The Lego Movie

2014 animated movie

Rating: 15/20 (Jen: 16/20; Abbey: 15/20; Buster: still doesn't understand the rating system and ran away when I asked her)

Plot: An evil dictator has plans to superglue all the Lego blocks, and only the Special, the one spoken of by Morgan Freeman in the prophecy, can stop him. Unfortunately, that Special doesn't seem very special at all, a seemingly untalented and conforming construction worker named Emmet. With other master builders, they try to think of a plan to stop the evil Lord Business.

I'd like to see statistics on how many people had seizures in theaters while watching this movie. It had to have been a lot. Too many colors, too much vibrancy, too much hallucinogenic imagery, too much Mark Mothersbaugh.

Favorite thing about this movie: We get the opportunity to hear Billy Dee Williams voice Lando. I'm such a geek. And this is kind of a geeky movie. Legos are a little geeky, and there are all kinds of geeky references pandering to geeks--Star Words, Lord of the Rings, comic book references. The plot itself seems lifted from some dystopian science fiction book until the end when the flesh replaces plastic and things get a little sappy and Will Ferrelly. The movie's a ton of fun with a ridiculous amount of characters. I'm assuming you can purchase even the ones who had almost no screen time at all at your local Target. The script's funny even if it's a little all over the place and contains far too many modern references to make this thing matter in thirty years. The voice work is great from top to bottom, but I especially liked hearing Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, and Nick Offerman. Offerman's robot pirate character Metal Beard was probably my favorite. This is lively, almost wall-to-wall with ridiculous action sequences where the screen is filled with moving parts. I'd imagine you would have felt like you were swimming in Lego blocks if you watched it in 3D. It's all a little chaotic, probably too much for grandparents to watch with the little ones, but parents who grew up playing with Legos or even just stepping on them frequently have enough to enjoy here and might appreciate the satirical edge. It is fairly subversive for little ones though. The central message is a little muddled, something to do with noncomformity or everybody being special or everything being awesome or something, but kids--who are mostly stupid--might interpret it differently and be inspired to start vandalizing or urinating on playground equipment. It's entirely possible that this would have annoyed me in another time or place or day, but I appreciated it as a movie for children that didn't really treat the audience like a bunch of idiots (though they might be) and that didn't take itself or the brand name too seriously while still managing to touch on some serious topics. Frequently clever, infectiously chaotic, and pretty funny, this is a fun way to pass some time with the kids.