BEFORE: While I was at Comic-Con, I met Christopher Miller, co-director of this film (along with "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" and the "21 Jump Street" remake). Or perhaps I should say I re-met him, because I knew him years ago when he was an intern at the animation studio I work for. And now he's been hired to direct one of the upcoming Star Wars origin films (whose working title is, presumably, "Han Solo, Solo") but I somehow resisted the urge to fall on my knees and beg him for a job.
Chris Pratt carries over from "Jurassic World", and this is one of those films with so many actors and linking possibilities, that from here I can go practically anywhere - so it might be really tough to stick with my plan after this.
THE PLOT: An ordinary Lego construction worker, thought to be the prophesied 'Special', is recruited to join a quest to stop an evil tyrant from gluing the Lego universe into eternal stasis.
AFTER: When I was a kid, Lego was just a toy - or, rather, a building medium that could be used to create toys. The concept is brilliant - why buy your kids one toy they'll get tired of, when you can buy the bricks to build an infinite number of things that (theoretically) will entertain them forever? And that was enough for Lego to build a company, but they were just getting started. Then they made Lego kits, collections of specific bricks to build specific models. Then came Legoland, because why not have a theme park that showcases the best designs, plus rides, souvenirs, concessions? You don't want to be leaving money on the table, after all.
Then Lego became a franchise - scratch that, a mega-franchise. Because thanks to the kits designed around specific films, plus the video-games like "Lego Batman" and "Lego Star Wars", Lego now has ties to Star Wars, DC, Marvel, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc. It's like the Comic-Con of toys, because nearly every other franchise can have a Lego version of itself made.
At first, "The Lego Movie" is set in a universe that seems to just be a collection of these franchises. There's a medieval world, an old West world, a Gotham City, a pirate world, Atlantis, and of course, Cloud Cuckoo Land. There are a few characters that seem to be able to travel between the different worlds, but for the most part, they're separated by barriers. It seems like Marvel Comics sort of ripped off this idea when it created Battleworld in the current crossover "Secret Wars", so expect to see a lawsuit any day now.
The first half-hour of the film is crazy, fast-paced, filled with frenetic movement. Clearly it was designed to appeal to the ADHD crowd, because if something doesn't explode or get assembled/disassembled every 30 seconds, those kids wouldn't be able to focus on the screen. So try not to blink during the first part of the movie, or you might miss something important. Like, what is Kragle, and why should the Lego characters be afraid of it?
The plot concerns a regular Lego guy who lives in Lego City, but who one day stumbles upon a very important thingie, which I naturally assumed was a red Lego piece, but no, it turns out to be something else. Finding this thingie means that he is something special, a Master Builder according to a prophecy, but at first he doesn't seem to be creative enough to be special. (I wondered why the girl he meets at the same time couldn't be the special one, but not to worry, the movie was way ahead of me on this...)
I was worried about watching this film because the only thing I really knew about it came from that horrific performance of its theme song, "Everything Is Awesome", during the Oscar telecast - which was also a loud, frenetic, mishmash of screaming and rapping that entertained the kids and probably scared the older viewers. (I can almost hear the Kodak Theater stage manager: OK, you guys were at like a "10", and I need you to be more like a "7".)
But how can everything be awesome? Don't we need contrast in life, how do we recognize joy if there is no pain? How do we understand good if there is no evil? If everything is awesome, then by extension NOTHING is awesome, right? Ah, but again, the film was way ahead of me. Kids will probably just go around singing "Everything Is Awesome" with unbridled glee, but adults will recognize that the song is meant to induce conformity and complacency in the Lego world. It's akin to a Communist anthem meant to keep the populace in line and satisfied, without asking silly questions about what personal freedoms are. So if you're old enough, you'll see the irony in "Everything Is Awesome".
This all began to make sense when the true nature of the Lego Universe was revealed - it's not set in a fictional Legoverse, but in a father's basement Lego collection, being played with by his more creative and free-thinking son. And in this we see the dichotomy, the Cartesian dualism of Lego (where the "X" axis is order and "Y" is chaos) Because in the end, there are two types of Lego building. Lego encourages creativity, but there are also those kits I mentioned, which are very detailed and organized, and come with instruction manuals. The film finds its conflict in the difference between the two schools of Lego thought.
