The Lego Movie

I will admit that I am disappointed--ashamed, even--that this is the first movie to be reviewed here. It is not a movie that I would have chosen to watch on my own, but some friends were watching it and I joined in to be social. And thus it is that "The Lego Movie" is the first movie I've watched since starting this blog.

I need to begin this review with a disclaimer: I felt obligated to dislike this move, for the following reasons:
a) It's literally called "The Lego Movie."
b) There's no way it's not a glorified commercial.
c) It's about a toy, and therefore must be for kids.
d) It's literally called "The Lego Movie"!

Nevertheless, I did watch it, so let me attempt to review it based on the movie itself and not merely on the title. (I believe this is standard practice among professional movie critics, so I will not question the methodology.)

Within the first few minutes of the movie, the evil ruler of the Lego universe, Lord Business, declares a holiday: Taco Tuesday. This idea brings with it a host of problematic ideas. Do Lego people need to eat? If so, how do they do it, given that their faces are painted onto their heads? (In the world of the movie, this is true--at one point, a character is eliminated by having his face erased by nail polish remover, which, now that I think about it, is actually really horrifying.) Also, how is Lego food produced? This is an important question because the villain's plan involves freezing everything in the universe in place (he's kind of a control freak) but this would stop production of all Lego food, wouldn't it? So really he just orchestrated his own death by starvation, unless he himself plans to become a sustenance farmer, which is not most villains' idea of success.

At this point, you're probably rolling your eyes and saying to yourself, "Mad Scientist, it's literally called 'The Lego Movie.' Don't overthink it." That's probably good advice. This is a movie that is so full of plot holes, non-sequiturs, implausibilities, and general absurdities that it does not ask you to suspend your disbelief so much as expel it and issue it a restraining order.

And that's the only reason it works.

This movie knows it is literally called "The Lego Movie." In a prologue-ish sequence, a character gives a prophesy in very poorly written verse, but then ends it with, "And this must be true, because it rhymes," letting the viewers know that the writers know that the verse was poorly written, and that was done intentionally.

The movie's utter refusal to take anything about itself seriously puts viewers at their ease. It's like the writers are saying, "Don't worry. You don't have to point out everything ridiculous going on here. We've done that for you. Now just enjoy the ride." So, by the time the heroes, including Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Dumbledore, Gandalf, Robin Hood, Emmet the Construction Worker,  UniKitty (a unicorn kitten), 1980 Something Space Guy, and Metal Beard the Robot Pirate are plotting a way to get to the infinitieth floor of Lord Business's skyscraper and avoid the security measures (including lasers, sharks, and laser sharks) in order to save the universe, it feels less like an out of control mashup and more like watching an exceptionally ambitious ten year old play with Legos.

Then you find out that SPOILER ALERT: You are. I think it was one of the movie's more serious mistakes to make that explicit. I mean, we all knew what was really happening here, and as soon as you introduce "real" people, you're changing the suspension of disbelief rules, and that's just inviting trouble. END SPOILER.

At the end of the day, this is a movie about how fun it is to play with Legos, and it works because playing with Legos is fun.

But I still can't get over the title. No ten year old would call his Lego movie "The Lego Movie." Come on, guys. You can do better than that!