Whenever you entertain, you have to keep showing new things. It's why movies have climaxes. If a film ended the same way it started, it would be boring. Or art. Depends on the movie. The same can be said of writing. To entertain the reader however, you are recommended to use synonyms. New words keep repetitive writing from getting monotonous.
So while you read this review about "The Lego Movie", know there are only so many words that mean "movie" that I can use without going crazy or sounding pretentious. Let me prepare a buffer for you. Movie movie movie movie movie movie movie movie movie movie movie movie movie. Ready now? I'm not. Now movie doesn't even look like a word. Moe Vee? Maybe I'll get over it.
What some are calling the hour and a half length commercial, The Lego Film is the newest movie from the directing duo of Phil Lord and Chris Miler starring half the cast from The Dark Knight trilogy and every Lego set imaginable. The last movie that the directors worked on was the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movies, which were filled with a self parodying style of humor that I absolutely adored. From just one viewing of the trailer, I knew that they had the same style of humor going into this, so I saw this movie on the very first day (after it opened, to avoid the rush). Despite my prediction that this movie would be a great distraction with good humor, this movie...
...was even better than I had hoped! The Lego Picture switches gears about half way through with a somewhat foreshadowed twist that makes me remember my childhood fondly.
The Lego Flick stars Emmit (voiced by Chris Pratt), a normal lego construction man living in a routine world filled with others just like him. He doesn't seem to fit in, but he doesn't let that stop him from trying to convince himself that everything is awesome. When he comes across an object of prophecy called "the piece of resistance", he becomes the chosen one and joins a rag tag bunch of master builders to help save all the worlds from President Business and his plan to freeze everyone to keep order and avoid chaos.
Or...at least it starts like that. Final warning: SPOILERS. After failing the master plan during the second act, Emmit sacrifices himself to save his new friends by throwing himself and the death machine into a pit of no return. When he opens his eyes, he is a toy on the floor of a live action basement, where President Business is represented by a father who wants to super glue his Lego sets to keep order, while his son often sneaks down to play with them by creating new designs, which represent the resistance's machines and weapons.
This final act is treated incredibly serious, which makes it all the funnier as the father super glued Emmit's world together, with cut shots between the real world and the Lego one. I have no doubt that it was their intent to spoof the seriousness of it all, and I was invested just as much as I was laughing my head off. A cliche filled parody suddenly becomes a family bonding experience about acceptance and being yourself.
I had a blast watching The Lego Celluloid, and would recommend it to kids and adults alike. Especially adults who like to be reminded how smart they are by noticing all the reference parodies.
No comments:
Post a Comment