Grade: B
I found the original LEGO Movie to be overrated, I didn’t see The LEGO Batman Movie, but nevertheless, The LEGO Ninjago Movie is one of those happy surprises. It has wit, wisdom, humor, heart, and characters I cared about and wouldn’t mind seeing more of. I chuckled out loud often. The protagonist’s name is Lloyd, and there’s a funny through-line where his father, who happens to be an evil warlord, pronounces it phonetically, like “L’loyd.” Voice talent is effective here. Jackie Chan brings a lot of sweet sincerity and laughs to both his roles, and a marvelous Justin Theroux steals the show as Garmadon: the villain and L’loyd’s father.
By at least a half hour, the film feels too long, and would have made an excellent hour long straight-to-Netflix mini-feature. Still, though, there definitely is something here that I wanted but didn’t get with The LEGO Movie. Everything is a little bit closer to awesome.
Grade: B
Film Reviews by Mark 
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