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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Lego Movie 2, The (4K Blu-ray) (2019)

Lego Movie 2, The (4K Blu-ray) (2019)

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Released 26-Jun-2019
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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Animation	Audio Commentary Alternative Version Featurette-Making Of Featurette Deleted Scenes Music Video Short Film
Rating
Year Of Production	2019
Running Time	107:09 (Case: 106)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Mark Mitchell
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Chris Pratt Will Arnett Elizabeth Banks
Case	Standard Blu-ray	Starring	Chris Pratt Will Arnett Elizabeth Banks
RPI	$39.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Atmos 7.1 English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 5.1 English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	2160p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.40:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No	Miscellaneous
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired Arabic Bulgarian Chinese Dutch Portuguese Hungarian Korean French Romanian Russian Thai	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

A few years ago, I reviewed an "awesome" film, the original Lego Movie, which I loved. Now our screens are being graced by the presence of The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, which is now available on home cinema formats including this version the 4K Ultra HD release (which includes the standard Blu-ray as well). This film has a good premise, is fun to watch but doesn't quite live up to its predecessor. The story is comparatively simpler and it cannot possibly have the inventiveness on the first one, because that started the 'lego' movie franchise and introduced the excellent animation and characters.

In this film the action quickly jumps to 5 years after the events of the first film, after revealing that the live action boy who played with his father's lego in the first film has had to allow his younger sister to play with the lego as well. In the lego world this has resulted in Bricksberg being attacked by duplo figures, turning it into Apocalypseberg which is a post-disaster world of angst and is rundown and decrepit. Emmett (Chris Pratt), our hero from the first film, is just as cheerful as ever but his lady love, Lucy or Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) is quite down about the situation and wants Emmett to grow up and accept the situation. The duplo figures come from another galaxy, the sista galaxy. The leader of the invading force kidnaps leading citizens to take them back to the sista galaxy. This includes Batman (Will Arnett), Lucy and Benny the spaceman. The Queen of the galaxy wants them to be involved in a ceremony where she plans to marry Batman. Emmett sets out to rescue them and along the way meets Rex (also Chris Pratt) who helps him. What is the real plan of the Queen of the sista galaxy and can Emmett rescue his friends in time?

Like the previous film this one has a frenetic pace with rapid fire jokes the order of the day. At times they are a bit hard to catch, although I realise that I am not the core audience. There are lots of fun sequences with the usual quick rebuilds of lego to create something else which works really well visually. The voice cast are great again, with Chris Pratt doing double duty and Will Arnett very funny as previously. There are new very catchy songs, although to my mind one of the early ones which introduces the Queen is a bit lame. This is a fun film but it feels relatively simple in story terms compared to the first film, leaving a feeling at the end that it hasn't added up to much. Pop culture references also come quick and fast including Mad Max, Star Wars, Transformers, Alien, Terminator, Die Hard, Marvel, other Batman films (funny Bruce Willis cameo) and more. The film was again written by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, however, this time they have handed over directorial duties to Mark Mitchell. The closing credits song is a hoot!

Go with the ride and don't expect too much in terms of story and this will be an enjoyable watch. Recommended.

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Transfer Quality

Video

The video is very good despite being a 2K upscale to 4K. The big difference on the 4K disc is in the colours with the wider colour gamut as opposed to a huge increase in resolution or texture over the Blu-ray disc. The colours are great with the multi-coloured explosions really standing out. It is framed in the OAR of 2.40:1 and obviously 2160p but as I mentioned upscaled from a 2K digital intermediate rather than from a native 4K source like the best discs on the format. When Blu-ray first came out it was animation that really set the standard for the format, however, often on Ultra HD they do not quite look as good as they are usually from 2K sources like this film or Coco. They still look wonderful just not quite as good as other films on the format from 4K sources.

There are English for the hearing impaired subtitles available which are clear and easy to read. Other subtitles are available in a wide range of languages (see specification above for a full list). The subtitles proved quite useful for picking up some of the jokes.

*Video Ratings Summary*
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio is also very good with the centerpiece being a Dolby Atmos track which becomes Dolby True HD 7.1 on non-Atmos systems.

    The Atmos track is backed up by a DTS HD-MA 5.1 track, an audio descriptive track in Dolby Digital 5.1, plus loads of other languages in Dolby Digital 5.1 (Bulgarian, Cantonese, Dutch, Portuguese, Flemish, Hungarian, Korean, Mandarin - 2 varieties, French, Romanian, Russian and Thai). The Atmos track is wonderful filling the sound field of your home theatre with sounds especially during the major action sequences. There is lots of subwoofer use throughout supporting the action and music and the surround speakers are in constant use. The songs sound great and the lyrics are clear. Unfortunately, this is not always true of the dialogue with many jokes buried in the sound mix. The Blu-ray actually features a lossless Parisian French track only found in Dolby Digital on the Ultra HD disc.

    The Atmos and DTS HD-MA tracks are also on the Blu-ray version but not all the foreign language tracks.

*Audio Ratings Summary*
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

A good collection of extras is spread across the two discs with the commentary available on both and the other extras only found on the Blu-ray.

Audio Commentary - Director, Writer/Producers and Animation Director - Both discs

A commentary that starts out quite jokey and not very informative but gets better as it goes revealing some design considerations, toy design and animation approaches. Not the best commentary ever and there is lots of self-congratulation about the team.

Alternate Version - Everything is Awesome Singalong version (112:26) Blu-ray only

An interactive version of the film which is much more than just a singalong. An introduction comes first which explains all the different games to be played during this version of the film including trivia, quizzes, extra jokes etc., in addition to the singalong lyrics onscreen. It encourages the audience to get a piece of paper to keep score as they go along and I can certainly see where a group of kids would enjoy this and engage with watching the film again.

They Come in Pieces - Assembling Lego Movie 2 (8:49)

Standard making of featurette which covers the voice cast, the new story, the idea of incorporating how a little girl might play and other details.

Short - Emmet's Holiday Party (2:43)

This short film feels much more like a promo than a real short. The story is about Emmett wanting to have a Christmas party in Apocalypsberg although due to the usual PC approach it can't be referred to as Christmas.

Outtakes and Deleted Scenes (12:22)

A whole load of different scenes which are either new or alternates. Some are fully animated, others partially and some more storyboards. Some of this material would certainly have added to the film. Worth a watch.

Super Cool - Official Lyric Version (3:29)

Music Video from the film with lyrics on screen.

Promotional Material (0:43, 3:00, 0:55, 2:17, 3:30)

Variety of promo pieces like cinema messages about turning off your mobile, short featurettes about the voice cast etc. Nothing exciting but nice that they recognise these are promo pieces rather than proper extras.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

This film is available in the US in the same format except for some minor differences in foreign language soundtracks. Buy Local.

Summary

A good but not great sequel to the original Lego Movie.

The video quality is very good despite being an upscale to 4K.

The audio quality is very good.

The extras are one of the better collections I have seen lately.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment
DVD	Sony UBP-X700 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player, using HDMI output
Display	LG OLEDC8PTA 55”. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 2160p.
Audio Decoder	Built into amplifier. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum.
Amplification	Marantz SR5012
Speakers	Monitor Audio Bronze 2 (Front), Bronze Centre & Bronze FX (Rears) + Sony SAW2500M Subwoofer

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