Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Zombie Column: The Lego Movie

This week, a few friends and I went to see The Lego Movie. I’m trying to find words to describe it that don’t include Awesome, because of the theme. It’s uncannily ear-wormy. I mean, I have some songs I’m using to fend it off, but if it woke me up in the morning, I’d be hearing it all day. The movie makers used it fairly well, though. It’s the normal bubblegum pop for the opening bit. But then the movie eventually goes to an old west Lego Land, and there’s a honky tonk version being played on the piano. Then at the end of the movie, there’s an acoustic version (reminding me of Ted on Cougar Town), before it swings into a power ballad, like all the metal bands did in the 80’s to get on the radio. Oh wow, I got off track.

Anyway, I was excited to see the previews until I remembered (right before walking into the theatre) that this movie was rated G, and there would be no previews I recognized. There was an animated one for a dog that invents a time travel device, one for Rio 2, and one for possibly a documentary on the Lemurs in Madagascar. The kids in the theatre were delighted at their antics, so I’m sure they’ll drag their parents to see it if they can remember it after 5 minutes.

So, the movie opens with Emmet waking up. Emmet is a perfectly normal Lego guy who follows the instructions so perfectly that nobody really remembers him. He has no distinguishing features, unlike the guy who loves sausages, the guy who has bananas, the guy who laughs when you say his name, and the girl who’s perky. They all live in a large Lego city where everyone is supposed to follow the instructions. This is actually pretty brilliant, because when I get new Lego (and yes, I totally love getting new Lego. So what? I’m an adult, and I can spend money on what I feel like), I always follow the instructions too.

Emmet stumbles upon the mysterious Piece of Resistance, about which a prophecy is foretold that includes messianic figures and whatnot. Because of this piece, Emmet is soon engulfed in a conspiracy of Master Builders (people who can build without using instructions) who want to take down the evil President Business before he can end the world using his secret super weapon. The plot goes from there.

First of all, this movie is funny. Lots of gags, including in the casting. Cobie Smulders, (not-so) fresh of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, gets in to the DC Legotastic universe by voicing Wonder Woman (Paula Patton is in talks to play her should she get an actual movie). Billy Dee Williams plays Lego Lando Calrissian (so awesome!) and Anthony Daniels is C-3P0. Shaq plays Lego Shaq, because why not. And while not a stunt, Charlie Day plays a 1987 Space Man with a cracked helmet that looks suspiciously similar to how may cracked helmets I put on my old Lego Spacemen. He gets so excited about getting to build a spaceship that it could be a shoutout to Portal 2.

Secondly, the action is really good. It can get a little frenetic when guns are shooting, but the chase scenes are fantastic. Also, the way that Lego pieces get used as debris is excellent. Whenever something goes crashing into something else, bits of Lego go flying out. And they use a lot of the fire pieces that used to come out of the back of the engines of my spaceships (‘cause I get excited about spaceships too).

The CGI is incredible. This is a master class on how to use computers (and the occasional stop motion capture) to make a movie. And the sheer imagination of the way they used Lego is ridiculously impressive. I cannot say enough about that.


So, all in all, a theatre movie. Or, as other critics might say, Two plastic claw-handed thumbs up. In fact, everything was awesome (damn!)