8
of 10
Personal Bias Alert:
Legos were one of my favorite toys, I have no children
A
lot of movies boast to be entertaining for all ages, but very few pull it
off. At best, these are normally
innocuous romps in worlds we inherently understand, delighting kids and lulling
adults into a warm familiarity that is soothing but not really entertaining. “The Lego Movie” seemed ripe to hit that
spot, so when the belly laughs started I was as surprised as anyone.
Emmet
(Chris Pratt) is a construction worker that is perfectly happy to spend his
days following the rules that are laid out for him, but his life is turned
upside down when he learns of a prophecy that claims that he is the Special,
the one person that can stop the evil Lord Business (Will Ferrell) from using
the superweapon Kragle to destroy the world.
Sound familiar? Well, it’s supposed
to. Helping Emmet is love
interest/master builder Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) and the wizard Vitruvius
(Morgan Freeman).
Animal Logic, the
animation company responsible for “Happy Feet” and “Walking with Dinosaurs 3D,”
deserves the praise being bestowed upon it.
Stylish, detailed, and plot specific, the animation choices were spot on
and expertly executed. It’s a world of
jerky movements and clunky constructions, just like I imagined in my own Lego
worlds. Every time the characters stood
on the knobs of the bricks I felt a surge of pure joy.
The
plot chugs along at a quick pace, repeating major points to ensure it doesn’t
lose the youngest members of the audience.
These instances make it lose some momentum for the adults, but there is
always a steady dose of humor to keep everyone happy. Pop-culture references abound, but what’s
truly astounding is the breadth of humor on display here. Puns, farce, slapstick, and sight gags meld
together in many scenes, producing some truly rapid-fire laughs that would
require multiple viewings to catch them all.
As
funny and flashy as the movie is, it’s the characters that really elevate the
material. Drawing on well-known tropes,
each character falls right into place.
It helps the story move along at its blistering pace while allowing the
writers to poke fun at what we expect to see from them. Batman (Will Arnett) is the best example of
this, portrayed as a cocky, self-obsessed showboat.
The
movie takes a narrative chance near the end, and while it didn’t work for me the
movie maintained enough humor to see it through. The fact that this movie was willing to be
that clever and to take that kind of chance proves that you don’t have to shoot
for the lowest common denominator to delight us all.
Other
Notes:
Ø The
Piece of Resistance was a brilliant name.
So many puns.
Ø Liam
Neeson was well used as a double-personality cop: "Release the Kragle (Kraken)!"
Ø The
Band-Aid joke was my favorite.
No comments:
Post a Comment