The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017)

Directed by Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher & Bob Logan. Starring Jackie Chan, Kaan Guldur, (voices) Dave Franco, Justin Theroux, Michael Peña, Abbi Jacobson, Kumail Nanjiani, Olivia Munn, Zach Woods, Fred Armisen, Constance Wu. [PG]

Teen ninja “La-loyd” (Franco) must do battle with the nefarious warlord, Garmadon (Theroux), who’s threatening to destroy the city of Ninjago, but only the young and uncertain hero knows the stressful truth that Garmadon is, in fact, his father—and that includes Garmadon. Another colorful, brightly-animated Lego story, but it’s a lot of been-there, done-that, and the recycling of stale-bagel absentee daddy issues and path-of-the-ninja clichés grows tedious as it goes along. A few funny and cute moments early on (the hungry hungry sharks are a delight), but it mostly whiffs on the rote attempts to touch the heart, and the busy visuals have too little narrative or character substance to fall back on for guidance. Curious enough for the toy company aesthetic, this is the second spinoff feature to show very little being made of the interactive environments, with only a few instances of on-the-fly building, and arguably the least imaginative backgrounds to date in a Lego-based feature. Real-life builders who collect Ninjago-themed sets may get more out of the experience. Chan, who plays a shopkeeper in the live-action framing sequences, also voices mini-fig Ninja Master Wu.

51/100