Monday, February 10, 2014

The Lego Movie Review

Whenever I see a trailer for an upcoming movie, I always predict what it will be like in my head; whether it be good or bad. For the most part, I'm often right. I know I shouldn't make a judgement call about a movie based solely off a trailer but it just happens. When I saw the trailer for "The Lego Movie" for the first time, I didn't give it a second thought. It looked like a half assed animated movie meant only to put kids in the seat who would drag their parents to the cinema with them, it looked like a cash grab. So going into the movie I wasn't sure what to expect, and I'll say I didn't expect what I got. "The Lego Movie" revolves around a construction worker named Emmet, who is the most plain and uninteresting individual ever. One day while working on a job he comes upon something he's never seen before, a piece like no other Lego he's ever seen. After coming into contact with he has some sort of vision and then blacks out, he wakes up inside a police station be interrogated by someone named bad cop with the piece stuck to his back; soon after he is saved by a young woman named Wild Style. She explains that what he found was the piece de resistance, a legendary piece and the only known weakness for a super weapon known as the kragel. It turns out Emmit is part of a prophecy and is known as the special, so it is up to him and a group of master builders to stop the kragel and save the world. I'm a big enough man to admit when I'm wrong; I thought this was going to be a mediocre animated film, turns out the "The Lego Movie" is absolutely fantastic. This is one of the most original and unique movies I've seen in quite a while. Like I said earlier, I thought this would be a fairly half assed movie. In reality this is brilliantly written film with nonstop jokes and some surprisingly sincere moments. The animation style is beautiful and one of a kind, the animation is made up of CGI but is made up to look like stop motion. It's very cool and suits the movie, but I found it to be jarring to watch for a while and took some time to get used to. In a movie like this you would expect to just have any average voice actors, but what they did was get an all star cast filled with some A-list actors to do the voices and they are great. The movie is filled with tons of references from a number of other films and brings forth this sort of nostalgic feeling. This is a movie very much made for kids, but it's also a movie that the whole family will enjoy; so when the kids drag their parents to this movie, at least everyone will have a good time. Unfortunately as much as the movie does right, it does have its short comings. While it's a very funny movie, some of the jokes (especially early on) do fall flat. Probably my biggest complaints would involve the ending; at only an hour and 40 minutes the movie isn't very long, but by the end it does drag on some. Also the movie ends rather suddenly, it has what seems like an appropriate ending then drops one last joke in you lap that doesn't seem to fit. Those small complaints aside, this movie surprised me. "The Lego Movie" is fantastic and I loved it from start to finish, if you're going to the theater anytime soon this is the movie to see. I'd rank it among some of the best animated films of the past couple years, and I would be shocked if it didn't get a nomination for best animated feature at next year's Oscars.

Pros: Beautiful and unique animation, great voice acting, laugh a minute comedy, brilliant screenplay, tons of awesome references, surprisingly touching, nostalgic feeling, great family fun.
Cons: Some jokes fall flat, animation takes some time to get used to, drags on a little bit, ends somewhat suddenly.

4/5 Stars

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