Sunday, April 6, 2014

Film Review - The Lego Movie (2014)

The Lego Movie is directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and stars the voice of Chris Pratt as Emmet, a lowly construction worker who is said to be the great master builder who will save the land from the evil Lord Business (Will Ferrell) but can Emmet find the courage within himself to fulfil his destiny?

I have to admit that I was not looking forward to the Lego Movie before going to see it primarily because I was not much of a Lego kid growing up and the film just made me think of Peter Berg's Battleship from a couple of years ago which just felt like a backroom deal as a film, could the film rise above its low expectations.

Well I'll just say HELL. YES. Boys and Girls, this is a terrific animated movie, one of the strongest in recent years and is great fun all ages (the session I went to was PACKED and everyone even the young kids were quiet during the film), the success of it is down to Lord and Miller's script and direction, they keep a very tight hold on the reins and their style of humour reminded me very much of the golden years of the Simpsons which were packed with great jokes that also had time to divert into a funny self contained joke (Candy and Soda's for all.)

The film also has some great comic performances from Will Arnett as Batman (his song is VERY funny) to Liam Neeson as Good Cop, Bad Cop which just made me laugh like a madman with his mood changes and even Morgan Freeman was good fun as well and the animation here by Australian studio Animal Logic is impressive, Most impressive, so much so in fact that I thought I was watching stop motion animation rather than Digimation.

Sadly however part of me didn't really care all that much for Emmet primarily because his character arc was the traditional "Outsider" arc that is very common in these films and after a while I didn't really care about that but hey that is a minor niggle when compared to the terrific fun on display here.

So all in all, the Lego Movie is a rare animated film for all ages to enjoy and it's not too frightening or adult for young kids and you'll most likely come out of it singing "Everything is Awesome" afterwards (and it is very catchy), 4 out of 5.

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