It used to be that if you walked into a Chinese curiosity shop and found Jackie Chan behind the counter, you’d expect some immediate close quarters kung fu fighting. He is perhaps too long in the tooth for such exertion these days, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still make money advertising children’s toys, which he does in “The Lego Ninjago Movie.”
Chan invites a young patron to explore the magical world of Ninjago, where little yellow pieces of plastic practice that lesser known ancient martial art, “spinjitzu.” Leaving the world of live action for the realm of animation, we meet a certain hot teen Lego named Lloyd Garmadon (Dave Franco), aka the Green Ninja, aka the commandant of the Secret Ninja Force. He gets a full Spider-Man-style intro, in which he ignores his overburdened single mother, Koko (Olivia Munn), hates his absent father, the evil Lord Garmadon (Justin Theroux), and fights bad guys with his cool ninja friends after sixth period.
His colorful crew is like the Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles but with a couple of extras - there’s Kai (Michael Peña) red like fire, Jay (Kumail Nanjiani) blue like lightning, Nya (Abbi Jacobson) silver like water, Cole (Fred Armisen) black like earth, and Zane (Zach Woods) white like ice. Their powers are defined by the elements they use but the personalities of these characters are not sufficiently defined. Despite the considerable comic talents of the sextet, only Zach Woods generates many laughs as robot trying to pass as human. Through the Ninjago looking glass, Chan serves as the voice of Master Wu, the wisp-bearded sensei to the young fighters.
Lord Garmadon, who will not acknowledge the Green Ninja as his son and insultingly pronounces the name Lloyd in two syllables, makes constant efforts to take over the city of Ninjago with a legion of crab and shark-wielding cronies. Eventually, while attempting to thwart the villains as they fire crustaceans at the citizens like sports mascots gone rogue with T-shirt guns, Lloyd accidentally misuses “the ultimate weapon,” a laser pointer.
This brings to the fore the best actors in the picture - Pearl and Ruby, a couple of real life tabbies who play Meowthra, a cat who will destroy the city just because it can. It’s too bad that, instead of closely examining the improper governance of a lazy, corrupt and destructive leader who turns a democracy into a litterbox, “The Lego Ninjago Movie” turns into a journey film in which the ninjas must find a weapon powerful enough to defeat the great beast.
Co-directors Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher and Bob Logan struggle to find purchase with adults because their characters are mostly unknown to a broad audience. It is the widespread familiarity with the tropes of the Batman franchises that helped “The Lego Batman Movie” land so many jokes - “Ninjago” doesn’t have that benefit.
Still, the fight scenes in the film provide real joy when the pieces of Lego start flying about. The marriage of high and low tech generates much less stress than other action films, where we’re forced to watch realistic CGI cities destroyed in ever-more inventive ways.
And yet the film feels too talky, given its plot is mostly concerned with ninja fights. This could be because the film’s seven writers overemphasize the father/son reconciliation angle. There are heavy Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker overtones, down to the black togs of Lord Marmadon and the floppy foppishness of the Green Ninja.
These “who’s your daddy” histrionics are less interesting than the sphinxlike indifference of Meowthra. The cat lacks our conservative notions of what the family unit should be as it bats away both the Ninjago brotherhood and brand.
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