"The Lego Movie" Review

As many have pointed out to me, I have never done a review of a children's movie. It is not out of a distaste for them, I very much enjoy them. The reason I have never done it before is because it tends to be slightly more difficult to review something targeted at younger audiences. You can't use the same microscope that you would judge something like Gravity or Inception. However, The Lego Movie is poised to be one of the biggest movies of 2014, so if there was ever a time to give it a try, it's now. (Yes, to the people that ask me, I will eventually review Frozen.) 

In The Lego Movie, Emmet is an ordinary guy in literally every sense of the word. He has lived his entire life by following instructions, and never doing something for himself. One day, when he stumbles across a mythical artifact, he is thrust into the world of creativity, and imagination. With new friends Wyldstyle, Vitruvius, Batman, Benny, Uni-kitty, and Metalbeard, he must stop the tyrannical Lord Business from gluing the world together permanently. 

I was skeptical when I first heard about The Lego Movie. I immediately pictured a two hour commercial for Legos. And I thought that Disney had pretty much cornered the toy-movie market with the Toy Story franchise. So, sufficient to say, I didn't have big expectations. In execution, I found the film brilliant. 

The film is original, creative, and subversive of all that has come before it. Nothing about this movie is as you would expect it to be. The gags and jokes are silly, goofy, yet at the same time they are so deftly smart. The slapstick that emerges cleverly parodies the various little quirks one will discover when playing with Legos. The sight gags magnificently take on the Lego companies own organizational patterns and child like pronunciation of words they don't fully understand. 

This movie has something for everyone. And by everyone, I mean EVERYONE. No matter what catches your interest, there is something here that will appeal to you. If you played with the toys as a child, you will undoubtedly recognize one of the mini figures. I happened to own the 2002 NBA All Stars set, and when Shaquille O'Neal popped up here, I like many got nostalgic. 

For a movie such as this, it is extraordinarily deep. Just when the film seems as though it is out of tricks, and is about to commit deus ex machina by conforming, it steers right into new territory and becomes something even bigger than it already was. There are no dull moments, no deceleration in the stories procedure, and nothing to make this movie feel anything other than genius. 

As for children, it comes out strong with the idea that you can build anything you want without arbitrarily following a set of directions. You should feel free to use your imagination when you play. Characters who you would never expect show up do, and they interact with ones you could only picture in playtime. It doesn't heavy handedly deliver it's messages, it does it subconsciously. If I was going sum this up in a kid's review, I would say that it is simply two hours of the best play time ever. 

Chris Pratt provides the voice of Emmet with the same innocence and wonder that made him so popular. But whereas in the past he has been immature and out there, he manages to ground his character in a way appropriate for children. 

Elizabeth Banks voices Wyldstyle in a way that goes against the grain of the average love interest. Like the movie itself she magnificently subverts the social norms while at the same time parodying it. Will Arnett is tremendous as the voice of Batman. In a way that pokes fun at the gruff voice Christian Bale so famously made, Arnett also plays off the more ridiculous aspects of the Batman character in ways that the live action movies don't. In a sense, this could be the truest incarnation of the character we've ever seen. 

The enormously talented Charlie Day voices Benny "the 1980's something space-guy" and rather than succumb to normal hyperactive character tropes, he plays him with a magnificent heart and keeps him interesting. Nick Offerman voices Metalbeard the Pirate in a fashion that shows that he can do so much more than simply play brooding, masculine Ron Swanson types. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) Liam Neeson is interesting again as "Bad Cop," where he is able to parody his recent action badass persona, and playfully inhibits his Irish heritage. Morgan Freeman once again plays the aged mentor type, but this time around, he too gets to poke fun at his normal roles and hilariously reinvent himself.

Now we come to Mr. Will Ferrell. On the surface, his charter seems to be nothing more than your average super villain. Then, his villain makes intrusion into the common ideas of world domination and turns them on their side. Then finally, without giving anything away, Ferrell goes so much deeper in every respect. I would even go as far as to say that the is the best Will Ferrell performance I have seen since Everything Must Go. And given that Anchorman 2 just came out, that says something. 

You need to see this movie, then see it again. It is a movie that legitimately has something for everyone. It is full of fun and lessons for children, and enough substance to keep adults intellectually invested. 

A