Visit our network of sites: LEGO City: Undercover for Wii U Review Rating 1 to 10, top score 10 Fun and charming for both kids and adults Lots to do and see It's Grand Theft Auto for kids No off-TV play support GamePad controls limited and frustrating at times Too similar to other "Lego" games There are annoying issues that mar the Lego City: Undercover experience, but they hardly get in the way of what is ultimately a fun and satisfying experience. The folks at TT games have built a veritable empire out of digital Lego bricks over the years. Starting with Star Wars, gamers have been treated to LEGO-fied versions of some of pop culture’s most enduring icons. Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Batman and The Lord of the Rings trilogy have been given the plastic brick treatment, and soon Spiderman and other Marvel superheroes will grace TVs across the world in LEGO form as well. It’s a safe formula; mixing pop culture with the popular children’s toy.
It’s been successful, and more importantly it’s worked to surprisingly good results. It’s no wonder then that it’s only now that TT games are ditching the tried and true formula in favor of something that they can truly call their own, even if it’s still a bit derivative. In terms of design, LEGO City picks up right where LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes left off; giving players access to an open world to explore and destroy brick by brick. LEGO City – clearly inspired by real world San Francisco – dwarfs Gotham in pure scale, even from the onset when only a small portion of the overall map is available for exploration. The player assumes the role of Chase McCain, an amalgam of nearly every wise-cracking, unorthodox, ace cop you’ve ever seen on small or silver screen. His quest is a simple one: track down and catch his recently escaped from prison nemesis, Rex Fury. The plot may be as cliché ridden as it can possibly get, but that’s kind of the point here.
Chase, and the rest of the cast for that matter, are expertly voice acted, which only adds an extra level of panache to the game’s referential humor that hits more often than it misses, even if it ends up soring over the heads of the younger portion of its audience. Grand Theft Auto for Kids It is quite clear why many have referred to LEGO City as Grand Theft Auto for kids. The overall structure of the game very much mirrors the esteemed sandbox series. Missions and other points of interest are displayed on the game’s mini-map, and players are encouraged to explore every inch of plasticized real estate, whether on foot or by one of the game’s varied vehicles. It’s fun to just run around break stuff, and some gamers may find themselves getting lost in simple exploration before even undertaking a single, story-driven mission. Not all is well in the building block city though. LEGO City’s greatest stumbling block is that it isn’t all that comfortable getting too far from the established, tried and true formula that has permeated the franchises from the very beginning.
The open world, in itself an established feature from Batman 2 as previously noted, helps to establish a feeling of newness, but missions fall right back into well-trodden territory. Chase will move from area to area, break LEGO objects, reconstruct those LEGO objects into new LEGO objects, and arrest some criminals. There are a few sequences that take place in the open world, that help to freshen the gameplay up a bit, but these aren’t utilized nearly as often as they could or should be. Past LEGO games contained unlockable characters that would possess unique abilities that would be key to traversing particular levels or puzzles. LEGO City puts a slight spin on this concept by providing Chase with a variety of outfits and disguises, that gift players with unique equipment and/or abilities that can be used to access secrets around the city or in particular missions. These outfits not only provide variety, but are a great benefit to replayability since completionists will not be able to snag every collectible without going back to past missions with new duds in hand.
Movies and TV shows are Certified Fresh with a steady Tomatometer of 75% or higher after a set amount of reviews (80 for wide-release movies, 40 for limited-release movies, 20 for TV shows), including 5 reviews from Top Critics. Percentage of users who rate a movie or TV show positively. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Quotes Find More Movie QuotesYou are here: Home / Lifestyle / Gadgets & Gear / The LEGO Batman Movie Review: Comedic Family BondingCall me a curmudgeon, but I was one of the few who wasn't fully enamored with "The Lego Movie" when it steamrolled its way through movie theaters in 2014. While it did have a clever plot and a worthwhile theme — that is, for a feature-length commercial — I found its manic pace and spastic visual style tiresome, preferring to close my eyes for stretches and simply occupy myself with identifying the many celebrities whose voice work brought the blocky characters to life. I was thankful when the end credits ran, but from the reaction of the audience I saw the film with, I knew a sequel was inevitable.
And so, it has come to pass as we now have "The Lego Batman Movie," spring-boarding off the concept from the first film that the Caped Crusader is actually a self-absorbed egomaniac who doesn't fight crime for the greater good but for the glory it brings him. Call me a nitpicker if you will, but this is not the Batman I ever knew, and while I could accept this as the throwaway joke it was in "Lego," basing an entire movie on this simplistic concept reveals it to be the faulty premise it is. From the very first frame, the self-referential tone of the script, which had five different writers, rears its ugly head as Batman's raspy voice (Will Arnett) is heard, saying that all important films start with a dark screen, before riffing on the Warner Brothers symbol that appears and anything else that strikes his fancy. This continues throughout most of the movie with comments being made on past incarnations of the character, the various villains he fights and key moments in the Batman's history.
