Film Preview: The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017)

Page Revisions:

(February 19, 2017) Original
(August 6, 2017) New Trailer (#2) / New Posters (#2-#12)
(September 17, 2017) Added Image Gallery
(September 17, 2017) New Posters (#13-#23)

Release Date:

September 22, 2017

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “Six young ninjas Lloyd, Jay, Kai, Cole, Zane and Nya are tasked with defending their island home, called Ninjago. By night, they’re gifted warriors, using their skills and awesome fleet of vehicles to fight villains and monsters. By day, they’re ordinary teens struggling against their greatest enemy: high school.”

Poster Rating: C+ / C+ / C+ (9) / B / C- / C (8) / B (2)

SEE ALL POSTERS BELOW
Review: (#1) Using the pond reflection is a commonplace idea that works well enough, but doesn’t exactly inspire. This poster is more interesting than the most of the Lego Batman Movie designs, but it’s not that interesting on the whole.

(#2) There’s sufficient detail here to keep things visually fresh, but it just doesn’t feel that exciting. (#3-#11) Some of these looks like Lego figures in natural environments. Other look incredibly fake. Regardless, these character posters are simplistic, but engaging and suitably diverse. (#12) Designed to look like the art on the back of some 1970s toy, perhaps a box of Legos, this overall poster design is filled with sufficient detail and action elements to enthuse potential viewers.

(#13) The gangs all here and it’s a haphazard cluster of poorly-combined elements that feels cluttered rather than exciting (#14-#21) A colorful batch of character posters with too much blank space, but combine to form a nicely-colored array of designs. (#22-#23) These Japanese art-styled posters are visually interesting and gorgeously detailed, but might not sell the film as well as they need to.

Trailer Rating: B- / B

SEE ALL TRAILERS BELOW
Review: (#1) The humor is a bit more childish than expected and the action a bit corny. However, as this is built on an existing property, some concessions are required. It won’t be able to pull quite the wide swath of audiences that the previous two big screen outings did.

(#2) Getting a good sample of the plot, we might be too well aware of the situation to not expect where the film will go. However, as with The Lego Batman Movie earlier this year, appearances can be deceiving and the end result may be better than the trailer looks.

Oscar Prospects:

The first Lego movie of the year (The Lego Batman Movie) is more likely to earn an Oscar nomination than this film. Two Oscar-nominated Lego movies would be unlikely.