The Lego Ninjago Movie

As Meat Loaf put it so eloquently, "Two out of three ain't bad."

The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie were witty, heartfelt animated films that belied their roots as excuses to sell Danish plastic bricks. Actually, the first two movies were consistently delightful because they didn't try to hide their origins. The simple sight of watching Emmett in The Lego Movie doing push ups despite the fact that he doesn't have the proper number of joints (or any joints, for that matter) in his arms was comedy platinum.

The self-awareness is back with a vengeance in The Lego Ninjago Movie, but the story line is a few bricks shy of a play set. Only rarely do directors Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher and Bob Logan and a legion of writers come up with anything that might amaze or entertain adults dragged into theaters by their offspring. On the whole, the story appears prefabricated rather than hand crafted. It moves from sequence to sequence without developing much momentum. The action scenes are frenetic, but they're more fussy than thrilling.

Because the first Lego movies set such a high bar, The Lego Ninjago Movie is a letdown despite a few giggles and moments of wonder, such as the casting of kung fu comedy legend Jackie Chan in two meaty, interrelated roles worthy of his formidable gifts.

Ninjago opens in an Asian antique shop where a small boy (Kaan Guldur) escapes from bullies. It turns out the shop is actually run by the aged but surprisingly fleet-footed Mr. Liu (Chan) who tells the lad that his damaged Lego figurine has a much deeper story than is immediately visible. Chan tells the lad that on the mythical island of Ninjago, the residents are tormented by a tireless villain named Garmadon (Justin Theroux). Garmadon and a seemingly endless series of generals try to overtake the island, but lose every time to a small group of ninjas whose vehicles represent ancient elements, giving their drivers power to defeat the much larger invading forces.

Zane (Zach Woods), who sounds oddly robotic, manipulates ice, and Nya (Abbi Jacobson) masters water. Cole (Fred Armisen) is so into his power of earth that he won't play music on anything but vinyl records, and Kai (Michael Pena) handles fire in a manner that would make Johnny Storm jealous.

Their leader is the green ninja Lloyd (Dave Franco), who doesn't appear to have any sort of power but seems to be able to keep Garmadon in check even if he can't defeat him outright.

Unfortunately, Lloyd has potentially the worst father this side of Darth Vader. He's Garmadon's son. Fortunately, the ninjas' sensei Master Wu (Chan, again) knows how to end the constant war and how to get Garmadon to be the father he should have been all along. It might have something to do with the "Ultimate Weapon."

MovieStyle on 09/22/2017