The Lego Movie (2014)

The ANUFilm group solicited reviews for the semester 1, 2014 programme. This is my review of The Lego Movie. Again, I had no chance to see this film before the deadline, so it's all mostly wishy-washy conjecture from the promo site, IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. I went out on a limb to guess what kind of character Wildstyle was, though.

As Hollywood gets more and more focussed on remakes and cross-licenses, it’s remarkable how fresh and vibrant this film feels. It is infact the a new story and the first Lego feature film yet made. Nevertheless the visual style draws heavily on the string of “Lego X” video games (Arguably all essentially the same game with different levels and graphics assets). There’s also a sprinkling of Warner Brothers properties in cameo (DC superheroes Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern).

The main character is Emmet (Chris Pratt), an everyman nobody who is mistaken for being the messianic “Special”. Emmet joins a fellowship of minifigs seeking to stop the evil President Business (Will Ferrell) as he seems to control the universe (though he’s only got a loose grip on his private life).

Joining Emmet on this journey are Batman (Will Arnett) and Wildstyle (Elizabeth Banks), a cyberpunk reminiscent of Trinity from The Matrix series and main champion of Emmet. Supporting characters are Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman), an archetypal bearded wise man and Good Cop/Bad Cop (Liam Neeson).

The film is directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the duo behind the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs films and 21 Jump Street (As well as producing episodes of How I Met Your Mother).