Release Date: February 14 (Europe), February 14 (North America)Platforms available on: PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC, Wii UDeveloper: TT GamesPublisher: Warner Bros InteractiveGenre: Action-adventureBlockbuster franchises like Star Wars and Batman fared well when they were given the LEGO treatment on PC and consoles, but British developer TT Games has taken a slightly different approach for its videogame adaptation of The LEGO Movie.The LEGO Movie Videogame makes no attempt to parody its cinematic counterpart, instead re-enacting it scene for scene, with players controlling a growing cast of colourful characters possessing varying strengths and weaknesses.While the game swerves many of the pitfalls of your average movie adaptation, converting a 100-minute film into a much longer, interactive piece of work makes the experience feel drawn out in places.The LEGO Movie Videogame takes the majority of its gameplay cues from the previous LEGO videogames, combining block-smashing combat with platforming and puzzle segments.TT Games was apparently reluctant to alter what has been a winning formula for them in the past, and although it has lost some of its sheen after so many instalments, a memorable roster of playable characters helps keep the game fresh.
bat largely consists of mindless button bashing, but is occasionally fun and therapeutic, while puzzle solving typically involves using several characters' abilities in conjunction with one another.For instance, Emmet is equipped with a pneumatic drill that can be used to deconstruct parts of the environment, allowing other team members to use their unique skills to fashion the debris into a scalable platform.These puzzles aren't particularly challenging, as the solutions nearly always involve smashing or rebuilding something nearby with visual cues to help you along, but this at least makes The LEGO Movie Videogame accessible to younger players.Having to switch between three or more characters to solve some of the game's more complex conundrums begins to feel tedious after a while, though this is a criticism that dates back as far as the original LEGO Star Wars.Levels are something of a mixed bag, ranging from the rich and colourful Cloud Cuckoo Land to the mundanity of a construction site
, but exploration usually feels rewarding given that unearthing hidden loot takes you a step closer to unlocking some of the bonus characters.The LEGO Movie Videogame won't hold too many surprises for long-term fans of the series, yet the developers have experimented with some new ideas, such as a block-matching mini-game that has players identifying individual LEGO pieces against the clock. The Lego Movie is pretty fantastic for a feature-length commercial, but George Clooney‘s long-delayed The Monuments Men isn’t worthy of its esteemed cast. Here’s what to see and what to skip at the movies this weekend. The Lego Movie One theory holds that an ear worm – a particularly catchy song you can’t get out of your head – only goes away when you reset the lyrical loop by singing the whole thing. In an effort to help you out in advance, here’s a link to “Everything Is Awesome,” because you will be seeing The Lego Movie – and this demonic little ditty will set up shop somewhere in your cranium.
How do I know? Because so much of The Lego Movie really is awesome. One teensy hitch: The film isn’t actually for kids. Oh, there’s nothing terribly objectionable, as the violence comes down to a bunch of exploding bricks, and jokes that are remotely suggestive will sail right over their heads. (Your kids are short.) But Lego, like the admittedly deeper Toy Story franchise, is meant to appeal to an adult’s nostalgia while serving up a fun plot that will engage the younger set. Chris Pratt stars as Emmet, a construction worker with absolutely nothing unique or interesting about him. He follows all the rules and has never had an original thought, at least not until he meets the ballsy, beautiful Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks). She’s a master builder on the hunt for a missing piece called the Piece of Resistance, in the hopes that it will stop the nefarious Lord Business (Will Ferrell) and his henchman, Good Cop/Bad Cop (Liam Neeson). Only, she doesn’t find it – Emmet does, which makes him The Special, the savior prophesized by the wizard Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman).
From there, directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (21 Jump Street) unleash a heady rush of knowing winks to other franchises (Middle-earth is a land of squat illiterates; Batman, played by Will Arnett, is a pompous prat), while skipping through various Lego landscapes, all segregated by Lord Business. The genius here is that the film directly alludes to the difference between the way adults and children interact with Lego: Lord Business wants perfectly constructed edifices kept in tidy order, while Wyldstyle and her crew are all for throwing disparate pieces together and letting the imagination take over. The animators dabble in both approaches, using the Lego palette to create remarkable visuals (a mix of CGI and stop-motion animation using some 15 million bricks). Ocean waves ripple, fire crackles and Wyldstyle even tousles her hair, all with those iconic little pieces. The Lego Movie is so visually arresting that it almost makes up for ebbs in the plot, just as the action should be ramping up.
But that’s a small complaint in a film that is a joy to watch and so much fun to listen to, with vocal performances that are evocative and hilarious. As for that delightfully dastardly theme song, you can blame the film’s composer, Devo founder Mark Mothersbaugh, for that. It’s a tune evil enough to bring a tear to Lord Business’s tiny eye. The Monuments Men There’s a fascinating story to tell about the real-life intellectuals who headed for the front lines in World War II to save art from being looted and destroyed by the Nazis. This is not it. Director and star George Clooney assembles a phenomenal cast, including Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray and John Goodman, but fails to give them much to do, as if their innate charm would somehow carry the movie. But that would be far too much heavy lifting, as The Monuments Men scatters its cast all across Western Europe as they hunt down the world’s treasures, but fails to provide them with narrative thrust to move things along.