It should come as no surprise that I’m a wry, teenaged female with a weird sense of humor. What is a surprise, though, is how much I enjoyed “The Lego Movie,” a movie marketed toward your average 10-year-old.
Seeing as I, too, share the view that most things are awesome, I decided to go see “The Lego Movie” this past weekend. And it was, in fact, pretty awesome.
The movie begins with an aged wizard, Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman), attempting to steal a weapon called the Kragle from Lord Business (Will Ferrell), who is planning on using it to destroy the world. Vitruvius fails, but tells Lord Business of a prophecy where a “Special” will find the Piece of Resistance, which would stop the Kragle. Fast forward eight and a half years, and we meet Emmet (Chris Pratt), an entirely too-ordinary construction worker who meets the badass, Ramona Flowers-esque heroine named Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) at the construction site one day.
At the site, Emmet falls into a hole and finds the Piece of Resistance, which leads Wyldstyle to believe he’s the Special. Thus begins their journey across the Lego universe, to enlist the help of “master builders” (different people or creatures who can build anything they want) to take down Lord Business, who also happens to be the president of the world.
Yes, the plot sounds completely convoluted. Don’t worry, it is. But for a kids movie it couldn’t matter less. The movie’s wit and smart dialogue are hilarious not only for kids, but for all audiences. Exactly what was going on at some points in the movie was a little confusing, but with each misstep in the plot there was a joke to save it.
The two main highlights of “The Lego Movie” would have to be both the animation and the voice acting. Almost every aspect of the movie looked like it was made out of Legos, including rolling waves and fire explosions. It’s a type of animation I’d never even seen before, which made it that much more cool.
“The Lego Movie” also had what might be one of the best (and perhaps most random) casts in an animated movie in recent years. The voices of Chris Pratt and Elizabeth Banks fit their characters extremely well, with Morgan Freeman and Liam Neeson backing them up in supporting roles. A good part of the fun in watching the movie was trying to figure out what actor voiced what character, and with such a long list of characters, there were quite a few actors to choose from. The list includes Nick Offerman, Charlie Day, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Shaquille O’Neal and many others.
Although not necessarily one of the best parts of the movie, what is probably my favorite part of “The Lego Movie” would have to be the song “Everything is Awesome.” Performed by Tegan and Sarah, the song is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a song about everything being awesome, and “everything [being] cool when you’re part of a team.” It supports to the movie’s less prominent message of working together to reach a common goal, which is pretty overdone in kid’s movies and TV shows, but still an important message.
Building off of said lesser message is that of individuality, and how everyone is unique. Although it could have become very cliched very quickly, “The Lego Movie” did a solid job of presenting it in an interesting way. Emmet transforms from a regular Joe into someone legitimately special, and his journey and the things he does make that way.
In its entirety, “The Lego Movie” is a unique message wrapped in cool graphics and fast-paced witticisms. The plot wasn’t really easy to understand, but compared to the many other aspects of the movie, the confusion didn’t matter at all. In “The Lego Movie,” everyone can be a master builder. Everyone can be special. And that’s what matters.
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