By this point you’ll already have heard about how good The Lego Movie is. If not, here’s my short review: It’s wonderful. It’s wonderful for everyone. If you need more elaboration, read one of the film’s positive reviews—that would be 95% of them—on Rotten Tomatoes. For comparison: Frozen is sitting pretty at 89%, and The Lego Movie directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller‘s previous (excellent) animated film, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, has an 87% rating. So yeah, The Lego Movie is wonderful. But every movie, no matter how good, has its bad elements*. Here are The Lego Movie‘s. *The exception to this rule is Clue. (Note: There are no spoilers in this list. There may be some in the comments.) 1) “Everything Is Awesome” Will Lodge Itself In Your Brain And Slowly Drive You Insane With Its Infectious Earwormness My friend and I saw The LEGO Movie on Saturday night. I lost count of the number of times in the subsequent 24 hours that we turned to each other to sing the opening lines of the movie’s signature song.
I’m pretty sure I tried to sing it in my sleep. And involuntarily busting out an “Everything is awe-sommmme!” is great when you’re hanging out with friends or in your apartment by yourself. But what happens when I’m at a funeral? I won’t be able to help it. 2) Crying With 3D Glasses On Is a Pain in the Ass As is crying with the double-decker eyesight combo: Normal glasses with 3D glasses perched on top. My fellow four eyes, you know what’s up. There is a point at which The Lego Movie will make you at least get misty. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but there’s a plot twist that you were not expecting. 3) Needed More Wonder Woman This one is only quasi-satirical. This was Wonder Woman’s film debut, and she wasn’t really in it that much beyond what we saw in the trailers. The fact that Wondy’s debut is in a movie where she has a small role and doesn’t even really get to kick any ass is absolutely on WB and DC, not The Lego Movie. I’d have liked a third female with a substantial role to be added to the ranks.
Make the pirate a lady! Or swap out Morgan Freeman for Judi Dench! That said, I absolutely love how the film’s writers didn’t fall into the trap of making their female lead, Wyldstyle, a Manic Pixie Dream Minifig. It looked at one point like they might, but by the end of the movie she had her own agency and character development separate of helping main character Emmet realize his ~*~true heroic potential~*~ (which, in the end, was…ahhhhh, spoilers). 4) Nothing Will Ever Be as Good As The Batman Song Every Batman movie from here until the end of time without Batman’s “Self-Portrait” brooding up its credits will be inferior. Man of Steel sequel, I am looking right at you. 5) You Will Fall In Love With Charlie Day’s Voice (If Pacific Rim Didn’t Do It Already)That “squeaky dog toy mixed with a bagful of rusty nails” (that’s Day describing it, by the way) will worm itself into your consciousness and prod at your brain until you’ve binged all nine seasons of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia in a matter of weeks, maybe even days.
I’ve been down this road, and I know how it goes: With “Dayman” stuck in your head alongside “Everything Is Awesome.” The Lego Movie is spelled “The Lego Movie,” but Lego, when you’re talking about the toy, is LEGO. That’s officially how it is. All I ask is a little editorial consistency!Warner Bros. debuted the new animated adventure The LEGO Batman Movie in theaters over the weekend, the first of what could be several spin-offs of 2014's The LEGO Movie. Will Arnett returned to voice LEGO Batman, with a bunch of DC Comics characters rounding out the cast. Some fans were quite surprised that, aside from the title character, certain characters from The LEGO Movie did not return, particularly Chris Pratt's Emmet and Elizabeth Banks' Wyldstyle. As it turns out, there's a perfectly good explanation for why these characters weren't seen in this spin-off.The LEGO Movie became quite the surprise hit around this time of the year in 2014, opening with an impressive $69 million en route to a $257.4 million domestic haul and $469.1 million worldwide, from just a $60 million budget.
It didn't take long for spin-offs The LEGO Batman Movie and Ninjago (September 22, 2017) to move forward, and since LEGO Batman was already introduced in The LEGO Movie, some fans may have expected Emmet and particularly Batman's girlfriend Wyldstyle to come back for this spin-off. Producer Dan Lin recently spoke with Cinema Blend, where he revealed why they didn't include Emmet and Wyldstyle in The LEGO Batman Movie."Yeah, we talked about it a lot. You can imagine the natural inclination is to include Wyldstyle and Emmet, they were so popular from the first movie, as well as other characters. We said, 'You know what? Batman should have his own movie.' He'll meet up with Emmet and Wyldstyle in due time, so fans will see that pairing again, but we want to build to that. This time, tell Batman's own story, a story we haven't seen before in the movies about what Batman really struggles with when he has everything in the world. He's got money, he's got adoring fans, he's got great vehicles, great gadgets, but when he goes home he really has nothing."
As for Emmet and Wyldstyle, they will most likely reunite with Lego Batman in The Lego Movie 2, although that won't hit theaters until February 8, 2019. The animated sequel was originally slated to debut on May 18, 2018 where it would have gone up against Sony's Slenderman and an untitled Laika animated film. Now in its February 8, 2019 date, it will face another animated sequel, Paramount's Spongebob Squarepants 3. The studio announced earlier this month that Trolls director Mike Mitchell is taking over the directorial duties on The LEGO Movie 2, replacing Rob Schrab, who left over creative differences.The LEGO Batman Movie was also a critical smash hit as well, earning an impressive 91% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While it's certainly well on its way to becoming a box office hit, it's possible that Warner Bros. may order a sequel for The LEGO Batman Movie, continuing Batman's story within this LEGO brick universe. If that does happen, then perhaps Emmet and Wyldstyle could join the mini-figure version of The Dark Knight on the big screen, but it's unclear if the studio is even considering a sequel at this point in time.