This weekend I took Daughter Geek to see the The LEGO Movie. We are big LEGO fans and she has buckets of LEGO pieces that she pulls out and spreads out over the kitchen table to create her own world. I have a LEGO pirate ship, X-Wing and TIE Fighter that I have built along with a variety of other vehicles and ships. Her stuff gets built and broken down and back in the bucket. Mine stay together and are displayed proudly around the house. This movie takes a stand about how they think you should play with your LEGO. I don’t want to spoil anything, but let’s just say that I am not on the right side of things.
I’ve seen some advanced reviews complaining that this is just one big commercial for LEGO. I can honestly say that those people just didn’t understand this movie at all. This movie is a LEGO lovefest. If you want to call it a commercial you can, but you are seriously missing the point. This is no more a commercial for LEGO than Toy Story was a commercial for Slinkies.
There is seriously lots to love in this movie. First of all, they stay true to LEGO. You will see many pieces that you probably have at home in a bucket. You will see minifigs that you recognize, some from years ago. There were Super Heroes (DC Comics only, this is a Warner Bros movie after all), Lord of the Rings (again, Warner Bros), (Harry Potter, WB again). We also saw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a surprise appearance from a Disney property that had everybody cheering and laughing. I mean seriously, everything you see in this movie is made from LEGO. Flames, waves, buildings, cars, planes even the ground. All LEGO, just as it should be.
Nostalgia alone would only carry this movie so far, but thankfully this movie has a great story. I don’t mean just a great kids story, but a great story. It’s funny, laugh out loud funny, but it has heart too. The voice cast is top notch. Chris Pratt is great as Emmet and makes me really excited to see what he does in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Morgan Freeman, as always, is wonderful and Will Arnett’s Batman is one of the best you will see on screen for quite a while.
I referenced Toy Story earlier and this movie actually reminded me a lot of it. It makes you feel like a kid again, but also has an important life lesson about being a parent. By the end of this movie I was looking at my daughter differently because it reminded me that I need to see the world through her eyes a lot more than I do.
I will give you one word of caution, you will have the song “Everything is AWESOME!!!” going through your head for days. You have been warned.
