three years later, Warner Bros has inevitably jumped on the bandwagon and begun its first step towards building out this unlikely franchise with the similarly-excellent The LEGO Batman Movie and, now, The LEGO Ninjago Movie.
Equally as inevitably, the cracks are beginning to show and despite efforts to maintain the same comedic style and emotional themes of the original, the formula is starting to wear thin.
Fortunately, The LEGO Ninjago Movie has a different enough backdrop and story to keep it from ever becoming too familiar or boring. Based on the LEGO property of the same name, Ninjago keeps the self-referential and parodical style of its two franchise predecessors, but swaps out the underdog and comic book movie settings of those films for a ninja-themed coming-of-age story. The result is an exuberantly told, if occasionally familiar, story about a family learning how to come together for the first time.
Borrowing the same general plot of the Ninjago TV series, the film takes place in the titular island city where the citizens are left constantly in fear of the frequent destructive takeover attempts by the evil Lord Garmadon (Justin Theroux), a maniacal warlord hell-bent on ruling over the city and everyone in it. And when the film begins, the only obstacles in his way are a team of six young ninjas, led by Garmadon’s personal archenemy, the mysterious Green Ninja.
Little does Garmadon know that the Green Ninja is secretly the son he abandoned as a baby, Lloyd (Dave Franco), who has been forced to be a social outcast his whole life because of his father’s constant attacks. However, when Lloyd’s identity as the Green Ninja is revealed, Garmadon decides to follow his long-lost son and the other young ninja deep into the uncharted jungles surrounding Ninjago, as they search for an ultimate weapon.
With that premise, The LEGO Ninjago Movie manages to tell a much more emotional story than The LEGO Batman Movie did. It’s still not quite as effective in that regard as the original LEGO Movie, with the film sometimes leaning too heavily into corny territory in its handling of Garmadon and Lloyd’s relationship. Had the film not been able to recover from its clunky first act, which suffers heavily from having to set up the main adventure plot and characters, The LEGO Ninjago Movie would have likely been a major disappointment.
If there’s any reason to see The LEGO Ninjago Movie, though, it’s Justin Theroux, who absolutely steals the film with his performance as Garmadon. He’s a comically evil character, who is both oblivious to and sometimes even hilariously aware of his own self-destructive tendencies, much to the shared frustration of Lloyd and everyone around him.
The film gets increasingly better the more time it spends just letting Garmadon interact with the other characters; the funniest scene in the entire movie is when Garmadon tells his origin story to Lloyd’s inquisitive ninja comrades. Theroux steals the title from Will Arnett’s Batman as the best-voiced LEGO movie character to date, and absolutely runs away with The LEGO Ninjago Movie.
Directors Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher, and Bob Logan bring the film to life with the same manic energy that Phil Lord and Chris Miller started the franchise off with. But with each successive instalment, the LEGO Movie franchise is starting to feel increasingly less fresh and exciting due to maintaining the same style and formula film-to-film.
While The LEGO Ninjago Movie largely keeps this franchise’s creative success streak going, future LEGO movies should find new approaches to their comedy and storytelling if that streak is to continue.
Still, for now, while it occasionally ventures into overly-clichéd and cheesy territory at times, the performances of its actors and excited attitude of the material keep it from ever going stale. Like with the previous two LEGO movies, Ninjago manages to deliver enough intelligent and funny material to entertain both the kids it’s primarily meant for, and the adults who will be coughing up the ticket money to take them to it.
Bite-sized trailer
Stronger
Director: David Gordon Green
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Tatiana Maslany, Miranda Richardson
Plot: Stronger is the inspirational and heroic true-life story of Jeff Bauman (Jake Gyllenhaal), the man whose iconic photo from the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing captured the hearts of the world. Based on Bauman’s New York Times bestselling book, co-authored with Bret Witter.
Showing in: Novo, Cineco, Seef II, Saar, Wadi Al Sail, Dana, Mukta A2
The Jungle Bunch
Director: David Alaux
Cast: Paul Borne, Philippe Bozo, Pascal Casanova
Plot: Maurice may look like a penguin - but he’s a real tiger inside! Raised by a tigress, he’s the clumsiest Kung-Fu master ever. Along with his friends, he intends to maintain order and justice in the jungle, as his mother did before him. But Igor, an evil koala, wants to destroy the jungle once and for all, helped by his army of silly baboons... The Jungle Bunch - to the rescue.
Showing in: Seef II, Dana
American Assassin
Director: Michael Cuesta
Cast: Dylan O’Brien, Michael Keaton, Sanaa Lathan
Plot: Twenty three-year-old Mitch lost his parents to a tragic car accident at the age of fourteen, and his girlfriend to a terrorist attack just as they were engaged. Seeking revenge, he is enlisted by CIA deputy director Irene Kennedy as a black ops recruit. Kennedy then assigns Cold War veteran Stan Hurley to train Mitch. Together they will later on investigate a wave of apparently random attacks on military and civilian targets. The discovery of a pattern in the violence leads them to a joint mission with a lethal Turkish agent to stop a mysterious operative intent on starting a world war in the Middle East.
Showing in: Novo, Cineco, Seef II, Wadi Al Sail, Saar, Dana
