Stars (vocally) Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Will Ferrell, Liam Neeson with Charlie Day, Jonah Hill, Cobie Smulders, Channing Tatum and Morgan Freeman Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller Yes, it is exactly what you think it is. A huge movie length advertisement for Lego building blocks, complete with model numbers popping up on screen. But let’s just tackle it as a movie, shall we? As the song goes, “Everything is Awesome!” For the kids and Lego enthusiasts, it’s going to ring true throughout the entire running time. The movie itself has a standard hero’s journey where an ordinary ‘guy’ has to step up to save the universe as they know it. Our hero, Emmet (Chris Pratt), even has a sidekick, WildStyle (Elizabeth Banks), a roguish type partner in Batman (Will Arnett) as well as a wizened wizard type, Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) to help him discover his inner strength along the way. Writers and directors, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs), manage to turn a huge majority of the cliches on their heads with witty dialogue and hilarious set-pieces. They play with filmic conventions, make use of various Lego models in innovative ways while ripping apart a majority of known characters. There are a majority of DC Comics characters - probably courtesy of parent production company, Warner Bros, who own the characters - and sadly, no Marvel characters to play counterpoint. It was just as much fun to have Dumbledore and Gandalf share a moment. Star Wars fans even have their moments, complete with cameos by Anthony Daniels and Billy Dee Williams. The cast is extremely game, obviously evidenced by Liam Neeson playing the Good Cop/Bad Cop - one cop with two faces and personalities, as well as playing that character’s father. Arnett delivers a pretty good Batman, supposedly a ‘master builder’ who only works with black bricks (and sometimes, very very dark grey). He even has his own song. Suffice to say, there is a ton of imagination going on screen, and the combination of stop-motion and CG animation blends fairly well together. The designs of the Lego models on display are amazing as well as the production design and the action choreography, decently utilising the 3D environments. The energy and humour is infectious although there is a moment that might be an issue to some viewers. While it might stay through to the overall idea of playing with Lego, narratively, it is a bit of a jarring moment that does shift the perspective of the overall story. Yet, at the same time, it would make complete sense within the context of the ideas, wordplay, the mixture of worlds as well as the simplicity of the story itself. In that, it make the movie utterly suitable for the entire family. Rating: 3 1/2* out of 5
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