WesternAnimation The LEGO Movie (or Nobody Wants to Hear Another Review Anyway)
I remember seeing it for the first time in 2015. Ahhh, good times...
What can I say? This movie was awesome! And I say "Everything Is Awesome": the animation (my favourite part), the voice acting (Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Will Arnett and Nick Offerman stole the show in my opinion, though that doesn't mean that everyone else sucked, they were all equally great), the direction (what I really apreciate at Phil Lord & Chris Miller is that they are really doing their job with all their hearts and excitement), the music (man, why is Mark Mothersbaugh kills it every time with his fantastic score as well as the other songs featured?) etc. What I want to say is that I loved it. In fact, it wasn't for me seeing this movie, I wouldn't have started buying Legos! Man, I wish I've had Emmet already... Oh, haven't I mentioned that it was also very emotional?
In conclusion, a great movie! I will wait for the sequel when it comes on Digital HD (I mean online, and no, not taped from the cinemas).
WesternAnimation Please no Sequel
After seeing The LEGO Movie, the first thing I said was no sequel. This movie is so good that a sequel might ruin it. The shift between the Lego world and reality is seamless, the actual animation is colorful and amazing, and just everything about this movie is...well...awesome. This movie is definitely going to be a classic once it reaches it's ten-year mark or even before. I'm going to show this to my future kids. This movie is going to be a major part of their generation like Harry Potter is part of my generation.
WesternAnimation Amusing with marvellous animation... but there's not much else to love.
The Lego Movie is being hailed is a new cinematic watermark. And rightly so. Its animation will blow you away; it's amazing how beautiful thousands of Lego pieces can actually look. Animation-wise, this film is very unique. And it's also amusing too. Watching the movie, for the first few minutes, you'll love the way the characters move, talk and interact. It's funny, cute and makes you want to dive into their world. It's therefore, a shame that the rest of the movie is... mediocre.
The problem with The Lego Movie is that after the eye candy has been established and we've seen the type of humour has to offer, we're thrown into a confusing tornado of plot elements that's all over the place. It isn't bad, it's just way too much. The characters we meet along the way just aren't very interesting either. Emmet is your basic hero. Wildstyle is a bland tomboy character; she's tough and edgy but she's nice underneath, we get it. Batman is dark and gruff, like Batman should be, so no surprises there. Unikitty is... cute at first, I'm not denying that, but she quickly devolves into a generic and obnoxious cutesy character who loves saccharine things and gets upset when things aren't all bubbly and perfect. Snore. Vitruvius and the villain, Lord Business, are pretty funny, and the most enjoyable characters in the film.
And sadly, while the movie certainly has a lot of very cool moments, there's also loads that just don't make any sense. It often feels like a movie where tons of kids sent in their ideas, and the writers decided to thrown them all in. At times, you just want the film to stop, but it rarely does. There isn't enough time for the characters to develop, the plot is as basic as it gets (underdog hero has to fulfill a prophecy that he'll defeat some mysterious evil) and though I think the film's big twist is clever and really works, the film has by this point become so silly that you just want it to end. The song "Everything Is Awesome" becomes increasingly more annoying as the film progresses as well.
Overall, not a bad movie. Excellent animation, loads of action set-pieces and a good moral, but it's also too fast, with too few interesting characters and too many absurd, unnecessary moments. Kids will be hooked on it, but if you're an adult, you'll only like this movie if you can handle 90 minutes of Lego madness.
WesternAnimation The theme song describes the movie.
This film is a real treat, being a commercial tie-in with a great deal more heart and effort than anyone would have expected.
First off, the animation. The medium of LEGO has been adapted so well that it's hard to believe it's all CGI. The lighting, the detail, and the creativity in making literally everything in the LEGO world out of LEGO pieces while adhering to their limitations is just astounding. It really does look like real toys were being filmed in stop-motion, because they refused to add movement to things that couldn't move, like knees or hair. This makes it much more authentic, and much funnier. They also added natural imperfections to the plastic and paint because what they'd already done wasn't enough, And with the world itself, so much detail and work went into every scene and environment, each carefully built up like a real LEGO model with lots of easy-to-miss jokes in the posters and whatnot...it's insane. For limited-articulation toy figures as the actors, they capture a lot of character, and the visual comedy is spot-on with its timing.
The characters themselves are all amusing and acted well. Chris Pratt makes Emmet a bit of a step up from Andy Dwyer, but with the same lovable innocence. Will Ferrell does well as a villain, and Morgan Freeman needs to do more comedy. Everyone else is great, too.
The story itself is also a surprise, as the familiar turns deeper as it goes on, and the history and mechanics of LEGO fit into the story in such a way that they are integral and clever, not forced. The film is surprisingly tight with its construction, and rewatching it will reveal lots of foreshadowing. The satirical elements in the setting are done really well, and also tie into the deeper elements of the story.
And this film is hilarious, with a comedy style both slapstick and off-the-wall and clever and self-aware. The jokes are frequent and played out just right, and even on repeat viewings, I always laugh.
