The Lego Movie

[Chris D]

There have been several Lego-themed movies before, including animated series. I am a HUGE Lego fan, and my own feeling is that these movies have had mixed successes. Some have been cute, somewhat entertaining, but nothing I really loved. Part of the problem, IMHO, is that you're making a movie about **Lego** toys, and the real fun of Lego toys is building them, more than driving around the little cars, or flying the little space ships. And how do you capture that theme, when the viewer is just sitting still on their butts, watching somebody ELSE build Lego bricks or drive around that little car?

So for a while now, all indications hinted that Lego was really putting a lot of work into the new Lego Movie. As it's gotten closer, there has been more and more marketing. (FWIW, there's also movie-themed Lego sets now, tying in to the movie story) Opening day is today, and so far, all indications are that this is going to be a GREAT movie! :T An unheard-of 99% on the Rotten Tomatometer so far. 9/10 ratings on IMDB. Heck even some of the best Pixar films didn't reach that high. Let's see if it holds up. From what I hear, it's a good story, with lots of Lego collecting and building references for Lego fans over the years. I'm really encouraged to hear this, and will be seeing this with my family for sure when we can.

Check out this film picture of the movie lead character. This brings back memories of getting and building 1981-era space sets for me. Notice how his helmet chin bar is cracked, the helmet has scratches or even (gasp!) teeth marks, and the chest space logo is worn. Exactly how I remember how some of my child space people turned out after hours of play. And the blue space guys were a big deal. For years and years there were only red and white space suits, and when blue showed up, it was special.

[Ovation]

My son (8 years old) has looked forward to only one other movies as much as this one--Cars 2 (a HUGE Lightning McQueen fan from the first Cars movie). He is also a HUGE fan of Legos (as we can attest with the, by now, 4000-5000 pieces at his command). We first saw a trailer for this movie in the summer and he's been counting down the time to its release since them. This will require a trip to the cinema--no way is he waiting (nor am I willing to endure his pain at doing so) until the BD release.

In all honesty, I have to say I've been looking forward to this myself. Legos were an important part of my childhood (though back in my day, we didn't have "themes" to the sets--at least not the ones I received as gifts).

[Chris D]

Ended up taking my daughter to the movie on opening night, saw it in 3D, which was worth it, but not overwhelming. (continuing my firm belief 3D is a nice feature, but not a prime tech that is here to stay) Nice daughter date night.

Right up front, I'm what's known as an "AFOL", or "Adult Fan of Lego". After my "Dark Ages", I rediscovered the joy of buliding Lego. Now, I collect and build sets. My daughters now know the Lego is very special to our family.

The film is still getting amazingly good reviews and ratings. 96% on the Rotten Tomatometer. So I went in with pretty high expectations. Didn't think it was quite the "epic" that the ratings indicate, but it's a very good movie! I hesitate to compare this to any other movie. It wasn't great in the way that Pixar movies are. (or used to be) Nor in the way that epics are, like "Godfather II". It had a good story, but that didn't make it a great movie. It had good characters, but wasn't great from deep character development. It was silly and funny, but not great from comedy. It has its own special quality, especially from the third act. I will say that for the first time, Lego not only accomplishes what I was talking about in my above post, capturing the joy of building Lego on film, but makes it a highlight.

Good, silly, funny movie. Fun for kids, but special for adults. Those that played with Lego as kids and remember the joy it brought will appreciate references. Some special references for AFOLs that are super into the Lego world, but others won't even notice they missed something. (other than the dorky guy in the next row laughing) For adults and movie fans, the film is CHOCK full of popular references. Blink, and you'll miss them, but they're great. Offhand, I can remember references to Star Wars (Ep IV and V), Avatar, Dark Knight, Green Lantern, the Godfather, Austin Powers, Terminator 2, Megamind, and others. The visual style is great. It's all CGI, but everything acts onscreen will make you ask occasionally, "is this stop-motion"? With few small exceptions, all people and objects act like real Lego pieces. (other than facial expressions, where Lego characters talk, smile, etc) You won't see Lego people bend their non-existent knees, or close their molded plastic hands. Fire breaks out as red Lego fire pieces suddenly appearing. Even clouds are big puffy Lego creations. Some nice cameos--Shaquille O'Neil, Anthony Daniels really plays C-3PO, and Billy Dee plays Lando. It would have been even better had Harrison Ford played Han, or Christian Bale (or others) played Batman, although Will Arnett actually does a good job as Batman satire.

