New Release Review: 'The Lego Movie'

'The Lego Movie' is a rather bland and generic title. Bland titles are usually a cause for worry; titles that end in 'Movie', even more so (see: Epic Movie, Disaster Movie and Scary Movie. Or, y'know, don't). Fortunately The Lego Movie comes from the minds of Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who were responsible for the brilliantly demented Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

The plot of The Lego Movie could easily be described as that of The Matrix because, well... It is. Except with a lego Neo, and rather more boundless joy. We follow Emmet (our Neo), a regular (lego) guy, working as a construction worker amongst thousands of others, all of whom follow the meticulous design plans laid down by Lord Business (essentially The Architect from The Matrix Reloaded). In Lord Business's world there is no creativity or choice. Everything must be built exactly as the instructions dictate. But there is a prophecy, about a 'piece of resistance', and a master builder who'll wield it and free the world. After happening upon the 'piece' it looks like Emmet might just be the (lego) man his world needs.

From this unlikely springboard we get one scene after another of beautiful chaos. There's so much happening in the foreground, background and, well, the middleground, that even the animators of the sight-gag heavy Aardman films would struggle to catch it all in one viewing. And once you realise the pair had the audacity to remake The Matrix as lego, only with added fun, you're distracted on a whole other level as you start seeing parallels everywhere: Good Cop/Bad Cop is Agent Smith, Wildstyle is Trinity, Vitruvius is both Morpheus and The Oracle, and Batman is... Um... Cypher? Or is he just Batman? But then who's Uni-Kitty? Is she The Oracle? What about Pirate Metalbeard? It's possible I'm overthinking this.

The reservations I have about the film are slight: the visuals are, at times, too chaotic (the exact opposite of the altogether too empty backgrounds in Frozen), something which probably couldn't be helped when making a film set in a world made up of little bricks; the film's central message is laid on rather thick, but it's a good message all the same; and finally, although it's funny and engaging, and you somehow end up rooting for little yellow toys that waddle divertingly, there are a couple of moments in the film where you wander if it isn't all just a very shiny surface.

In summary: someone remade The Matrix via a toyline, and somehow it's rather good.


Overall: 7.5/10