Review of The Lego Movie (2014) by Essenceofsugar — 20 Feb 2014

I would consider it offensive if this was labelled simply as a '100 minute commercial'. It may be made involving a corporate franchise, but it is there to teach, not to sell.

The LEGO Movie uniquely combines smart sharp satire towards examples like pop culture and consumerism, a charming voice cast voicing a whole array of interesting characters (if you look close enough, some of the characters parody the usual stock characters) and a morality tale. It not only subverts tropes, but also subverts expectations right until the end. It's difficult to see a film just once, especially when it contains so much humour and wit when mocking things left right and centre.

Everything I feel about this film is exciting. Animation can show itself to stand out in throwing out a non generic message involving politics, business and culture. The villain himself shows the audacity as a president to not only demonstrate his nefariousness, but impose his own ideologies with no room for creativity. Not only that, but the LEGO Movie also plays on the cliches of many outrageous tropes - how does it work out when a simple, ordinary construction worker is suddenly announced as the centre of the prophecy as 'the Special'? What happens when he encounters someone considered to be the 'manic pixie dream girl'? The split personality of the Good Cop Bad Cop is refreshing when it comes to two distinctively defined cops interrogating someone, and the gleeful decision made about Green Lantern after his film ultimately failed is dark but amusing.

However, when it comes to happy endings, even that doesn't remain the same. Even for the villain himself. It doesn't spit out the usual kind of messages - whether on the scale of the morality tale or the satire surrounding politics and the like.