Film Review: The Lego Movie

The Lego Movie brings those loveable bricks from our childhood to life, and everything is awesome.

The Lego Movie brings those loveable bricks from our childhood to life, and everything is awesome.

Ah Lego, that quintessential childhood toy EVERYONE (in western society at least) has either owned or played with at some stage in his or her life.

Lego is unmistakable, it is…well, Lego- no substitutes accepted. It is so established as a brand that anything similar will ultimately be referred to as Lego. Movies have released Lego merchandise and now there is movie about Lego. Oh the circle of life.

And hey, if Disney can create a movie based on a theme park ride, why the heck not make a movie about Lego.

Sure the whole thing maybe just one big ad, but only in the way that Mac and Me was. The product blends in so much it becomes a character. In this case literally the character and the narrative, but lets not get to deep.

The story follows Emmet (Chris Pratt) an ordinary, perfectly average Lego man, who is mistakenly identified as “The Special” and the key to saving the world, or so the prophecy has foretold.

After stumbling across The Piece of Resistance, Emmet is recruited by an underground brethren of Master Builders, including the ass-kicking Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), Batman figure (Will Arnett) and the Wizard Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman), into an epic quest to stop the evil President Business (Will Ferrell) from gluing the universe together. Together they head out on an adventure to save themselves and the world from total sticky destruction.

Bottom line – it was awesome to see Lego and Lego-land(s) in action. The effects were so good that I couldn’t tell if it was stop motion or CGI, and most of all- everything was make out of Lego and acted the way Lego does, as in no extra body movement and no magical space creation in housing or vehicles.

It was also amazingly meta; Lego as a toy is a true pastiche of popular culture and the film captures this so well with characters from various films, comic books and genres (all of which are available as Lego) making appearances.

Kids movie aside, the dialogue is full of adult-level humor, but just like the greats there was enough of both to entertain all ages. Case in point: there is a scene where some Lego robots photocopy their Lego bums, at which point all the children in the cinema practically jumped out of their seats with laughter. Classic kids.

Everything is awesome.

THE LEGO MOVIE
Starring: Chris Pratt, Will Arnett, Elizabeth Banks, Will Ferrall, Morgan Freeman and Liam Neeson.
Directed by: Chris Miller and Phil Lord
Released by: Warner Bros
Runtime: 100 mins