Movie Thoughts: “The Lego Movie”
From IMDb.com
When talking about things that I am usually good at, judging whether or not a movie is going to be good (based upon its trailer) is something that I have a very high success rate with. Biased? Sure. But a high success rate nonetheless. When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I thought that it had a lot of potential.
Unfortunately, when it came to the theater by my house, Portland was in the grasp of the 2014 Snowpocalypse and the city was shut down. The theater was still open but none of my friends (nor I, for that matter) were able to drive and so I had no one to go see it with. And, be a guy who — at the time — was pushing 30, going by yourself to a movie predominantly geared towards children is frowned upon. It is one of those things that women can do without second thought……but if guys do it, then it looks like you have an interest in abducting kids or something. Like hanging out at a playground: women can do that…..guys cannot. That’s just how it goes.
Anyway, so I didn’t get to see it when it was in theaters. Fortunately, the receptionist at my work (who was a BIG fan of the movie) bought it when it came out on BluRay/DVD and let me borrow the DVD copy. I was not disappointed.
Expectations vs. Reality:
Kid Friendly: Definitely. I don’t think that there was anything offensive or questionable in the movie — or nothing that my largely-desensitized-but-still-trying-to-be-aware-of mind registered. Usually, kid movies will involve adult jokes that kids don’t understand…..until they’re older…. but I don’t remember anything that jumped out at me. The jokes and comedy in the movie were well-done for all ages, I think.
Super Creative: Definitely. I really liked how they paid attention to even the smallest details (i.e. the road, smoke, etc.) and “made” them out of Lego pieces. That was really cool. The story was also original and well-done. I didn’t know exactly how they were going to go about it — i.e. essentially making an established narrative out of Lego pieces — but I liked the direction that they went with the story and I think that it is enjoyable for both kids and adults.
I enjoyed the wit that they used in displaying humor, as well. For example, the town’s theme song of “Everything is Awesome” was being sung by all of the townspeople and the main character, in expressing how much he loved the song, exclaimed: “I could sing this for hours!” — then they did the static title of “5 Hours Later” — before continuing with the song. I enjoyed that. Actually, they utilized the static titles a few times in the movie and executed them very well, I’d say.
The satire of government and the people was also something that I think adults and older kids could probably understand, but it was presented in a manner that even younger audiences could enjoy. For example, the use of mass consumerism to distract the people, to where anytime a character in town was verging on having an original thought, they were distracted by the government-operated media. Younger audiences may not understand the satire but I reckon that they would be able to recognize that free-thinking was not encouraged in town.
Strong Cast: I’d say so. It’s always tough (for me) to be critical of voice-actors because so much of “bad acting”, in my opinion, comes from body language and delivery. However, this movie had quite the all-star cast — Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Morgan Freeman, Jonah Hill, to name a few — and they all did a great job, I thought. No complaints or criticism there, in terms of poor casting.
Super Happy Story: This was the only part that I was a little off on, haha. At times, the story got kind of dark. Not excessively so — i.e. no more so than, say, “Toy Story” — but there were definitely times throughout the movie where I thought to myself: “Geez…this is kind of a dark movie for kids.” Ultimately, as one could expect, everything works out in the end and it ends up being a happy/fun story — but there are definitely some parts where you feel the movie.
Overall:
This almost never happens but I actually do regret not seeing it in the theaters. I would have paid theatrical price for this one because I want to encourage the movie industry to get creative, to come up with original ideas, or interesting approaches to cinematic storytelling. So, when such movies come around, I like to reward the effort in hopes that my support encourages the creative process. That said, this is definitely a movie that I would recommend paying to see or purchasing.
-Ryan.
The Peanut Gallery 