Over the weekend, we watched The Lego Movie so I need to review it for you. First off, if you don’t like kids talking through the movie, probably wouldn’t be a good idea to see it for a weekend matinee. But nonetheless, they weren’t too bad except for one scene (won’t give a spoiler) that caused a small child to cry.
After seeing it, I had to ask, “was this movie really for kids?” It seemed more like adult social commentary. We’re being force fed a stupid media plus a stupid culture that makes us, well, stupid. The main song was the highly Orwellian “Everything is Awesome,” which trains the non-thinking highly-conforming workers to work in a rhythm with the brainless song. The main TV show is “Honey, where’s my pants?” which seemed like it got its cue from Mike Judge’s dystopian flick Idiocracy.
So it appears the people are halfway to Judge’s Idiocracy and of course as you guessed, are in need of a leader to take them off that path.
Well, as you also guessed, your hero is Emmet Brickowski, a clueless and forgettable average Joe who suddenly is forced to rise to the occasion.
The villain is one President Business who plans on Krazy Gluing everyone in the Lego universe. His real intentions are unknown until the end of the movie.
Sound stupid? Actually, it’s not. It’s quite good. Throw in a bunch of other figures like the heroine Wyldstyle (who really should have been the protagonist, as you will see later), a wizard Vitruvius, Wyldstyle’s boyfriend Batman (yes, that Batman), Superman and Green Latern who have a weird relationship, Shaquille O’Neal, several of the dudes from Star Wars, etc.
One criticism I had was probably more age related than a problem with the movie, but I had a hard time following the action scenes. They’re plastic pieces fighting each other and going faster than a guy in his forties with bad eyesight can follow. If you’re young with decent vision, it probably won’t be a problem.
I never read a review so I didn’t know what was coming. I won’t give it away, but it did have a pretty good twist to it. And the movie throughout was quite watchable. It had plenty of adult humor so I’m thinking the dialog was written for adults and the action and looks were written for kids.
There is some plastic death though, but the character who dies comes back as a ghost so maybe it won’t be too disturbing for kids although one of the kids in the movie theater did start crying at the scene. So I probably wouldn’t take a kid under five to it.
The Lego Movie Review rating
******* (7 out of 10)
-Danny
Danny still works in the corporate world but not for too much longer. In the meantime, he values spending quality time with his family.