I could add more specifics, but, honestly, it's not a film that agitates the critical faculties (positively or negatively) to the point where I feel much of an impulse too. There are some nice gags, some of the gags fall flat. The villain is called 'Lord Business', which I assumed in the early stages was the film making a half-hearted satirical dig at itself -- for Lego is nothing if not a business, and this movie is a 90-minute commercial ('Seventeen building play sets inspired by scenes from the film were released, including a set of Collectible Minifigures ...'). But, no: by the time the actual human 'players' are brought onscreen it's clear enough that 'business' is invoked only as the narrow-minded adult mindset to be opposed to 'play'. This is also the point at which a nicely quirky built-world shrinks suddenly down, as it were, into a much less imaginatively interesting re-tread of the Toy Story idea. Great though Toy Story is, it's a little unwhelming to see its key premise simply rehashed with mono-brand marketing focus on only one toy.
A couple of the celebrity voice actors weren't good. It feels like I'm slagging off Mother Theresa, but Morgan Freeman does a lazy job with his character, a blind wizard called Vitruvius, moseying through his lines, missing the comic beats. Liam Neeson is good as Bad Cop, but lapses into a mincing high-pitched voice for Good Cop. It sounds as if he thinks this latter is simply hilarious, which is a sure-fire way of damping down other people's enjoyment. The batman character is pretty funny, although the humour is more-or-less what you'd expect a comic lego batman to be. The best of the script is in the throwaway stuff, the minor characters, the pop-cultural references; and often these latter do nothing more than point the figurative finger -- look! Its the Lego Millennium Falcon! -- and move on. And quite a lot of the jokes are not funny. Lego Dumbledore is called 'Doubledore' several times. Lego Abraham Lincoln announces: 'a house divided against itself ... would be better than this place!' Meh.
I saw it with two kids, and they both sort-of enjoyed it. And they sang the catchy, triplexclamatory theme song "Everything Is Awesome!!!" all the way home.
My sister's best friend, who is a massive Hunger Games fan, is determined to see this film because Elizabeth Banks is in it.
I can see this being a fairly open-ended commitment, once you take into account Jennifer Lawrence, Donald Sutherland, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman et al. In later life she's either going to be a film buff or completely disillusioned with the whole medium.
i was really impressed how the film captures the ambivalence at the heart of lego. Anybody who buys a lego set will follow the instructions and build whatever is on the front of the box. After that you want to play or admire what you've built and at the same time you want to take it apart and build something better. Lego is a toy that encourages rigid rule following and creativity - something that somehow I hadn't realised until I watched the film.
I could add more specifics, but, honestly, it's not a film that agitates the critical faculties (positively or negatively) to the point where I feel much of an impulse too. There are some nice gags, some of the gags fall flat. The villain is called 'Lord Business', which I assumed in the early stages was the film making a half-hearted satirical dig at itself -- for Lego is nothing if not a business, and this movie is a 90-minute commercial ('Seventeen building play sets inspired by scenes from the film were released, including a set of Collectible Minifigures ...'). But, no: by the time the actual human 'players' are brought onscreen it's clear enough that 'business' is invoked only as the narrow-minded adult mindset to be opposed to 'play'. This is also the point at which a nicely quirky built-world shrinks suddenly down, as it were, into a much less imaginatively interesting re-tread of the Toy Story idea. Great though Toy Story is, it's a little unwhelming to see its key premise simply rehashed with mono-brand marketing focus on only one toy.
ReplyDeleteA couple of the celebrity voice actors weren't good. It feels like I'm slagging off Mother Theresa, but Morgan Freeman does a lazy job with his character, a blind wizard called Vitruvius, moseying through his lines, missing the comic beats. Liam Neeson is good as Bad Cop, but lapses into a mincing high-pitched voice for Good Cop. It sounds as if he thinks this latter is simply hilarious, which is a sure-fire way of damping down other people's enjoyment. The batman character is pretty funny, although the humour is more-or-less what you'd expect a comic lego batman to be. The best of the script is in the throwaway stuff, the minor characters, the pop-cultural references; and often these latter do nothing more than point the figurative finger -- look! Its the Lego Millennium Falcon! -- and move on. And quite a lot of the jokes are not funny. Lego Dumbledore is called 'Doubledore' several times. Lego Abraham Lincoln announces: 'a house divided against itself ... would be better than this place!' Meh.
I saw it with two kids, and they both sort-of enjoyed it. And they sang the catchy, triplexclamatory theme song "Everything Is Awesome!!!" all the way home.
My sister's best friend, who is a massive Hunger Games fan, is determined to see this film because Elizabeth Banks is in it.
ReplyDeleteI can see this being a fairly open-ended commitment, once you take into account Jennifer Lawrence, Donald Sutherland, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman et al. In later life she's either going to be a film buff or completely disillusioned with the whole medium.
I was pleasantly surprised that Mad Men's Trudy Campbell voices a unicorn-cat hybrid.
ReplyDeletei was really impressed how the film captures the ambivalence at the heart of lego. Anybody who buys a lego set will follow the instructions and build whatever is on the front of the box. After that you want to play or admire what you've built and at the same time you want to take it apart and build something better. Lego is a toy that encourages rigid rule following and creativity - something that somehow I hadn't realised until I watched the film.
ReplyDelete