In all, this film is awesome, and sure to make you smile for at least one of its merits. I highly recommend it, because it's so recommendable. Go see it as soon as you can.
WesternAnimation Hilarious, heart-warming, and beautiful
The Lego Movie is a perfect family film. I love how they purposely dropped the frame rate to make it look like stop motion; I honestly thought it partly was when I first saw it. The story, while a bit simple, is compelling and interesting. The acting in this film is beyond perfect. I mean talk about getting THE best people to voice these characters: Chris Pratt as the ordinary doofus whose supposed to be the big hero but has no idea what he's supposed to do; Elizabeth Banks as the kick-ass love interest; Morgan Freeman as the wise old wizard; Will Ferrel as the goofy villain; Liam Neeson as the goofy side villain, Will Arnett as Batman (no explanation required, it's Batman); Allison Brie as the sweet girly girl who has a pretty psychotic bad side you do NOT want to get on; the list goes on. The humour is on point and had me laughing every time they made a joke. It's a very quotable movie; I honestly irritate my family when we watch it by quoting everything. It has a surprisingly neat twist and a very heart-warming ending. Overall, a great film, very funny, and one of my favourites.
WesternAnimation This is not A Lego Movie, but THE Lego Movie.
awe·some [aw-suhm] adjective; "inspiring an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, or fear; causing or inducing awe: an awesome sight."
The LEGO Movie is indeed all these things. Much has been said about how much better a movie it is than people have expected. You wouldn't expect a film about LEGO bricks to make your jaw drop at these beautiful worlds, or laugh your head off every minute, or even make you cry for these tiny plastic minifigs. But this isn't just a good film about LEGO. It's a good film on its own merits. The now-horribly-cliche prophecy about The Chosen One has been written and parodied a thousand times over, so even having The Chosen Zero isn't new at all. But a twist to the prophecy provides not only a new spin on this trope, but an insightful commentary on why everyone wants to imagine themselves as the hero, and everyone else the villains or NPCs, and how that isn't fair at all.
And so much life put into these characters! I knew this movie would be deeper than expected when they managed to make Bad/Good Cop, a one-joke gimmick villain, into an actual sympathetic person with a backstory and internal struggles. Wyldstyle too turns out to be more than an Action Girl sidekick, with her overabundance of butt-kicking not merely a way to avert having a "helpless female", but an emotional point of hers, as she struggles to reconcile her overachieving with "the Special" Emmet's near-incompetency. One keeps finding layers of personality in each character, including the villains, allowing us to buy their development, and even redemption.
The final message is a great way to sum up the whole philosophy of LEGO. Even if the film is inevitably a product, the best products are the ones that each buyer can make into something new, something that the product's creators couldn't have ever foreseen. No wonder the animation style plays homage to the stop-motion "brickfilms", as those fan creations brought LEGO films into the limelight. No wonder the climax emphasizes global participation, not merely one hero saving everybody. This whole film is a big thank you to fans, both in the premise and in the amazing story.
WesternAnimation Possibly My New Favorite Movie
This movie is spectacular. Every joke is funny from the one-liners to the funny background events. It's just hilarious the whole way through. Before watching it, I was afraid they had already used up all the good lines in the trailers but THE TRAILER SPOILS NOTHING. It is so much more than what they made it out to be.
And then when you least expect it, they'll hit you right in the gut. This movie has a good dose of heartwarming that'll silence the entire theater (except for that one guy in front of me who chose right then to open his candy)
The characters are all wonderful as is the animation that I assume must've taken ages. The chosen one trope is played with very well, and it keeps things interesting.
So in conclusion: Batman. Morgan Freeman. Everything is awesome.
WesternAnimation Startlingly Good
If you have ever played with Legos or love tropes (or both) you really need to go see the Lego Movie ASAP. The animation is spectacular, with eye popping details that will make you want to watch the movie again and again to pick them all out. The number of shout-outs and crossovers boggles the mind, and The Reveal at the end of the movie is incredibly well done. The message of the movie is neither heavy handed nor thrown in, and resonates deeply with the "Special" generation raised on Disney and Sesame Street. It's also one of the most genuinely funny movies I've seen in a long time and a lot more fun that many so called "adult" humor flicks.
WesternAnimation Awesome way to promote legos (and more)
I just watched the sequel a few days ago, so that reminded me to do a review on this movie first.
Comedy: I usually couldn't go ten minutes without laughing at some random joke (Emmet being a cowboy, his plan to escape the enemies actually working, etc.) However, the movie also pulls away the comedy at the right moments so that we actually see that the Big Bad has the upper hand.
Music: It's a bonus. I find it amusing that "everything is awesome" is a song that shows that Emmet lived in a Crapsaccharine World before finding the MacGuffin.
Story: Normally, a lego themed movie or tv show would have the medium be entirely a lego world. But this story calls for a different setting with a very special plot twist. I'm not going to spoil it for anyone, unless they already saw my sequel review.
Moral: On the surface this movie is just a means to promote the creative power of legos. As one continues to watch however, it slowly delves into a different idea that climaxes in a heartbreaking speech about how anyone can be the "Special."
I give this movie a 9/10.