Today's Review: The Lego Movie

In recent years, Lego has taken over the world, which is a bit strange, because I was pretty sure it had already done so. But the Lego video games, along with the sudden explosion in licensed sets, have given Lego a freshness that can appeal to people of any age. Now there's a movie, and while it's surprising that it's taken this long to make, it seems to be a good fit with the insane amount of Lego merchandise that is lining the shelves nowadays. But how does it stack up? Ha, see? That was a building pun.

The Lego Movie follows our hero(?) Emmet (Chris Pratt), a regular construction worker living in a city where everyone lives by the book (literally) and everything is just fine. Awesome, in fact. But when Emmet stumbles into an underground cavern and finds a mystical object, he's suddenly recruited into the ranks of the Master Builders. This band of heroes, including fearless heroine Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) and Batman (Will Arnett) seek to topple the all powerful Lord Business (Will Ferrell), who is about to unleash the Kragle, a super weapon that will end the world.

Sure, the plot doesn't sound all that, and the amount of characters floating around in the trailer alone makes it seem like a feature length checklist of how many Lego sets you can buy, but this movie is actually a superbly crafted piece of cinema. The action is pretty much constant, with bricks exploding and being rebuilt almost every minute, and the jokes flying just as fast. There's slapstick, word play, dry humour, and the very niche area of Lego jokes, and I lost count of the amount of times I laughed by the end. 

The characters are all fantastically rounded, and the plethora of notable voice actors all do a wonderful job, both with their own fantastically delivered one liners and the witty dialogue between characters. The whole production looks awesome too, with correctly proportioned bricks flying all over the place, making all kinds of wonderful creations.

I really cannot find fault with anything in the movie. It's well written, beautifully animated, and utterly hilarious. While it's clear by the end of the movie that this is an elaborate advert for the imaginative properties of Lego, I wasn't even fussed. It's a laugh a minute, over the top, block building (and destroying) extravaganza, and if you haven't seen it already, you should probably stop whatever you're doing and get to the cinema. If you're a fan of Lego, or even if you hate it, this is a must see.

My rating: 5/5