Sunday, February 16, 2014

LEGO Story

The world's most popular toy blocks finally get the big screen treatment in 'The Lego Movie,' a fun-filled action adventure that has something for the whole family.  Eschewing the jerky stop-motion technique of 'Robot Chicken' for smoother CGI animation, 'The Lego Movie' nonetheless managed to retain a vintage shot-with-real-Legos look.  Remarkable, that.

The story of an ordinary, unassuming construction Lego named Emmet who ultimately became someone special (so special, cue 'The Pretenders' song please), 'The Lego Movie' is about rebelling against conformity and discovering your true potential.  Sure, we've heard this all-too-familiar story before.  But 'The Lego Movie' tells it with such humor and a large cast of pop-culture references, from Batman and the Millennium Falcon to a Gandalf-like wizard named 'Vitruvius' and a T-1000-ish 'bad cop,' that the movie somehow endeared itself to our inner 12-year olds. 

Still, if it was only a bunch of hyperkinetic CGI-rendered Legos moving around in various Legos-constructed locales it wouldn't have been enough for me to recommend it.  What did it was the movie's heartwarming final act, when the movie shifted from 'Lego world' to the real world, in which a father-and-son relationship blossoms over their shared affections for these colorful construction blocks in spite of their marked differences on how they should be used.  

Grade: B+
  
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