Review of The Lego Movie (2014) by François M — 15 Jun 2015

Phil Lord and Chris Miller's one-two punch of 22 Jump Street and The Lego Movie pretty much solidifies the two of them as the guys you call when you have a concept that no one else can make work. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street, and then these two are prime examples, but I think it might be fair to say that The Lego Movie could be their best yet.

When Emmett finds the Piece of Resistance, he is discovered to be the special, and it sets him on a journey to find his ability and to defeat the evil Lord Business.

It's a big call to say that a certain work is the best that a filmmaker has done, but just look at the sheer volume of things going on in The Lego Movie. CG animation, stop-motion animation, at least 50 different figures of pop-culture, a ton of completely unique visual motifs, a huge roster of high-calibre voice actors and an insane number of jokes per minute. As much as I love 21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie is a tougher challenge, just by existing. Picking the right story, the right way to approach it, the right characters within it, it's a mammoth task that Lord and Miller almost make look easy. Everywhere you look there's a visual gag, some little intricacy that's been thrown in simply because they can. The script is sincerely clever; hilarious on a joke only level and just as funny in terms of its subtext which the adult audience will catch. The script must have been the toughest part to crack, and it's no wonder that the concept was treated with a lot of scepticism by the critical world in the lead up to the film. We've seen the dross that can happen as a result of making boards games into movies with things like Battleship, and plastic figurines seem an even harder sell. But within a few quick minutes Lord and Miller establish the kind of confidence and smarts that the rest of the movie pushes just as relentlessly throughout the runtime. It's inspired work that manages to weave in some brilliant character development and themes which ring true to audiences of any age.

The animation style alone is enough to set this apart from the offerings from animation titans and newcomers alike, playing with their styles and blending technique in ways that must make their jobs at least a hundred times more difficult but work together so brilliantly on a visual and thematic level. Lord and Miller have a well-documented ability with comedy now and it's incredible to see the amount of laughs they can wring out of a moment, never seeming to run out of ideas. There are brilliant visual motifs here which seem insane in conception but work fantastically on the screen and audio gags which so few other filmmakers, teams of them or otherwise, would make time for cramming in there. Lord and Miller play with genre the whole way through, switching from action to absurdist comedy to drama multiple times, sometimes within single scenes. And the amazing thing about it is that it all serves one specific theme, one specific idea. It never feels like a misstep or failure to execute, it just feels like the right thing to do. It's a delicate balance and one that requires a specific mastery of tone, which Lord and Miller have proven themselves to have time and time again.

And in setting that tone, the cast is perfectly put together. You want a guy who can play the baddest of bad cops? You get Liam Neeson! You want a maniacal but hilarious bad guy? Will Ferrell! You want a mysterious wise man to spout prophecies? Who else are you going to go with but Morgan Freeman? Insanely capable, kick ass ninja woman? Elizabeth Banks! They seem like obvious choices in hindsight but conceptualising the lot of them and all the characters to pair them with must have been a nightmare. And of course, when you want the most enthusiastic goofball in the entire world, you get Chris Pratt. What a year for Andy Dwyer, giving us Emmett and then Star Lord within six months of each other and tallying up two of the highest grossing films of the year. His work here cannot be overstated. He manages to add such heart to his little yellow figurine, adding in hilarious grace notes to the script as well as nailing the bumbling hero aspect. It's difficult to pin too much on a voice performance, but Pratt elevates his character to such instantly iconic heights that it's hard to imagine the film with any other person voicing that main role. It's also a kick to hear the rest of the cast, featuring a hilarious turn from Will Arnett as Batman, Charlie Day's insane spaceman Benny and Nick Offerman's Captain Metalbeard, as well as a cameo from another two of Lord and Miller's collaborators in Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as Green Lantern and Superman. There are some great lines in there but the voice cast are so good and so funny that it elevates the material even further.

It was a hell of a snub to see Emmett and his pals miss out on a nomination for Best Animated Feature, but when you have a smart, hilarious, moving film like this one, everything is still pretty awesome.

Defining Scene:

For pure hilarity, that would be Benny finally building a SPACESHIP!