Welcome to the Lego Universe, where "everything is awesome!"Jam-packed with motivational lessons, wacky dialogues and crazy impertinence, "The Lego Movie" is a blast for kids and adults alike.Initially, it feels strange to be transported to the Lego Universe where everything is endlessly complex, yet elementary, clunky and crude, just like the Lego toys themselves. But once you are in you get hooked, line and sinker.The plot here revolves around the Lego philosophy, "learning through play and creativity." It strongly puts forth this point and makes you realize with rhetoric questions like; "Can you live in this world if you think, outside the box?" Or "Is there a balance to be struck between following the instructions and being creative by using your imagination to make something of your own?"The narration starts off with Lego Land being ruled by a control freak President Business (Will Ferrell) with world domination on his mind. With a constant disregard for creative people, he spouts, "We need ideas so dumb and bad, that people will not think them to be useful."
His dictatorial biddings are carried out by the split-personality Cop (Liam Neeson) who swings from being Good Cop Bad Cop.On the other end, a lone construction worker Emmet (Chris Pratt) lives life by the book. Being a builder he always makes the sets exactly as they are supposed to be, demolishing those which do not conform to the instructions. He doesn't seem to make much of an impression on anyone else around him, although he scrupulously follows the instructions about how to make friends too.His life turns topsy-turvy when one night he follows a trespasser, the enigmatic and charmingly beautiful Wildstyle (Elizabeth Banks). He end up falling into a construction excavation pit and stumbles across the mysterious red block "Piece of Resistance" and, in the process, is earmarked as The Chosen One, the one prophesied to reunite the great Master Builders and remove Lord Business from power before he destroys their world.He immediately becomes a target of the police and during a brief period of capture, he learns that the seemingly benevolent President Business intends to destroy the world in a couple of days, by unleashing a super-secret weapon known as the Kragle.Breaking out with Wildstyle's help, Emmet soon discovers many Lego worlds beyond his own, and finds his way to thwart the evil plan.
Visually, the action itself is reckless, sprawling and elaborate, without being confusing. It is exciting to see their extensive adventures executed within the miniature world of the tiny pop-apart pieces of the little building blocks. The water, the flames, the ship and every little element that is a part of their universe animated but still obviously meant to be the kind of small plastic accessories from the toys.The voices of the celebrity star cast aptly match the characters. They accentuate the action and enhance the jokes which appease both older and younger audiences. The soundtrack, "Everything is awesome" is catchy and a sure-fire chart buster with kids.The animation in the film is achieved using an ingenious combination of computer generated images and stop motion, and the entire film has a palpable quality that makes you want to reach out and play with it. In 3D, this sensation is amplified and intensified, taking you into the Lego Universe more deeply and authentically.Directors Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, who had earlier delivered the first installment of, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" and "21 Jump Street", have managed to assemble this film with apt meticulousness.
They have co-scripted the film from a story by Dan Hageman and Kevin Hageman who have earlier written "Hotel Transylvania." With wit, action and emotion, woven in equal measure, Miller & Lord have succeeded in making it difficult to resist revisiting the film.The Piece of Resistance Our community, 1124 want it Our community, 1237 want it Super Secret Police Enforcer Our community, 982 want it Published on Jan 13. Let creativity be the guide to a building and gaming adventure – journey through unexpected worlds and team-up with unlikely allies on the quest to defeat the evil Lord Vortech. Play with different minifigures from different worlds together in one LEGO® videogame, and use each other’s vehicles and gadgets in a way never before possible. LEGO® Bad Cop™ driving the DeLorean Time Machine…why not?! Masters of Spinjitsu fighting alongside Wonder Woman™...yes, please! Get ready to break the rules, because the only rule with LEGO® Dimensions™ is that there are no rules.
The LEGO® DIMENSIONS™ Starter Pack is all players need to embark on a fantastic quest. Included in the LEGO DIMENSIONS Starter Pack: • LEGO® DIMENSIONS™ videogame• LEGO® Toy Pad• Bricks to build the LEGO® Gateway• 3 LEGO® minifigures (Batman™, Gandalf™, and Wyldstyle™)• LEGO® Batmobile™ vehicle Build the minifigure heroes and fire up the game to start the experience, then follow the in-game building instructions to assemble the loose bricks into the LEGO® Gateway, and place the structure on the LEGO Toy Pad. Expand the adventure by collecting more minifigures, vehicles, gadgets, and new levels with the purchase of three different types of Expansion Packs. Use whatever minifigure with whichever vehicle or gadget – go ahead… break the rules!If there’s one word that perfectly encapsulates The Lego Batman Movie, it’s relentless. From the copious amounts of fun and satire it brings to the animated brick-world of Gotham, to the unceasing egomaniac personality of its crime-fighting vigilante – gravelly voiced by a wholly-enjoyable Will Arnett, reprising his cameo appearance from 2014’s The Lego Movie – the film is packed to the rafters, mostly in a good way.
