Director: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Cast: Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Will Ferrell, Alison Brie
Plot: In a giant Lego city, normal guy Emmet Brickoski literally falls into an adventure where he must accept his role as the ‘Special’ and save the world from the evil Lord Business.
Review: For our Stateside readers this review might feel a little late, but for us Australian folk the release for The Lego Movie is still a painful two weeks away. We attended today’s advance screening long after the rest of the world have moved on to other discussions.
And they wonder why people pirate movies. Anyway.
Basing a movie of a toy line is nothing new, even for something as abstract as the famed Lego building blocks. The assume extent of the Lego licensing business means they have pop cultures biggest stars available to them. Star Wars, DC Superheroes, The Simpsons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and many more fill the screen throughout the film. This is possibly the only time we will ever see Gandalf and Dumbledore being mistaken for one another on screen. Where do you ever begin with something as diverse and unrestricted as Lego?
With the most cliched story ever! Emmet (Chris Pratt) is mistaken for the chosen one, and then turns out he is the chosen one, and there’s the love interest and the mentor and the evil business man and a prophecy. The bad guy is even called Lord Business, just to hammer the point home, and Emmet is the most generic Lego piece ever.
So how does it work so damn well?
Because everything is awesome!
A few reasons. Firstly, they don’t ever pretend this is an original story. It’s straight up formula, so the attention is given over to action and comedy, two things The Lego Movie has in buckets. In terms of comedy the film makers have taken a multi-pronged approach. There’s the fun of all the famous ‘faces’ mingling with each other with many quick little jokes peppered throughout. Michelangelo the artist is introduced alongside Michelangelo the Ninja Turtle while Abraham Lincoln throttling away on his space chair is the kind of gags we’re talking about. We have plenty of running jokes, including the famous double decker sofa and the dynamic between Superman and Green Lantern (voiced by Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill). On top of pop culture references we have some smart pop culture commentary slipped in to the dialogue, Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) representing something of a Hipster being automatically dismissive of the mainstream.
The script is smart and tightly written, wasting little time in moving from joke to joke. For such a large cast of characters everyone has their moments and their own distinct personality, with little reliance on gimmicks (although Morgan Freeman’s Vitruvius is pretty thinly drawn). Many of the support cast add genuine character to the film rather than filling in the blanks, with Alison Brie as Unikitty being dementedly splendid.
Turning our attention to the animation, it’s a very noisy film. Like many modern films it’s a rapid fire flick with the action and detail being thick and frantic. Unlike some films – like the Transformers franchise – it’s easy to follow what’s happening, and the director knows how to draw the viewers eye to the right thing.
Then there’s the twist. I’m not going to lie, this was a bit of a mindfuck. It’s an immensely clever way to approach the material. I won’t give it away, but it stretches the narrative boundaries of the movie in a way that was completely unexpected and very welcome. There are some very smart people behind this script and it elevates this from a good movie to a fantastic movie.
Summary: Let’s sum up – this is a kids movie that is smartly funny and smartly written. Bless everyone who made this movie even though the truth behind Lord Business was awkwardly close to home. It was the first time Funk, Jr. went to the cinema and it was awesome.
Rathing: TEN OUTTA TEN. That might seem extreme, but I like Lego and bought the set with Unikitty.
