By now you’ve probably heard that The LEGO Movie is spectacular. And it is. And then some. I knew I was going to go see a good movie, because everyone—no matter who they were, what age or race or gender—was praising it. But I came away shocked by how spectacular it was; I left the theater with the biggest grin imaginable on my face. As did everyone else.
The story is surprisingly involving, yet simple. In LEGO City, we meet Emmet (Chris Pratt), a construction worker whose job is to help deconstruct the city and rebuild it according to the instructions set down by President Business (Will Ferrell). Things get thrown around when he meets a strange woman and touches a mysterious brick, which makes him the target for President Business: it turns out he wants to permanently fix the LEGO world in “perfect” places, and Emmet holds the key to stopping his plan.
While the film was made within a computer, it was made to resemble an amateur stop-motion LEGO movie. All the figurines and constructions you see in the film can actually be made by real LEGOs, and many of the set pieces existed somewhere within the toy’s lifetime. The animations and motions are meant to be jerky and almost amateurish, and that’s the point: it gives the movie its visual charm, and a lot of the humor for me came from watching how the characters leapt and danced around.
That’s what the film has a lot of: character and charm. The humor ranges from childish to adult-material; some jokes make the young ones laugh, some jokes make the adults chuckle, and some make everyone erupt in laughter. A lot of the humor comes from the situations, which throughout most of the movie revel in randomness and nonsense; more of the humor comes from watching the characters and their interactions; the rest of the humor comes from the script, its quality, and the performances. (And let’s not forget the annoyingly-catchy theme song that many people were humming on the way out of the theater.)
Many big-name actors are in the film. Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, and Will Ferrell excel in their roles (Will Ferrell in a dual role that will make sense once the film is over). Morgan Freeman, Charlie Day, and Liam Neeson show off their comedy skills with brilliance. And there are cameos galore, with many actors/celebrities voicing their LEGO counterparts. Despite their generic appearance and computer origins, these characters have amazing personalities that elicit real reactions from the audience later in the film.
But what makes the film more than exceptional animation fare is the emotional resonance it carries. Most people have fond memories of playing with LEGOs, so for most of the film simply watching these toys dance around the screen is enough. But the final third of the film brings an entirely new (meta) layer to the film and changes how you see everything that came before—and this final segment draws the biggest emotional pay-off, mostly resonating with the adults in the audience. Like many films that deal with nostalgia, this movie, while entertaining for the young ones, will carry a meaningful message for the adults.
While it may seem odd to say, I’m willing to admit I think The LEGO Movie is a transcendental movie. It does what Watchmen did for graphic novels: it strips its genre (animation) down to its bare minimum, then builds it back in its own, custom way (ironic for a LEGO movie). And that’s the message the film carries, the conflict that arises within—the film debates about following the instructions, or using your imagination to build whatever you want. It leaves you feeling empowered no matter who you are or how you think.
Despite being a 100-minute commercial about toys, this is a toy commercial with a big heart.
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For More Information Visit:
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http://www.movieweb.com/movie/the-lego-movie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1490017/combined