A lot of its blend of humour is directed at the Caped Crusader himself, and in its attempt to be eternally self-aware and skewer everything in its sight, The Lego Batman Movie doesn't spare anything – with Batman even narrating over the studio logos before the first frame comes into view.That quality extends throughout the 90-minute adventure, which moves at such a frenetic pace that it barely affords any time for its audience to unpack the many layers of its previous comments before landing a barrage of successive ones, on and on. The biggest proof of both those qualities - self-awareness, and the pacing - come in the film’s opening minute. Arnett's Batman takes swipes at the art of film-making itself, giving us a play-by-play of what all “important movies” do – they all open with a black screen, follow it up with a rising soundtrack, and present a wall of text for viewers to read, which Lego Batman ends up narrating anyhow. Because he can, and because this is his film.Batman's portrayal as a fully conceited, uncaring individual is given the full burn in the sequence that kick-starts this comedic romp from director Chris McKay – who served as animation co-director on The Lego Movie – and his team of five screenwriters.
For the world’s greatest detective, getting dirty with Gotham’s elite squad of villains – or human farts, as a disappointed Joker (Zach Galifianakis) calls them later – is like going through the motions. He lives off the rock star treatment he gets from the citizens of Gotham, but he has severe disdain for quite literally everyone, which involves a full-of-himself approach towards defeating the villains.Having lost his parents at a young age, Master Wayne has built himself into a supremely-guarded adult – he lives on an island figuratively, and literally – who refuses to let anyone into his life. It’s gotten to the point where he’s oblivious of the true role and impact of his butler Alfred Pennyworth (Ralph Fiennes). Confronted with the prospect of having to care for an orphan he inadvertently adopted, Batman questions Alfred on how he could possibly know what having a surrogate son – Michael Cera bringing a fantastic sense of comedic timing to a young Dick Grayson, and later Robin – feels like.
His contempt for emotions extends towards his hostility with Joker, who wants Batman to acknowledge that they are the greatest of foes, and have something special – he might be a villainous fella, but he’s secretly sensitive. It’s also one in a series of homoerotic comments between the two. But Batman is adamant to not concede even an inch. He doesn’t "do ‘ships, as in relationships", he tells the Joker. And when he follows it up by saying there’s no “us”, the Joker’s eyes swell up. It’s one of the most hilarious, delicately sweet, yet deep understanding of the complex dynamic between the two, and it’s outright fascinating to witness that in an animated film where everyone’s a Lego.That aspect is one of the overall great things about The Lego Batman Movie. McKay and his genius team of writers have inculcated a steady stream of jokes on a variety of levels; so, while there are plenty of asides (with a handy sprinkle of butt jokes) and elbow-jabs that will keep the younger viewers pleased, the grown-ups can rest assured that the film’s satire is wide-ranging – going all the way from last year’s Zack Snyder trash, to the 60s Adam West days – and nuanced enough to earn those knowing laughs, be it a critique of our superhero culture
, or the way the animation genre cheats to ride into our hearts.In the latter sense, it’s sometimes a bit too clever for its own good. When Robin points out how animated characters are given bigger eyes in proportion to their faces, the very same thing is already being done with the character. Even if it works on one level as a method of self-awareness, on another level, it feels like a way of having the cake and eating it too, all to its own glee. Its problems extend into the handling of Batman as a central figure.At one point in the opening minutes, Batman commands his Batcomputer to "overcompensate", which allows his Batmobile to stage a grand entrance for itself, and give its owner the upper hand in a dicey situation. At its self-indulgent worst, Lego Batman can feel very much like that, in that it's overcompensating for its weak links – namely a straightforward plot, and the lack of character development beyond its titular star, who loves the spotlight anyway. In doing so, it falls into the trap of not learning from its own protagonist's shortcomings.
Because Batman is so much of a bigger draw for the film, it affords him much more importance than everyone else around him.Thanks to Arnett’s charm as a forever-right Batman who’s always this side of annoying, wall-to-wall action, and the ability to ridicule itself the most – something must be said of how the execs at Warner Bros. willingly take on the self-mockery, of its dozen or so properties with free reign – the spin-off Lego adventure has achieved the seemingly unthinkable.Three years ago, before the toy company’s characters first came to life on the big screen, it seemed like the ultimate cash-grab for Hollywood, and Lego. But The Lego Movie proved to be a clever insight into our consumerist culture, in which everyone happily functions, nobody questions, and “everything is awesome”. The Lego Batman Movie is nowhere near as inventive, but it largely does more of the same for skewering our current superhero culture – a dark, cynical mess that’s too busy with morality and inner struggles to see the joys of life.