The Lego Movie

So, you are expecting a flurry of badly built lego houses, half-red and half-blue because you never bought enough red bricks to complete it. You expect also, to see giant human hands appearing to move the vehicles and that annoying baby brother who drools over your favourite lego man. With the nostalgia that followed Toy Story, I was excited to experience the same with 'The Lego Movie', however, although there were parts that made me jump back to 10yrs ago (ok maybe 3yrs ago) sitting on the floor building castles and police stations, I was left a little underwhelmed by the film as a whole.

I have previously seen a stop-motion lego movie. Although that one was made by three GCSE media students but the idea got me thinking - wouldn't it be great to have a whole movie?! At the time I knew how long it had taken them to complete the production, so AN ENTIRE FEATURE LEGO MOVIE = MADNESS. The short film is definitely worth a watch. (I should point out that 'Tim' is supposed to be their media teaching assistant).



Back to the Lego Movie itself. The opening scene was a little bit of a shock to the system. It began with a general wide of both characters so that I wasn't entirely sure who was speaking and where my focus was supposed to stay. However, once I had adapted to the stop-motion 'look' I think I then began to fully immerse myself in the plot. I couldn't quite hold back my laughter when those tiny little plastic flames erupted out of our bad guy's suit.

The story unfolds that Emmet is a regular Lego figure, who is mistaken as the MasterBuilder when he falls down a hole at the construction site. He has nothing notable, no wider vision for society, no extraordinary power. He is quite content being among his 'friends' at work. However, taken under the wing of Wyldstyle, our kick-ass female anarchist he begins to believe in himself and together, with all the others builders, they fight the oppressive system of 'Lord Business', that contains them.

The second scene was among my favourites of the film. The concept was still new for us and the film-makers gave us much to laugh about. Taking a shower in tiny plastic buttons and lines of plastic books and everything you imagine a lego house to have. Rounded off with a tiny plastic mug attached to our tiny plastic protagonist's hand. Perfect right?

Although, I feel that the film-makers ran out of gimmicks far too early in the film. The first scene was jam-packed but after we had seen the Lego city once, the 'that's cool' impression wore off quite swiftly.

In fact, the story that followed was a little weak I thought. Once the comedy of Emmett using his head as a wheel for the getaway vehicle and the bad cop turning into good cop, had worn off, there wasn't much left in our predictable lego world. I suppose that's the trouble with being so familiar with the original toy, playing with Lego saw us all create similar stories and it just didn't seem to WOW me like it should.

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Don't get me wrong, the design and building of each scene (both physically and CG), is something to applaud and I don't knock that for a moment. The plot however, wasn't one that stimulated me. Instead I found myself looking for nostalgia, rather than it flooding my every fibre (like Toy Story did). They did redeem themselves a little with the 'generic 80s space dude' joke though.

As we travel between Lego worlds, we are transported back to our childhood with mismatched colour schemes and the attack of the horrendous beast that is Hello Kitty. We are thrown into a place where superheroes, spacemen, cowboys and builders all exist within the same world. It's what we always dreamed of, but I think the style of animation was what disengaged me a little in that, I was not transported like those around me were. So sure, the gag of superglue kept me a little entertained as I conjured up memories of my former self, attempting to prise apart two pieces my brother had glued together. However, aside from these gags, I felt a little removed from the world I had always imagined.

Lord Business - wikia.com

The scene where we return to the 'human world' was a nice touch, I'll give them that. The father was similar to my brothers in that I was not allowed to touch their perfectly constructed worlds on fear of death - until of course they left the house when I invaded their cities with duplo and k-nex and brio and all those things they told me were forbidden from 'Lego City'. Mwahahah! The final part when the duplo arrives with the younger sister, was a moment that warmed me again, after I'd got a little bored of all the fighting.

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Perhaps there are only so many times we can watch lego characters chasing other lego characters. Who knows? I seem to be one of the few people who didn't enjoy the film as much as I'd hoped. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I am now forced to listen to my boyfriend sing 'Everything is Awesome' at my tragic, unemployed self. But seriously, if you want a trip to the cinema to remind you of things you used to (and probably still do) love then go and see it. If you want a good film with a plot that is engaging and unpredictable, then don't. It's an easy one either way.