Review: The LEGO Movie

By the end of The LEGO Movie, I was wiping away tears. Before anybody questions my masculinity, I have to clarify that these were tears I shed due to laughing so hard during the previous 100 or so minutes – mostly, anyway. The LEGO Movie is one of the funniest films I have seen in recent memory and uses its humour, as well as its nostalgia, charm and vibrancy, to get on your good side and stay there.

The story revolves around Emmet (Pratt), a generic nobody in the LEGO universe, who is thrust into an adventure when he accidentally finds the Piece of Resistance. Unsure of what he is doing almost all of the time, Emmet must rely on his allies, including Wyldstyle (Banks), Vitruvius (Freeman) and Batman (Arnett), to thwart the plans of Lord Business (Ferrell). Those plans involve using the Kragle to make the world perfect… by destroying it. Constantly harassed by Bad Cop (Neeson), Emmet tries to use his unorthodox building skills and ideas to save the day.

While not exactly a classic in story-terms, the sheer level of charm and wit deployed to tell it, as well as the universal message being projected at the end, sees it over the finish line. The script is razor-sharp – something I am not accustomed to in an animated movie (the closest I have encountered previous to this is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs).

The humour is superb here. From the primary jokes regarding Emmet’s ineptitude in building, Batman’s ego and Bad Cop’s nice side, to the background gags about Superman’s relationship to Green Lantern and Unikitty’s barely concealed mania, each one is delivered hard and fast. It became one of those movies where keeping a constant grin on my face from ear to ear actually started to hurt – a good complaint to have.

One of the more impressive features of the movie is its cast. Chris Pratt is brilliant playing the naive yet aspiring master builder Emmet. Elizabeth Banks is particularly funny as the strong, no-nonsense Wyldstyle. But the show is well and truly stolen by Will Arnett’s Batman – his gruff, overcompensating voice matches the massive ego his incarnation of the caped crusader has perfectly. The shock for me was actually Ferrell, who was far more restrained than I ever expected to see him; though the more maniacal take he has on Lord Business works well here.

One aspect of the movie that didn’t click with me (but based on other reviews, I am alone here) was the theme. The ‘Everything Is Awesome’ song that seems to have ingrained itself in the minds of all who hear it completely bypassed me. Even walking out of the screening, people around me were humming it. I wouldn’t judge this as a negative against the film just because it didn’t burrow its way into my mind like a tick but it was interesting that it didn’t as I am usually the first to be infected!

The visual style of The LEGO Movie may rub some up the wrong way. The mix of a stop-motion aesthetic with computer graphics felt like staring at the sun at times – it took some time to get used to the animation, especially during some of the more frantic scenes. However, it suited the concept of the story well.

I enjoyed The LEGO Movie far more than I expected to. I knew the cast were funny in their own right but the script and direction were excellent at bringing the funny to the fore. This is what would be considered a four-quadrant film – as in, it appeals to all. Normally these are formulaic affairs but The LEGO Movie has real heart and soul here – and a plastic one at that.