Director: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller Cast: Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie, Charlie Day, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman Release Date: February 7th, 2014 There are few movies that are capable of savaging a person’s cynical expectations and delivering a cinematic product that is endlessly inventive, sale delightfully thought-provoking and amusing beyond belief. The LEGO Movie was one of those films for me. A full-length feature focused on LEGO blocks has the potential to be a disastrous waste of time but this film proves that with the right creative spirit, medical a story can work far beyond its “supposed” limitations. Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt) is the main character here, healing whose life is as ordinary as it could be. He spends his days working as a construction officer and accepting the life that Lord Business (Will Ferrell), the obsessive dictator of this LEGO world, offers his citizens. At work, Emmet endlessly sings the empty but delightfully-catchy national theme song “Everything is Awesome” while at night, he watches the nation’s most popular show, “Where are My Pants?”
In this land which is oddly reminiscent of the nation that George Orwell laid out in his classic novel 1984, the citizens of this LEGO land are spied on and tortured if they step out of bounds. But things change for the sometimes simple-minded Emmet. After a seemingly innocuous encounter with the free-spirited Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), he realizes that the world is about to come to an end and realizes he can help save it. The LEGO Movie’s premise seems superficial on paper but the writing team here crafts together an insightful and admittedly meta-story that handily works for both parents and adults. (It’s ironic that The Monuments Men, which has a premise that should work but never does, also arrives in theaters this weekend.) This feature’s self-referential spirit awakens it from its humble premise and brings this colorful world to life. Emmet, for one, is dedicated to following instructions, akin to the children who build LEGO buildings simply following the directions.
But he learns to think more creatively in order to strive in his orderly world. There are also several meta jokes (and a jumping jack scene) that poke fun at the toy’s physical limitations. Rounding out the cast of characters are an eclectic group of supporting players that bring spontaneity and freshness to the action. From the witty prophet Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) to a cameo by the wise Abraham Lincoln (Will Forte) to an appearance by the unloved Green Lantern (Jonah Hill), the supporting players all add a layer of ingenuity to the picture. Additionally, the team behind this film have a sophisticated knowledge of cinema and use that to their advantage. It definitely helps that Anthony Daniels and Billy Dee Williams (C-3PO and Lando from the Star Wars saga, respectively) lend their voice talents to the LEGO versions of their famous characters. Colorful and creative, The LEGO Movie takes characters that children love— as I once did— and sublimely creates a world for them to play in.
A third act twist here cements this story’s ability to think outside the box, throw away the instructions and build something out of blocks that is both fun and fulfilling. It’s easily one of the most creative films I’ve seen in a long time and will likely be one of this year’s greatest flicks.When I think about the house I grew up in — my football-themed bedroom, the big family room, the yard — there are always Lego bricks everywhere. And I’m clearly not alone, because everyone in my packed theater watching The Lego Movie this weekend seemed to have the same experience I did: a 100-minute exercise in nostalgia, rendered in RealD 3D. It's the first big-budget Lego movie in the company's 80-year history, made painstakingly over five years in concert with writer–director duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Its cast list is riddled with A-list actors, its marketing is massive and unavoidable — and it's a shockingly fun, remarkably entertaining movie. Sure, it's an hour and a half of advertising for Lego, but if this is the future of marketing, sign me up.
The movie follows Emmet Brickowski (Chris Pratt), a normal guy with a normal job and a normal life. As soon as he wakes up, he breaks out the instruction manual. He follows the speed limit, works diligently at his construction job, and every once in a while wonders if there might be more to life than this. One night as he's leaving his worksite he meets a pretty girl named Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), and finds a mysterious object called The Piece of Resistance. The one who finds it, it's been prophesied, is The Special: the smartest, most talented, most interesting person in the world, and the one who will save everyone from President Business (Will Ferrell) and his evil plan. But to do that he needs to ditch the instructions and go freestyle. There's only one way to stop lord business It's not exactly breaking new ground — normal guy learns he's special, saves the world — and it does come with a fair amount of heavy-handed preaching about how everyone is special and we can all be anything we want.
Like any good family-friendly movie, there's a love story, there are jokes both obvious and subtle, and there's a surprisingly tender third act. But everything about the way The Lego Movie unfolds feels fresh, with Lord and Miller doing their brand-building duty while simultaneously rolling their eyes at it. Where a movie like The Internship is one long bow at the altar of Google, The Lego Movie frequently cuts to awkward scenes where minifigures can’t quite figure out how to hold hands, or the revered "relics" that are mostly just gross things you might accidentally find in a box full of Lego bricks. It’s loving throughout, but it’s edgy and self-deprecating enough to never feel contrived. Everything in the movie from elaborate cities to puffs of smoke is made of Lego, and it's all fair game: at one point Wyldstyle builds a motorcycle out of an alleyway in order to escape Liam Neeson's nefarious Bad Cop. It's this build-and-rebuild ethos that makes the movie go — the movie twists and turns relentlessly and often without any warning, as if there's a kid above acting like King Kong and knocking down the tower he's built before starting over on something different.
It's a funny, quirky, weird adventure that has fun with the limitations of Legos while making clear that there's nothing you can't do or make with those interlocking blocks. "I think what we’ve really found is that Lego is a medium," Michael McNally, Lego's brand relations director, tells me. "It’s not a toy, it’s a medium for other people to tell their own stories and create their own adventures." To tell theirs, Lord and Miller (who wrote and directed 21 Jump Street and the Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs series) turned to Animal Logic, a well-known Australian effects studio. The result is stunning, a mix of stop-motion and photorealism that left me constantly forgetting and remembering the characters are Lego minifigures with claws for hands and as many personalities as they have outfits. The world of The Lego Movie is enormous and meticulously detailed, and McNally notes that you could pause the movie at any point and build everything you see. (Lego’s own designers helped Animal Logic with the set and character design.)
The film still feels very much like Lord and Miller, though, a constant string of winking references and off-topic pop culture jokes to go with crazy sight gags and physical humor. The cast may be needlessly star-studded — Channing Tatum’s Superman has all of about three lines — but it’s hard to imagine a lesser group pulling off this mix of irreverent and sincere. Will Arnett might be my favorite Batman ever. It's a movie made for Lego fans of all ages, which McNally reminds me are everywhere: Lego is the second-largest toy maker in the world, and there are even communities of Adult Fans of Lego (AFOL) around the world. "It’s no different from Volkswagen owners or Apple enthusiasts or Disney fanatics," he says. "We have Lego fans." He grants that the movie seems designed to encourage and revive interest in Lego (and to sell bricks), but says that wasn't the point. "A feature film was never really something we set out to make. A lot of people say, ‘Well, toy movies are just designed to sell toys.’