Friday, 7 February 2014

Guest Movie Review - The Lego Movie

The Lego Movie
It's movie review time! Once again, my trustworthy friend, Ben, penning his objective review on the latest animation/stop-motion movie, The Lego Movie. 

Personally I've not watched the movie but I've seen many rave review about this hilariously fun animation movie. According to the IMDB.com, it has a 9.0 (over 10) rating which is rare. 

Before reading the review, check out the short synopsis here :

An ordinary LEGO minifigure, mistakenly thought to be the extraordinary MasterBuilder, is recruited to join a quest to stop an evil LEGO tyrant from gluing the universe together.

Now, keep reading for Ben's review below:



Lego, the toy, has been a miracle by itself. Once it was known as the bricks that are given to children to foster creativity, the popularity died down some years back to be over taken by the onslaught of video and TV games. Decades later, Lego successfully caught on the bandwagon of movies and comics, recreating sets for the movie pieces and superheroes. Plus the catch-them-all minifigs collection scheme propelled Lego back to the wishlist of children, and adults. Perhaps the biggest winning factor this year will be this: The Lego Movie.

The plot is simple and definitely formulaic, a nobody been selected as the chosen/ special/ one to save everyone, as per described by a prophecy. Sounded familiar? In short it is The Matrix: Lego format (did the micromanager robots remained you of the Matrix Sentinels?). While the story is simple, the execution was near perfect with the tempo vibrant enough to make it extremely entertaining for everyone. 

Everything in the movie was made to look like a huge lego set, from the sea waves to the explosions. While it was a combination of stop-motion filming and CGI, the CGI aspects were tune to feel like stop-motions, so as to make the audiences feel that it was like them playing with the toys. 

All the voice actors delivered first rate performances, never were they too serious and they were having a blast of time, and the energy shown throughout the movie. Most notingly Will Arnett, who brought the trademark husky voice of Batman character and as Vitruvius, Morgan Freeman giving an entertaining parody of himself.

One of its biggest strength would be its ability to laugh at itself, from the jokes on Lego came out with so many different world of toy sets that no one cared, to the DC superheroes skits involving Green Lantern being the unpopular superhero (mimicking the status of the actual GL movie) to Batman making a hell lot of fun. Sadly being so heavily tilted to DC comics, there were none of the Marvel superheroes (no Avengers, no spiderman), hopefully this will change in the sequel (they have already announced the making of part 2).

The “twist” in the movie was well made and highlighted the true essence of the Lego toys, without sounding too preachy and in your face. Credits will have to go to the story writers who took an otherwise children movie and elevated it to appeal to the adults as well. 

My only gripe would be at certain part, the pace was almost like a downhill roller-coaster, moving scenes to scenes, leaving little time to digest. 

Verdict: Must-Watch movie this season, especially if you grew up with the toys.

If you still need more convincing, check out the fun trailer below :


Cheers!

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