IMDB: 7.8/10 247,948 votesChristopher Miller, Phil LordAlison Brie, Craig Berry, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 69 wins & 59 nominations.Australia, USA, Denmark877An ordinary Lego mini-figure, mistakenly thought to be the extraordinary MasterBuilder, is recruited to join a quest to stop an evil Lego tyrant from gluing the universe together.YOU ARE HERE: LAT HomeCollectionsMovies With Batman, Gandalf and Luke Skywalker all making appearances — and, of course, with constant references to the titular toy — "The Lego Movie" may be one of the biggest brand barrages Hollywood has unleashed on the American filmgoing public in recent memory.With an undercurrent of anti-totalitarianism, a suggestion that big corporations keep us numb with empty entertainment and even self-mocking references to dud Lego products, the film also may be one of the more meta and subversive movies Hollywood has unleashed on the American filmgoing public in recent memory.It was only a matter of time.
With "The Lego Movie," the film business has come up with the first-ever postmodern toy movie. And it certainly has a unique construction.FULL COVERAGE: Winter Movie Sneaks"It's an anti-corporate movie that's all about a huge corporation, and that's a funny synthesis," said Chris Miller, one of the film's writer-directors."My dream is to have terrible undergraduate term papers written about the movie," said Phil Lord, another of the film's writer-directors."The Lego Movie" (an early, cheeky subtitle was "The Piece of Resistance") offers an elaborate, ahem, structure.The plot for the animated film, which arrives in theaters Feb. 7 and marks the Danish toy giant's first turn on the big screen, centers on the rule-following Lego mini-figure Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt) who is improbably chosen for an epic quest. He soon meets WyldStyle (Elizabeth Banks), a punky type who believes in maverick thinking and imaginative play. When the evil leader Lord Business (Will Ferrell) cooks up a plan for world domination, the odd couple unite to stop him, encountering Batman (Will Arnett) and other branded Lego characters along the way.
The visuals have been built with a certain aesthetic in mind. Characters look and move as Lego characters do in real life, not according to a CGI film's typical anything-goes rules of motion. Objects like water are made up of bricks.PHOTOS: Billion-dollar movie clubAnd in the tradition of crosstown competitor DreamWorks Animation, Warner Bros. has ensured plenty of adult references; for every kid-friendly pun ("Rest in pieces") there's a sly Siri joke.But if story or comedy aren't what you look for in an animated release, perhaps you'll want to see "The Lego Movie" for its anti-corporate messaging?There are derisive nods to fast-food chains, portrayals of a reality TV show that's been created to anesthetize an electorate and even, in Lord Business' interest in keeping various Lego worlds separate, anti-immigration overtones.Do the filmmakers (who also include co-director Chris McKay, original writers Dan and Kevin Hageman and lead producer Dan Lin) see a contradiction in the questioning of capitalism amid the display of big corporate brands (many are owned by WB, others are licensed) and marketing partners (there will be Happy Meals)?
Or feel odd making a movie about painting outside the lines on behalf of the giant conglomerates typically associated with staying in them?"We are trying to play it from both sides," Lord said."It's actually what Lego is about. The idea with many of the kits is that you can follow the instructions and have it look exactly like it does on the box, or you can go your own way and build it so that it looks the way you want it to look," Miller said. "We're making a movie that shows there's no one way to do things. And hopefully making people laugh doing it." (He and Lord previously teamed up on the "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" and "21 Jump Street" franchises.)PHOTOS: Greatest box office flopsAnd what about corporate partners — did they not have any objections to the self-jabs?"There was some of that," Miller said."We needed to do a lot of reminding with partners that this is a movie so supportive of the brand you can afford to wink at things," Lord said. "We felt like, if we couldn't do that kind of thing, it wasn't worth doing a Lego movie."
