Jeff's Reviews

Thoughts on every movie I've ever seen.

The Lego Movie (2014)

Directed by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

Starring Will Arnett, Elizabeth Banks, Craig Berry, Alison Brie

Author

This is fantastic marketing for Lego. We’re shown how cool the toys can be with a little bit of creativity. The end, in particular, is as heavy a sales pitch as there has ever been in a movie. I would like to see where Lego’s revenues go after this.

Effects are dazzling. To show this kind of action while staying faithful to the look and feel of Lego is an amazing accomplishment. And they didn’t shy away from anything. Everything is shown full-screen, with wide shots, and in long takes. The textures on the faces and bodies of the plastic figurines are perfect.

And it’s funny! The dialogue is crisp and and the comedic timing is wonderful. Pratt is excellent, and it’s nice hearing some familiar voices in other roles. Obvious parallels to The Matrix, and a lot of inspiration is taken from Lord of the Rings, Terminator, and others. It’s fun trying to figure out which movies certain lines and scenes were borrowed from.

It’s nice to have all of these licensed characters together in a single movie. It’s a weird, magical feeling to combine universes, and I don’t think it’s happened to this extent in a movie since Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Must have cost a fortune for Lego to acquire all of these rights, but I’m pretty sure it’s given new life to the toy line and could very well be what saves the company.

The shift to the real world at the end was a bit jarring. I was quite enjoying the Lego universe that we were immersed in. But it did indeed lend the movie a bit of emotion, and it worked.

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