While I'm all for a post-modern approach, director Chris McKay beats this concept into the ground, the obvious, albeit clever comments wearing thin before the first half hour is over. The idea is simple — Batman is a loner, and he likes it. However, when he tells his archenemy, the Joker (Zach Galifianakis), that going mano-a-mano with him means nothing and his faithful butler Alfred (Ralph Fiennes) points out that his greatest fear is being part of a family, the Dark Knight goes into major denial. But once he lays eyes on new police commissioner Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson), he begins to think that spending nights alone in the Batcave might not be the best use of his time. When he's fooled into adopting young orphan Dick Grayson (Michael Cera) and has to spend time with him, his outlook on his solitary life starts to change even more. Much of the plot revolves around a united front of Gotham City's villains, the banishing of the Joker to Superman's Phantom Zone and Batman's new allies — Robin and Batgirl — trying to break down his barriers.
As this plays out, a constant barrage of allusions bombard the audience with such speed, it will require two, perhaps three viewings to catch them all. Credit must be given to McKay and his writers as they've obviously done their homework as second-tier villains rub shoulders with the Caped Crusader's more famous foes, while the most obscure bad guys from the character's Silver Age era bounce about in the background. Equally impressive are sly citings of the various incarnations of the characters, with the serial from the 1940s being mentioned in the same breath as the 1966 television series and every big-screen adventure. Batman aficionados will be well satisfied. The movie shoehorns as many different Lego characters as it possibly can into the movie (the better to increase sales, you know), and it's done in a rather ingenious way. Other heroes from the DC Comics stable show up at Superman's Fortress of Solitude for a party Batman has not been invited to, while the Phantom Zone is populated by not just Superman's villains, but other pop-culture baddies as well, including the Wicked Witch from "The Wizard of Oz", Sauron from "The Lord of the Rings" and Voldemort from the "Harry Potter" movie.
It's all done very cleverly, and I couldn't help but think that doing a "Justice League" movie with Lego characters may be more entertaining than the upcoming live-action version. Despite many key pieces being in place, the film winds up being something to endure rather than enjoy. The manic action, whether it be a variety of blocks whirring about to create a much-needed device or an epic throw down between heroes and villains, becomes a dervish of confusion, the images rapid-fire salvos aimed at those with attention deficits. There's simply no visual clarity to be had and for all of the trouble gone to in order to bring this distinctive, vibrant world to life, there isn't a single moment of calm afforded us to simply sit back and drink it all in. But then again, I'm an odd bird — I prefer to appreciate art rather than be assailed by it. 'The Lego Batman Movie' (★★1/2 out of four) Cast: Will Arnett, Ralph Fiennes, Rosario Dawson, Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera, Channing Tatum, Mariah Carey, Billy Dee Williams, Conan O'Brien and Eddie Izzard.
Directed by Chris McKay; produced by Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller; screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Jared Stern and John Whittington. A Warner Brothers release. Rated PG (rude humor, some action). At AMC Village Mall 6, Carmike 13, Onarga Theater and Savoy 16 IMAX. Surprising "Rings" outdoes predecessors (★★★ out of four). Not being a fan of "The Ring" (2002) or its sequel, I had no great hope when Paramount Pictures announced a third entry/reboot was in the works. Surprisingly, "Rings" proves to be superior to the two previous movies what with its streamlined story and eerie atmosphere courtesy of Spanish director F. Javier Gutierrez. Taking the premise of the first film, the script from David Loucka, Jacob Estes and Akiva Goldsman expands on that tale, providing a worthy and logical continuation, finding new life in a concept that was seemingly wrung dry in "The Ring 2." Having left his loyal girlfriend Julia (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz) behind to go off to college, Holt (Alex Roe) finds himself in over his head when he agrees to help one of his professors (Johnny Galecki) with an experiment involving a certain supernatural videotape he has come into possession of.
Yep, he's taken a look at that creepy cinematic nightmare from the first two movies, and he has seven days to live, unless he makes a copy of it and gets someone else to watch it. Julia catches wind of this, decides to help Holt and before you know it, she looks at the video in order to take his place. This setup is rather pedestrian, but the investigation the two leads embark on in order to find the origins of the tape takes some unexpected turns that make the backstory of the cursed video richer. Re-watching the centerpiece film is a bracing reminder of what a haunting, disturbing piece of work it is with its monochrome images of dead horses, a lone woman plunging to her death, a cryptic lighthouse and that famous desolate well in the middle of nowhere. Equally effective is new footage that mysteriously pops up within the original film, including glimpses of a flooded cemetery, a burning corpse and a mysterious doorway. The cryptic, disturbing tone of the tape casts a pall over the story and provides understandable motivation for the characters.
Gutierrez proves to be a master of crafting one unnerving, atmospheric scene after another, suffusing his shots with shadows as well as a greyish hue that creates a perpetual sense of doom, an oppressive world that's constantly overcast, holding nothing but bad luck for all who live in it. The filmmaker's penchant for intrusive camera placement — close shots that inch nearer and nearer to Julia as death approaches her — effectively increases the tension. The level of skill on display helps elevate the material which very easily could have been done on the cheap. Strong support is supplied by veteran character actor Vincent D'Onofrio as a blind priest who gives some key clues as to the origin of the new footage, while Lutz provides a quiet strength to Julia, making her a sympathetic character we can't help but hope will escape the fate that has befallen her. Films such as this tend to live or die by their ending, and "Rings" has a doozy, a conclusion that doesn't feel forced or tacked on, but one that's an extension of the movie's internal logic.