Though Legos have recently made a stunning comeback, I will admit that the basic idea of a movie based on the brick-building activity made me a little hesitant. Hell, at least Transformers had a built-in the backstory! And look at how those movies turned out. Just look at the first one. But Legos? Yet, as I walked out of the theater, a gigantic, stupid, idiot grin on my face from the last ninety minutes of pure and utter joy, I realized not having a story makes Legos the perfect toy to get the cinematic treatment: it’s pure imagination. By not having a story, the filmmakers were free to tell any story, and the story directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street) weave — rather, construct — is smart, subversive, funny and filled with heart. This is early era Pixar good, as good as the original Toy Story and giving Toy Story 2 a run for its money as one of the finest examples of overall animated filmmaking in the CG era.
What makes Lord and Miller’s work so great is their attitude towards the tropes that move the Hollywood machine.
They are savvy enough to understand the cliches they are utilizing, in this case, the ‘Savior’ narrative, and can undermine expectations the way all good storytellers are able. The Lego Movie is more than breezy adventure and joke-a-minute-one liners; it’s a surprisingly thoughtful take on society’s need for conformity and individualism. You can’t have one without the other. A simple message, but my, the twists and turns and meta-narratives of it all is refreshing to see in a kid’s movie. Everyone is special, and for once, that doesn’t mean that nobody is special. Years from now, the children who saw this in theaters will rediscover it, and it will light a spark of curiosity and creativity in their brains. This is intelligent, adult filmmaking, packaged with bright colors and explosions to distract you from the lesson it’s teaching.
Emmett (voiced by Parks and Rec’s Chris Pratt) is as normal a guy you can imagine, people use to watch it on 123Movies site. He is a construction worker in the town of Bricksburg, a fiercely regulated metropolis overseen by President Business (Will Ferrell), who at the beginning of the movie was seen taking the powerful Kragle artifact. Emmett goes about his day, doing what he’s told to do (following the instructions, as it were), oblivious and unconcerned with the world at large. As happens to all smalltown farmboys, Emmett is mistaken for ‘The Special’ and gets caught between the forces of President Business and the rebellious group of Master Builders who seek to prevent Business from ‘freezing’ all the Lego worlds.
Joining Emmett are punk-rock ass-kicker WyldStyle (Elizabeth Banks), the wise sage doomed to die Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman), the cocky jerk with a heart of gold, Batman (the brilliant Will Arnett) and our two plucky comic relief characters, 80s Spaceguy Benny (Charlie Day) and Metalbeard (Nick Offerman) a pirate who has had dealings with Business before this movie. If that sounds a bit like Star Wars, it’s supposed to. This is the Hero’s Journey through and through. One of the best examples of the trope in years.
Oh, and it has been the best DC Comics movie ever put on screen, too. Your move, Snyder.
Put aside the third act twist (which you’re either going to love or hate). Put aside the meta-commentary or irony. What’s left is a thoroughly, mind-bogglingly entertaining adventure that only the blackest hearted among us would fail to smile at. The Lego Movie is filled with boundless imagination. A childlike sense of wonder. To a child, what’s awesome about Legos? EVERYTHING. A world made out of Legos is, by definition, awesome, and you’ll be humming those words for days afterward. There are breathless chases, perfectly executed comedy stylings, so many jokes that you’ll have to see it twice to get them all. And at just about 100 minutes, there is no drag or fat to be found. It is an expertly paced movie, it keeps your (and more importantly, your child’s) focus for each scene just long enough and then starts up all over again.
The voice cast is great. Pratt pretty much reprises Andy Dwyer, but he’s so good at the unassuming, super nice guy that his Emmett becomes the blank slate for all of us stuck in an office or job going nowhere. He’s the everyman we need. Elizabeth Banks reminds us why she is one of the most Banks-able (ba dum tss) female comedians, doing so much while pretending to be an animated brick character. Nobody does Morgan Freeman better than the man himself, but here he gets to get a little Gandalf (not Dumbledore) in him and loosen up a bit.
All of this is wrapped in a semi-stop motion style appropriate to the rigid construction parameters of Legos, which is then shoved into a cannon full of glitter and shot out onto the screen in an explosion of color sure to keep even the youngest in awe of everything that’s happening on screen. I saw the 2D version, so I cannot comment on the 3D, but with something this bright and colorful, the inevitable darkening that comes with a 3D screening is probably not worth the negligible motion effects that come with.
Phil Lord and Chris Miller have a perfect track record of films, and they understand the necessity of attempting to subvert the tropes of the past.
Everything in the modern world has become a product, a means to a bottom line. When Lord and Miller came onto The Lego Movie, they were doubtless faced with a choice: do we make a movie, or do we make a commercial? In the same way that they made one of the best send-ups of buddy cop movies, they looked to themselves and thought, ‘Why not make both?’ Sure, this is a 100-minute commercial that will send parents out to the stores so they can buy the Movie pieces, which is ironic considering one of the themes of the movie. But it is a commercial with a lot of humor and a lot of heart. As for those parents waiting in the checkout line, Lego boxes in hand, remember: knowing how to build (or do) something the way it’s meant to be is an important skill in the real world, but it’s way more fun to break it all down and make something yourself. If Legos, and The Lego Movie, teach us anything is that your imagination is only limited by the number of bricks you have.