Film Review: The LEGO Movie

Every man, woman and their dog has had a LEGO set to play with in their lifetime. The famous building blocks have finally got their own movie, and it is as infectious as the toy itself.

From the guys who brought you Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Phil Lord Christopher Miller, comes not just an early contender for animated film of 2014, but one of the most smile-inducing flicks you will see for a long time.

The story revolves around Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt), a lonely LEGO mini-figure who is mistaken as the ‘Master Builder’ and saviour of the universe from the evil tyrant Lord Business (Will Ferrell). Business is a control freak; obsessed with perfection, he is willing to glue the LEGO universe together in order to achieve his ultimate vision for the building block world. Its only hope of rescue is in the form of the underground resistance group led by Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman), Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), Batman (Will Arnett), Emmet and a whole lot of others.

The film starts at a ferocious pace, involving the extremely catchy “Everything is Awesome” song, and introduces Emmet, the extremely naive and dim-witted, but yet extremely charming antagonist, to a now very expectant audience. It never loses its pace, or charm, and although the storyline holds many politically based inferences, and there’s an awful lot of everything going off at every one moment, its zany nature, as well as a consistently funny cast of characters, will leave you smiling to the very end.

The LEGO Movie’s anti-climatic ending is its biggest let-down of an otherwise entertaining film. It is too easily tied up in a bow and handed to the viewers on a plate, with the script-writers seemingly very eager to bring the moral-crusade to an abrupt, yet positively laced ending.

Take the movie for what it is: fun-loving and infectious. Do not think too hard about what it means, or what it says, just enjoy the catchy song and the witty characters and enjoy what will surely go down as one of the funnest films of 2014.

7/10