Review – The LEGO Movie

A movie based on a line of toys has to be the most thinly veiled marketing ploy, right? Its very existence screams “sell more toys.” When money is the focus, quality storytelling often takes a backseat. Just look at G.I.Joe or Battleship or the Transformers movies. The latter franchise has been enormously lucrative, and to that end The LEGO Movie sounds like the biggest golden goose ever. Its huge cast of little plastic figurines includes both DC and Marvel superheros, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and even basketball stars. The marketing possibilities are endless.

But what if… and bear with me here… just what if… you mixed alllll that stuff with solid, skilled storytelling, a positive message for kids, genuine emotions, and real heart? How would all that turn out? I’ll tell you in the words of the film’s catchy opening number: “Everything is awesome!”

There is so much right with this movie that could so easily have been oh so wrong. That song is a perfect example, so let’s start there. The track by the talented Tegan and Sara (with help from The Lonely Island) is instantly catchy. It’s also the most generic pop song you could imagine, but it turns out that’s the whole point. It was written that way on purpose, and a later plot point turns on that very fact.

The comedy seems to be built around the kind of quick throw away jokes and pop-culture references that have become so popular in recent years. But like the trick with the song, very little is actually thrown away. Everything comes back, grows, becomes important, either to the plot or to the emotional depth of the narrative. Nothing is wasted.

Green Lantern (Jonah Hill) is on screen for at most a total of 60 seconds – barely even a cameo – yet his relationship with the equally minor Superman feels more genuine than anything on display in those other movies I mentioned in my first paragraph. BadCop (Liam Neeson) feels very gimmicky in the beginning of the movie, and is nearly heartbreaking by the end. And Benny (Charlie Day) – otherwise known as “80’s-Something Space Guy” – was my instant favorite, since I grew up with those sets. But as the movie continued, it was his determined excitement in the face of all the newer and cooler LEGOs that I found most touching.

There’s an unexpected turn in the 3^rd act (I won’t give too much away, but if you’ve seen it you know what I’m talking about) that could easily have been poorly executed and thrown the whole thing into a tailspin. But like everything else, the filmmakers more than pull it off. And at the risk of revealing a magician’s secrets, I’m going to tell you how they do it:

The heart of this movie is the idea of creativity. It’s a powerful theme, and it’s infused throughout every single frame of the film. Every detail works toward a single message, a soul of boundless, limitless invention that cries out to young and old alike: “Never stop creating.”