WARNING: DO NOT READ SPOILERS BEFORE SEEING THE MOVIE, NO MATTER HOW MUCH A FAN YOU ARE:

So one of the greatest aspects of the film is the third act, where suddenly you discover that Will Farrell really IS the Man Upstairs and President Business. As an AFOL, they were suddenly talking about me more than you guys know. I am known to build Lego sets with my kids, then put away the sets onto shelves or in storage, where of course they girls want to just play. And I preach to them how you HAVE to follow the instructions when building the actual set. I could see me having a mega Lego town on tables in the basement in the future, especially since I particularly collect Lego City sets. But what the heck... I don't think you'll find any true AFOL supergluing their Lego bricks! Kind of disappointing, though, that the movie resulted in implying the AFOL that loves to just build according to the instructions, is not cool. Not entirely the morale of the story, and I appreciated the message, but still will be building the way I enjoy.

I'm even buying the soundtrack. The lead song gets in your head, and you'll be walking out of the theater singing "Eeeeeeverything is awesommmmme..." A fun, silly, film for both kids and adults, but kids and Lego fans will love even more. Strongly recommended, and you can be sure I'll be buying the Blu-Ray and DVD mega pack when they come out. A special film. :4: out of :5:

[Ovation]

Went to see this with my kids and my wife (surprising that she would come along--not usually a willing "kids movie" watcher). We all loved it. I won't give a detailed review--most of what is above applies to our experience regarding the movie watching. As for what's behind the spoiler code, all I'll say is we don't insist our kids follow the instructions. They tend to do it the first time around but, after that, they are in full "improvise" mode. Sets do not stay "separate" for long (we have several large containers with Legos and we attempt to keep them somewhat separate, but not scrupulously so--though we do keep all the instruction books so they can re-build the original things, which they do on occasion).

Overall, if you've ever spent more than 5 mins playing with Legos, this is a movie worth watching. Will definitely be part of the collection.:T:T:T

[Chris D]

My daughter and I play all the Lego videogames. The latest one is based on the Lego Movie, and came with a movie ticket coupon, so I went back to watch it a 2nd time. Not only was it definitely worth it, and I enjoyed it just as much the 2nd time, but I also appreciated the film from a whole new perspective.

ANOTHER WARNING: DO NOT READ SPOILERS BEFORE SEEING THE FILM!!!

On the 2nd viewing, I realized that the entire first and second acts (and snippets of the third) are not just a story. We are watching, in mini-fig world, a playtime session that the eight-and-a-half year old boy Finn is acting out. It is done so well, that first-time viewers are fooled into thinking we're just watching a CGI-animated LEGO movie. But we are watching what a mini-fig observer would see if Finn's imaginary play story were really taking place in LEGO world.

With that in mind, suddenly everything starts making sense. What at first seems to be a silly and almost manic animated movie is really the mind of an eight-year-old boy. Have you ever watched a child play, without them knowing you're there? They are happy and silly, blissful in their youthful and often-illogical storytelling and sound or voice creations. It's hilarious and often so enjoyable to watch the simple joys of childhood. (side note, but that what I love about playing with LEGO as an adult, recapturing just a bit of this childhood joy) Of COURSE there's a shootout with cowboy robots in the Wild West, shooting lasers. Of COURSE Batman then swoops in to save the day as the heroes plunge into a ravine on an old steam train. Why wouldn't he? That's precisely the kind of thing a young boy would play-pretend. No surprise that the good guys gather together with such eclectic characters like Wonder Woman, Gandalf, Dumbledore, the Simpson's Milhouse, etc. A young boy will play with all the toys he has, not think as an adult and say, "Superman doesn't belong in a medieval world!"

