Just when you were about to feel there’s no such thing as too many LEGO movies, The LEGO Ninjago movie walks in tall to prove you wrong. It does so with its weird plot rambling. Humour is great, makes you laugh all the time. Doesn’t have to struggle with that part at least. But the story-line of the flick is just sauntering pointlessly and you could feel it in your bones when the movie becomes a sheer exercise in lethargy.

It is long and tedious, with its plot being one of those cliched stories we have seen a dozen times over. It blends different kinds of flicks making spoofs out of them. However, the good thing about it is that the movie is almost intelligently crafted. With elements from real-time, for instance, a cat (Meowthra) making its way into the storyline effortlessly is probably a genius thing to think of about a LEGO city that’s built in a room, of course. That’s where the strength of the movie lies. Also, the animation is done brilliantly. For that, my heart just goes out to all those people who meticulously helped it to reach fruition.

Garmadon

The most cherishable thing about The LEGO Ninjago movie is a character called Garmadon. Voiced by Justin Theroux his perfect comic timing will make you guffaw loudly. It’s created and performed brilliantly. His carefree reckless attitude is the best.

I must have butt-dialed you.

Garmadon The LEGO Ninjago Movie

He plays the father to our protagonist Lloyd voiced by Dave Franco. Lloyd is shunned at his school since his dad is a supervillain. But the twist is that it is none other than Lloyd who is the Green Ninja who secretly fights and tries to stop his father from destroying their city Ninjago.

The way the twist is shown doesn’t feel like a twist, actually confuses people till they get it.

Lloyd: You ruined my life!
Garmadon: That’s not true! I haven’t even been a part of your life, how could I ruin it? I wasn’t even there.

Editing of The LEGO Ninjago Movie (Spoilers)

The story of The LEGO runs for too long pointlessly. That’s where the editing becomes questionable. It stretches too much with a neverending plot which seems to go nowhere with Garmadon the villain often bouncing to and fro, becoming the good and the bad guy himself. Then eventually we find out that the villain isn’t him but a cat. So that was a bummer! But from the vantage of the LEGO creatures, it all seems legit.

We could have removed many things, to be honest, and made the movie short and sweet. The time we see the second big assault happen and we find the Ninjago team getting badly ripped, till that point of time, The LEGO Ninjago Movie feels absolutely great. But then Master Wu (Jackie Chan) jumps in and the training begins which feels like a dispensable spread.

To make matters worse Garmadon, the badass villain he was, takes the journey alongside his enemies, helping each other out getting in on that estranged father-son bond.

Lloyd: On scale of one to ten, how bad is it?
Garmadon: Oh, I’d say it’s about a seven….point…..arm ripped off.

Most of the parts are too stupid to believe, that’s what forces you to stop taking any of it seriously. The secret Ninja force feels really useless, to be honest, with Zane being pointlessly robotic. I think he was chosen to be a robot for just one punch line.

The Mom is a Superhero too!

While some might have found it cool, I found it absurd. As if things weren’t gaudy already. Mom (Koko) voiced by Olivia Munn was a superhero and a role model of Nya. Another one of those dispensable sub-plots that were deliberately trying to make the movie something it wasn’t in the first place.

He was so ambitious. He said he wanted to conquer the world. I thought it was a figure of speech.

Owing to that the movie runs for an absurd amount of time. Such subplots are brimming aplenty and that’s what gnaws at the tale. Although it is understandable that they ultimately complement the story, and hence were chosen.

You can order the movie from here:

The Prologue and Epilogue Real-Time Angle

Another part that might have miffed a lot of people could be that dispensable prologue and epilogue part where real-time characters of Mr. Liu (Jackie Chan) and a child show up. Even though it feels like that imagining a story feels better that way, you could tell it was deliberately punched in to justify the cat angle. It was Mr. Liu’s contempt for his cat that ended up turning it into a villain.

Even though the usage might have slightly helped with the plot, you could feel an evident need to remove it, being an animated movie completely. The story in a story bit, we could have done without. Some things should be left to viewer’s imagination.

There is nothing out of the box about the story and it goes on inexplicably into a territory a subtle writer could have easily avoided. But the clever things remain limited to the cat and….okay that’s it.

The Lego Ninjago Movie Gang

Master Wu’s face always seems like it is smiling, an apparent artistry error. It becomes hard for you to concentrate on the serious things he says with a smiley face. I had a hard time listening to him and then slapping that face on him just made it worse.

The Final Verdict

The LEGO Ninjago movie is fun, no doubt. But there are so many issues with the movie that makes it less of a movie, more of a childish fancy, very similar to the stories we used to make, playing with our LEGOs. That being said, it is almost intelligent. But what stops it from becoming outright ravishing is its stretchy plot, and its numerous issues.

Au contraire, what makes it really worth watching is the one and only hilarious character – Garmadon.

Miss The LEGO Batman Movie? Read its review.

Check out the trailer of The Lego Ninjago Movie here: