Escape to the Movies: The Lego Movie

[FPLOON]

It's been forever since I watched a movie that I dreaded to see the ending of. A movie so engaging and full of such a rich cast of characters that I never wanted them to stop interacting with each other and get into more misadventures.

This movie did that. When I smelled the end, right when the movie was hitting you with the emotional moment of childlike creativity vs. adult conformity, I really got sad. I wanted the ragtag team to get into more sidetracks and mishaps and prolong the plot for as long as it could, to see every single person interact with everything there could be (every character, all of them were great), but of course it was a kid's show and its half hour was up.

It's only February and I really, really doubt anything can top this movie to size up as my movie of the year. It's by far my favorite 'fun for the whole family' movie, I can't say anything Pixar made can compare to this movie.

And Liam Neeson absolutely nailed the role of Bad Cop, but of course every single character couldn't have been done better.

Same here... In fact, this movie was, in fact, THE movie

Spoiler: Are you ready for this?

that made me cry in the theater... Not even Toy Story 3 could do that to me!

Now, I REALLY want to see it again before I end up buying the "Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack" when it comes out!

 

[TheSchaef]

Saw this tonight with my two oldest boys (6 and nearly-5), and what a tremendous selection for their first experience in a theater.

I have a bit of a bias towards this, for the same reason I consider Muppet material more immune to criticism than most: Lego has been around long enough to be a permanent fixture in American culture, and like the Muppets, they have opted for a self-referential brand of humor that isn't afraid to be imperfect if it can draw a laugh. Case in point: when the pirate ship is sailing the open (Lego) seas, you hear someone making a motorboat sound with their mouth. It's just the right touch. What for me began in the Lego Star Wars games reached a pinnacle in Ninjago, and brought a lot of hilarity to Yoda Chronicles as well. So naturally I'm going to crack up at 80% of the lines in a movie like this.

In addition, the third-act turn to which Bob is referring took me completely off-stride, though in hindsight one would think it was obvious. But I found it immensely touching, and I am so glad they gave no hint of it in the trailers. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough; it's been a couple years since Pixar had a home run in the way that this Warner creation did (probably Toy Story 3 was the last).

I'm not sure what's in the drinking water at Lego HQ lately, but it certainly seems to be turning a nice profit for them - even though I despise how expensive, grossly commercial and non-inoperable modern Lego has become.

IMO they're trying to re-orient themselves as a premium brand.

"Premium brand of what?" you say, "only Lego is Lego".

Well, their patent has kind of played itself out in recent court cases, and if you haven't seen them already, start checking out toy store shelves for generic-brand bricks. So basically, you can get Lego Kazad-Dum for 150 bucks, or Generigo Nondescript Fire Truck for $15 (like the Lego ones your family bought for you when you were a kid), and the pieces are for the most part cross-compatible. The generic ones ever so slightly lack the precision fit of Legos, in a way that you can only understand when you build one for yourself, but it's close enough for government work.

And I'm fine with that premium branding, because Lego's efforts have resulted in some of the small joys I listed above.

 

[Vitagen]

Also laughed profusely at everything in Cloud Cuckooland, including the TVTropes nod of a title itself.

Actually, both the TVTropes page and the movie locale are references to a play by Aristophanes.

But yeah, Unikitty was awesome.

 

[Aardvaarkman]

So basically, you can get Lego Kazad-Dum for 150 bucks, or Generigo Nondescript Fire Truck for $15 (like the Lego ones your family bought for you when you were a kid), and the pieces are for the most part cross-compatible.

I would be very interested to see how close these generic bricks come in fit-and-finish to the original ones.

The current price of Lego-branded bricks is absolutely insane. As much as I love Lego, and have fond memories for it, at this point I don't think it's healthy to encourage kids to use it, given how franchise-y it has become. It seems like the company has outright sold its legacy of creativity to branding tie-ins. It's kind of like the new Barbie or GI Joe. Which was what Lego and Meccano used to stand out from.

 

[VinLAURiA]

So it's basically what Seltzer and Friedberg would create had they any semblance of actual talent rather than copies of Paris Hilton's sex tape where their brains should be?

In all seriousness though, I've heard nothing but good things about this. I definitely plan to see it.

 

[TheSchaef]

So basically, you can get Lego Kazad-Dum for 150 bucks, or Generigo Nondescript Fire Truck for $15 (like the Lego ones your family bought for you when you were a kid), and the pieces are for the most part cross-compatible.

I would be very interested to see how close these generic bricks come in fit-and-finish to the original ones.

The current price of Lego-branded bricks is absolutely insane. As much as I love Lego, and have fond memories for it, at this point I don't think it's healthy to encourage kids to use it, given how franchise-y it has become. It seems like the company has outright sold its legacy of creativity to branding tie-ins. It's kind of like the new Barbie or GI Joe. Which was what Lego and Meccano used to stand out from.

I'll keep you advised. The son got a Generigo Nondescript Fire Truck for Christmas (hence, my example) and he's big on Legos and not terribly picky about brand. So I'm sure our house will have a mix of bricks in order to let my kids build whatever double-decker couch they like.

 

[Aardvaarkman]

I'll keep you advised. The son got a Generigo Nondescript Fire Truck for Christmas (hence, my example) and he's big on Legos and not terribly picky about brand. So I'm sure our house will have a mix of bricks in order to let my kids build whatever double-decker couch they like.

You're making the brand up, right? Because if it's actually sold as "Generigo Nondescript Fire Truck," that's freaking awesome. Do you know the movie "Repo Man"?

 

[EeveeElectro]

I was really surprised by how good this actually looked when I saw the trailer.
When I realised it was the same people who did Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, I was sold. Loved that movie!

Even better, hopefully a few of us from this site are going to see it next month for my birthday in York. Looking forward to it

 

[ShadowHamster]

It's been 7 months. Almost exactly. Bob...it's been 7 freaking months!

I get it. Superman is an exploration into the fantasy of a truly good person. He saves everyone because he's the pure ideal of it, and the movie went over the top epic in a way that you didn't appreciate because it seemed generic and nonsensical.

Despite this, I love the movie Bob. Love. IT. Warner Bros hasn't released a superhero movie other than batman that has been even remotely good in over 25 years, and Man of Steel was okay. It was better than okay, it was good. It wasn't great, it was rife with problems, it took the material both too seriously and not seriously enough(On one hand everything is epic and everyone is dying, on the other hand, every is okay at the end despite watching whole cities die.)

I get it.

SO SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY! WE GET IT! YOU HATE THE MOVIE SO WHY THE FUCK(wish I could emphasize this more) do we STILL have to hear about it! SEVEN! MONTHS!!!

I love watching your movies but more than 80% of what you put out now is seemingly taking needless shots at this movie. JESUS CHRIST! I mean do you not see the irony of pointing out how this movie addresses the misappropriation of fans to properties and you taking yet another cheap shot at a movie you didn't like SEVEN FUCKING MONTHS AGO!?!?!?!

Please...please stop.

 

[Malisteen]

I would actually watch the movie, everything you just said did not happen in the movie. Just watch it and you'll see what happens.

Actually, no, what they said kind of did happen. somewhat spoilery discussion:

Spoiler

IIRC the film didn't pass the bechdel, Wildstyle is about the only significant female character (apart from arguably unakitty, who, awesome as it is, was mostly a gag character), and while she does go through some development, it mostly amounts to deciding she likes the lead character romantically. She's competent and all, but it's generic, 'hero through no virtue of his own' Emmet who saves the day. The movie takes a half harted swipe at chosen one narratives, but then falls right back into it.

I'm not sure this movie would have been allowed to push the boundries any harder than it already did, and I appreciated the message that more or less amounts to 'it's alright for adults to like kids stuff, but that stuff should still be for the kids', but it most certainly did not do anything revolutionary with it's 'blank slate male viewpoint character for the assumed white male audience', or it's use of female characters, or black characters, or... yeah.

It's a decent movie, I do recommend seeing it, but while it may be willing to poke a bit of fun at the cliche hollywood tropes, but in the end still plays them basically straight.

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

Holy carp, I did NOT see that one coming.

It's actually good?!!!

Well, I thought "Frozen" was excellent... so I guess I gotta trust you on this one MB.

 

[faefrost]

So basically, you can get Lego Kazad-Dum for 150 bucks, or Generigo Nondescript Fire Truck for $15 (like the Lego ones your family bought for you when you were a kid), and the pieces are for the most part cross-compatible.

I would be very interested to see how close these generic bricks come in fit-and-finish to the original ones.

The current price of Lego-branded bricks is absolutely insane. As much as I love Lego, and have fond memories for it, at this point I don't think it's healthy to encourage kids to use it, given how franchise-y it has become. It seems like the company has outright sold its legacy of creativity to branding tie-ins. It's kind of like the new Barbie or GI Joe. Which was what Lego and Meccano used to stand out from.

It depends on what clone brand you are talking about. The largest clone maker Megabloks is moderately awful. Mainly because they use polystyrene instead of ABS plastic. Parts warp, break and don't stay together. Although they are otherwise well made and high precision. Mattels Kree-o is probably one of the better quality off brands. A company called BestLock (which also shows up as the generic Walmart Brand) is one of the worst. Miscast parts. Nothing fits together. Sets impossible to actually build. Messing around with any of these makes you really appreciate the quality engineering Lego puts in. You wouldn't think that little plastic bricks could simply not work, until you try the clone brands.

 

[webkilla]

Just saw it

It is amazing

I will so get the bluray and then go over every frame with a microscope to find every bit of nostalgia and hidden references I missed

If there is one thing I found a bit sad then...

Spoiler

While there was 80s/early 90s spaceman, then there was - IMO - a distinct lack of a "space realm". There's wild west, pirates, "Middle Zealand" and the cityscape - but no spaceship realm. Also I didn't see a single reference to the Mtron sets, which was totally what I played with the most when I was a kid - or the ice planet stuff. There was no orange glowing chainsaws!

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Watched the Lego Movie last night. I thought it was great, up until the ending.

Spoiler

I was kind of disappointed by the fact that the ending was mostly live action which, while admittedly clever, really kind of took me out of the moment. I also felt like the moral of the story was kind of preachy and hamfisted, but that could just be because I'm an adult and this movie was aimed at kids.

All in all I had a blast with the movie, and thought that it was almost perfect. Extremely fun and clever.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Just saw this with my GF. Oh. My. GOD. I did not see this awesomeness coming. When I saw that fist trailer, I thought "man, this is going to be so bad it's good, isn't it?"

Well instead it was so good it was AWESOME.

And it started making me wax all nostalgic too. ^_^

I now seek to slightly change the topic.

What was your favorite Lego set as a kid/adult?

This: http://www.1000steine.com/brickset/large/6982-1.jpg
Favourite as a kid because "omg huge spaceship pewpewzoooom!". Favourite as an adult because of nostalgia and because I can appreciate the intricacies of the wing design (you can unlock them so they swing down and open up the housing for that telescope/laser cannon

This. It's the only part of my Lego childhood I managed to salvage. It's currently sitting under my bed in a drawer with all my old main characters. I wound up only really saving the big front part, which I turned into the actual ship, by using the cannon-folding-parts to make a gigantic hatch in the back of the ship. ^_^

The rest of the lego in my house was consigned to the Gigantic Bucket of Pieces to be taken out if me of my brother ever get kids.

About 6-7 years ago (when I was about 19-20 ish) was the last time I played with Legos. I was playing with my brother and...I just wasn't feeling the magic anymore so I stopped. I sometimes look back sadly at that. Now that I'm 25 (almost 26) and he's 19, we're both kinda over it. Although I really do miss those old days.

 

[ace_of_something]

I gotta say I thought this movie was going to be "Buy these toys!" or something but it was actually pretty well thought out my 4 foster children I took with me loved it, varying ages (6-13) and genders.

 

[The Great JT]

My favorite sets were the Wild West and Pirate sets. I guess I'm a sucker for cool hats.

As for the movie, I was expecting overwhelming negativity for this one. Glad to hear I'm wrong. My theory is that the guys who made it are dark wizards who turn dumb ideas into greatness by knowing exactly what they're going to do with it and how.

 

[Gorbachof]

To paraphrase: "argues against, while still being..." In case the bajillion post don't exist, its like Spec ops. in that regard.