What else would Abraham Lincoln ride, than a rocket chair?

On that note, the silly quotes become obvious, too, as a child that is repeating and adapting movie quotes and historical speeches of culture he's exposed to. These are not just clever lines the writers came up with to make older viewers laugh. "Come with me if you want to not die!" Sharks with lasers. Why does the pirate ship make a goofy b-b-b-b-b-b-b sound as it travels? Because that's the sound Finn makes with his lips as he plays. The Vitruvius ghost towards the end is dangling from a string, because that's how Finn is making him fly around. I think the only thing they could have done further was make all the laser shots in the movie make "pew! pew!" sounds. But I think that would have just been too obvious, giving away the secret early. Even the songs make sense. My kids every day make up silly songs that sound like and have words just like "Everything is Awesome!" And in the mind of a young boy, what would a dark, Goth song sound like that Batman would listen to? (or write) Precisely the Batman song in the film. What would a child come up with for a hit sitcom? "Honey, Where Are my Pants?" of course!

The antagonist makes so much sense. Who would an eight year-old boy have in his mind as the ultimate authority figure? Other than maybe the President of the USA, just his father. The Man Upstairs. And what takes his father away from quality time together, from being a happy, joyful, playful person and companion? Business. Business, Business, Numbers, Business, Business. A child doesn't understand work, other than it being a stuffy thing that interferes with time with his parents. Note that Lord/President Business gets these goofy, child-created, long legs to tower over people just like Finn sees his dad towering over himself. Note that Finn's story explores topics like authority, rebellion, individualism, identity, awkwardness around girls, etc, just like a young boy explores, finding his place in the world, defining his own identity.

But the thing I appreciate the most is the true underlying theme of the story. What does every young child want, more than anything else? To be loved by his parents, particularly his father. To spend time with dad. To feel like he's more than just an average person--he wants to be THE SPECIAL ONE to his dad. Finn makes Emmett the character like himself, not sure if he's the hero or not, but seeking something more important to him than heroism. And in the end, Emmett doesn't want to overthrow Lord Business. He wants them to join forces, and just spend time together. THAT makes him feel special.


On second viewing, the aspects of the film that seemed funny, silly, and well written, took on a whole new meaning to me. I see the film as a VERY well created story on so many levels. It works as first-viewing entertainment. It works as a repeat viewing introspection with allegories. This is far from being just a cute kids movie. It is most certainly NOT just a 100 minute toy advertisement, with product placements and obligatory film/culture references to pander to the audience. I don't like revising movie ratings once I've given them. I think a film should get whatever rating it deserves the first time you see it. However, occasionally, like in this case, a film is one work the first time you see it, and in repeated viewings, it becomes something different. So I'll keep the :4: out of :5: rating for the first viewing of the film, but on repeat viewing and further analysis, I think as an overall work it deserves either a :45: or even a full :5:.

I'm looking forward to buying this one eventually, and checking it out even more! This movie absolutely deserves the high ratings and box office sales that it's pulling in. Fantastic piece of work.

[Chris D]

And now the sequel, Lego Movie 2 has already just been announced for May 26th, 2017.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=115163

In the best style of Uni-Kitty I can muster, "YAYYYYYYY!!!!"

I do hope they do it right, and don't just try to milk sales with a ho-hum product. Too bad we have to wait 3 years, but hopefully that'll mean they'll make it a good one, not just churn out quick junk.

[Ovation]

Excellent analysis behind the spoiler code. (Won't comment further to avoid spoilers except to say "bang on" regarding the number 8.) Now I want to go see it again.

[aud19]

Finally watched this and have to agree with the critics, Chris and the general public. This is a very well done, touching, funny and joyful film to watch. It has earned a spot in the collection and I can't wait to wacth it with my boys when they're old enough :T