The film's, er, piece de resistance is a third-act turn to the postmodern that would make Derrida proud. It's also a conclusion that explains a lot about the story that preceded it. "We wanted an ending that answers a lot of the questions people had before," Lord said. PHOTOS AND MORE PHOTOS: Faces to watch 2014 | Movies ENVELOPE: The latest awards buzz PHOTOS: Greatest box office flops Seizure Led to FloJo's DeathHis 104 scores make his caseRestaurant review: South Beverly GrillBrutal Murder by Teen-Age Girls Adds to Britons' ShockComaneci Confirms Suicide Attempt, Magazine Saysis one of the many featured in . It is based on the popular 2014 animated film directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Emmet, an ordinary LEGO figurine who always follows the rules, is mistakenly identified as the Special -- an extraordinary being and the key to saving the world. He finds himself drafted into a fellowship of strangers who are on a mission to stop an evil tyrant's plans to conquer the world.
Unfortunately for Emmet, he is hopelessly -- and hilariously -- unprepared for such a task, but he'll give it his all nonetheless.I Want To SeeLego MovieCartoonsPosters MoviesMovie PostersWe HaveView MoviesForwardThe LEGO Movie (2014) if you use to build and play with Legos when you were a kid this is the movie for you. The LEGO Movie 4K (2014) The LEGO Movie 4K Blu-ray delivers truly amazing video and audio in this excellent Blu-ray release An ordinary Lego mini-figure, thought to be the extraordinary MasterBuilder, is recruited to join a quest to stop an evil Lego tyrant from gluing the universe together.For more about The LEGO Movie 4K and the The LEGO Movie 4K Blu-ray release, see the The LEGO Movie 4K Blu-ray Review published by on where this Blu-ray release scored 4.0 out of 5.Directors: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller Writers: Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller Starring: Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie
» See full cast & crew The LEGO Movie 4K Blu-ray, Video Quality 4K According to IMDB, The LEGO Movie's live action scenes were captured digitally at 2.8K and the movie proper finished at 2K, presumably the source for this UHD Blu-ray. The LEGO Movie looks undeniably fantastic under the 2160p UHD/HDR microscope. In a movie like this, texture is everything, and neverFrom the opening seconds forward, where all sorts of little nicks and dings on Vitruvius are apparent and fine lines, minuscule imperfections, and even fingerprints are visible on Lord Business' red headpiece, audiences know they're in for a plastic-y treat. Throughout the movie, close-ups, and even medium-distance shots, an incredible array of fine detail, not just little pits and imperfections on figures or even the more generalized texture of LEGO pieces like hair, but teeny-tiny little accents like worn paint lines, fading paint jobs, and other small blemishes that result in a lovingly assembled level of realistic texture
and character to every brick. Colors are likewise very impressive. Bold primaries, such as Wyldstyle's pink and teal hair streaks, red and blue police sirens, flashy laser bolts, and all the myriad of colors in Cloud Cuckoo Land pop with regularity. But is the UHD disc an improvement over the standard 1080 Blu-ray? Not really, not by a significant margin and barely by most any otherMuch like San Andreas, differences are minimal, and there's not a clear path to definitively saying that one looks better than the other. The most obvious differences seem to fall more in the "personal preference" category than they do mostOn that objective front, there's no mistaking that, generally speaking, detail is a little more refined on the UHD. see a bottom layer of paint seeping through a thinning top layer, such as the blue undershirt Emmet wears below the "safety orange" vest. Ditto various thinning spots onVery fine imperfections gain a hair more definition with the added 2160p horsepower.
Shadow details are improved, and as a result some darker corners around a frame appear to enjoy a little more depth and definition. On the other hand, some of the more pervasively dark a touch too dark, resulting in an apparent loss, albeit a very slight loss, of detail. Look at the back of Batman's cape at the 56:37 mark, and a few ofUHD seems to overwhelm some of them while there's a little more breathing room with the more brightly contrasted Blu-ray. Likewise, the UHD pushes the yellow "body" pieces, like heads, a very slight, but noticeable, orange. The Blu-ray disc is much brighter, more cheery, maybe a little less refined. One can get the Blu-ray looking very close to the UHD simply by toying with, primarily, the TV's contrast level but also, to a more refined extent, the color and black adjustments. The same cannot be said of the other direction, at least not with contrast already maxed out under the default HDRThere's nothing wrong with the UHD -- it looks tremendous -- but so too does the Blu-ray, which, in some cases,