There's a point in 'The Lego Movie' where the silliness
of the whole thing - the zany, seemingly ADHD-driven plot; the scatter-shot
jokes; the mostly over-the-top characters - almost becomes too much. You'd almost be forgiven for expecting one of
the Monty Python team to show up in army uniform decrying the levels of
silliness. But then - and no spoilers
here, so don't worry - comes a twist which proves to be the film's greatest
stroke of genius. Because, yes this is a
film about a line of toys - but rather than simply being a 90-minute long
commercial for the brand (I'm sure their sales aren't going to be hurt by this
film), it becomes a celebration of imagination, playing together, and the
wonderful disorder with which children approach these - something that, as an
adult, it doesn't hurt to be reminded of.
This is a film which will connect with children and their
parents. For the young 'uns, it is fast,
colourful, funny and tremendously eye-catching (after a few minutes I was so
wowed at the sight of an entire Lego City realised on the Big Screen that I
seriously wondered why no one had ever considered making a feature film with
Lego until now!). For parents, they'll
be reminded of all the fun they had playing with Lego as a kid, have fun with
the nods to some of Lego's big name licenses, and laugh at some references to the
kind of Lego they'll no doubt played with back in their childhood. But there was that further element, all to do
with that twist, which I'm sure will connect with how grown-ups see Lego now -
and also the world. My own experience of
Lego now that I've got a 6-year-old son is very different to when I was a kid;
I loved Lego, and got just as much enjoyment out of building what you're
supposed to from each set, as I did taking it apart again to build something
else from it - then doing it all over again.
Last year we got our son some of the Super-hero branded Lego, seeing as
he loves Spiderman, Batman, Iron Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles etc. I then made the mistake of checking eBay and
seeing how much people are willing to pay for these Characters realised in Lego
Minifigure-form - and I developed a strange kind of OCD, following my son
around each time he had his Lego sets out, rebuilding them when he tried to
dismantle them, gathering them up and trying to keep them in their respective
sets... So the strange thing about this
film's 'twist' is that it struck a chord with me - it made me realise there's a
bit of the film's villain, Lord Business, in me - and that really, I should
just let my son PLAY with his Lego and enjoy it...
 |
| Lego Batman swooping in to rescue the Heroes from robots and a Bad Cop in the Old West is one of the relatively least surreal moments of the film... |
It seems appropriate that in the midst of the fun, crazy,
surreal, jokiness of the film that there is a moment which puts it in to
perspective and really clarifies the whole thing. Well, if you're an adult at least - I should
imagine children will just be swept along by the jokes, action and fast pace of
the film. The film-makers have thrown
enough jokes and visual gags in that, even when some don't catch, there's
another along within seconds which more than likely hits it's mark. One thing I will say though, is that this is
one of those films that is sadly spoilt a little by its own trailers - a lot of
the best jokes have already been in those.
Also, given the break-neck pacing, and zaniness of some of the
characters, in some cases it feels like more could have been made of a few of
them. For example, I think a real
opportunity was missed to make more of Superman, Green Lantern and Wonder
Woman, as well as Batman; but then again, given the hasty way that Warner Bros appear to be trying to shoe-horn as many DC characters in to the next Superman/Batman movie as possible to set up a future Justice League film, it's quite likely
that deep down they realised not even that could've matched the awesomely fun
prospect of a proper Lego Justice League team-up in this one...
These are minor faults, because really this is a film
which should be watched by a) all children, and b) anyone who has ever built
anything from Lego during their life - so, pretty much, the entire human
race. If you have children to take to
see this, they will be entertained by one of the best animated films put on the
big screen for several years - and for their parents - and any
adult, really - just when you're worried the brash zaniness might become too much,
there'll be at least one moment which will connect in a way you won't have been
expecting.
 |
| ...and yes, that song WILL be stuck in your head for days afterwards... |
No comments:
Post a Comment