A movie with a premise about Legos, pop culture, and funny likable characters: Where has this been all my life?
The LEGO Movie! (Spoilers, possibly)
Sorry about the long wait. I know I haven't been on in a while and I haven't posted much lately, but I'm back: so let's get to work. I saw this movie the day after it came out and I was surprised. Honestly, when I first heard about a Lego movie I thought, "What...the...heck?" Then I began to hear more and more about this movie. I heard that Batman would be in it, then thought: "He's going to be the only good part in this movie." I wasn't thinking straight because we have Lego videogames that are awesome, and we grew up with Legos that are awesome. Why did I think this would fail? What did I put in my coffee? Kidding: I don't drink coffee.
So what did I think of the Lego Movie? I loved it. I liked what they did with this movie. it looks like everything was made with Lego bricks and it was. Aside from some tweaks of CGI for the faces, everything in this movie was constructed with Legos and it looks fantastic.
So, the story revolves around this prophecy about 'The Special' who is destined to save the world from a catastrophe. He's suppose to be the most unique person in the world of Legos, but we get stuck with Emmett. Emmett is this normal average guy who follows the instructions and follows orders: not exactly hero material. But the movie makes fun of that fact, and that's one of my favorite concepts of the movie: it breaks the fourth wall and pokes fun at itself with jokes, pop cultural references, and lines that show that they know it's a clichéd mess.
Plus, the voice acting was surprisingly well done. Each of these characters has an actor that fits the role and fits perfectly. Chris Pratt does the voice of Emmett and the character touches your heart. You can't help but not like and/or relate to him. Elizabeth Banks voices Wild Style, Emmett's companion on his journey and she is really likeable too. She pokes fun at the fact that Emmett isn't hero material and so does Vitruvius, voiced by Morgan Freeman. Vitruvius was the great wizard who failed to stop Lord Business, voiced by Will Ferrell, from stealing an ancient artifact which he'll use to end the world: thus creating the whole need for the prophecy in the first place. The story is hard to follow at first but the more you think about it the more it all comes together.
Also, like I said, Lego Batman is in this movie voiced by Will Arnett. Surprisingly, I was okay with him as Batman. He really fits into his role despite the numerous Batmans in the past. I think he did what Heath Ledger did as the Joker: he engulfed every incarnation of the character to create his own unique take on it. Despite me favoring Bruce Greenwood or Kevin Conroy as Batman, I think Will Arnett did a great job making us laugh and go "F**k yeah" at his version of the Lego dark knight. You rock Will Arnett.
And if you are a Lego fan, you'll be able to point out the other Lego cameos in this movie like Superman and Gandalf. However, the one person that surprised me the most was Liam Neeson as Cop/Bad Cop. I couldn't even tell it was him. He really did a nice job of keeping his monotone voice in check as well as knowing when to go all out. Props to you Liam Neeson.
Anyway, the movie was a ton of fun. The references, the jokes, the animation, the ending (which I won't spoil for you). It seemed like they got the writer from Toy Story 3 and asked him to edit their work. And the pacing of the animation made me ask myself, "Did they get Edgar Wright in on this, too?" If you've seen 'The World's End, Hot Fuzz, or Scott Pilgrim,' you'll wonder if Edgar Wright had anything to do with this movie. Bottom line: Go watch this movie NOW!!! You won't be disappointed. I'm proud to say that in my book the Lego movie is a 5 out of 5, aka: Awesometastic!!!!
So have you seen the Lego movie? If so, what'd you think of it? Comment below, let me know. And if you liked this and want to read more, check my page for more.
This is Cyber-Shull saying: "Everything is AWESOME!!!"