(There is some slight overlap with "Toy Story" here, but if the story were to continue in the Legoverse alone, I'm not sure how it would be able to have any logical conclusion at all. It could just continue on forever, going from world to world, piling nonsense upon nonsense. By putting one plastic foot in the "real" world, at least there's the opportunity for a denouement.)
So Emmet vs. Lord Business is really father vs. son, creativity vs. rigidity, chaos vs. order. It's Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader, the chaotic Rebellion vs. the order of the Empire. (Gee, it's no wonder Chris Miller got tapped for a Star Wars film...) It's sneakers vs. shoes, t-shirts vs. ties, art vs. business, rule-breakers vs. rule-followers, Jobs vs. Sculley. Which side are you on?
I have to acknowledge that I'm a rule-follower more than a rule-breaker, but I'm cool with it. As a kid I was very detail-oriented in my arts and crafts - I was one of those "color within the lines" kids, and also everything had to be the "correct" color, and the crayons needed to be kept in proper order inside their box. I didn't understand those kids who colored things all crazy-like, and didn't pay attention to what colors things are in the real world. I could draw just about anything, provided I could see it - but I had a little trouble drawing things from memory, or things that didn't exist. I guess I was a pre-Impressionist, pre-Modernist child artist. I colored inside the lines not out of a sense of conformity, but because it brought me great satisfaction to do so.
Film school taught me that I wasn't as creative as I thought I was, but also that I could still find a place in the industry. Filmmaking is another art form that also has a clear set of rules, unless it doesn't. I mean, you can have experimental films, or films that are "arty" like "Jacob's Ladder" or "Memento" that bend the heck out of the form. Or you can tell a straight narrative, which toe the line and don't allow for mistakes. The forms meet on a long-running show like "The Simpsons", where nearly anything can happen, within a certain set of parameters, as long as the pieces get put back in the box at the end of an episode so the characters will be ready for their next adventure.
For a while, I was doing paint-by-number sets, not only of "Star Wars" scenes, but also of some Biblical scenes like Noah's Ark or the Last Supper. But after a while I got the idea to change the colors around, either at random or by switching the cool colors with the warm colors. The results were a little mixed, but I did get two pieces into an art show, where I took scenes of a covered bridge in autumn and made them look like winter scenes. It was probably the B.S. description I wrote that got them into the gallery... but that's about as close as I come to being creative. But hey, at least I get to work with and hang out with some very creative people.
NITPICK POINT: I have to question the process of making a film via CGI in a process that closely mimics stop-motion animation. In my opinion, the process of building (and un-building) Lego vehicles, and having figures moving around seems tailor-made for stop-motion. OK, maybe CGI is faster and cheaper, but does that automatically mean it's BETTER? I say, "Nay, nay!" I worry sometimes about what we're losing when we start doing everything in the digital world - digital comic books, for example. They may be convenient, but you can't hold one, you can't collect them, you can't put them into a collection, and they'll never increase in value. Same goes for digital music - it's a little sad to think of how few physical record collections there are in the world now, also how poorly record stores are doing, assuming any still exist. I fear that we've lost something along the way, and not just the tactile experience of holding a book or putting an album on a turntable. I just read an article about digital Star Wars trading cards, since a company is re-releasing all of the collectable cards in digital form. Why? You can't touch them, you can't trade them, you can't take proper care of them - all you can do is download the files and look at them, and collecting them is as easy as pushing a button to purchase. If this represents the future, vast parts of it seem quite pointless to me.
Also starring Will Ferrell (last seen in "The Internship") and the voices of Elizabeth Banks (last seen in "Pitch Perfect"), Morgan Freeman (last seen in "Transcendence"), Will Arnett (last seen in "Men in Black 3"), Liam Neeson (last seen in "A Million Ways to Die in the West"), Alison Brie (last seen in "The Five-Year Engagement"), Charlie Day (last heard in "Monsters University"), Nick Offerman (last seen in "City of Angels"), and vocal cameos from Jonah Hill (last seen in "This Is the End"), Channing Tatum (last seen in "White House Down"), Will Forte (last seen in "Grown Ups 2"), Dave Franco, Keegan-Michael Key, Billy Dee Williams (last seen in "The Out-of-Towners"), Anthony Daniels, Dave Franco (last seen in "Warm Bodies"), Jake Johnson (also carrying over from "Jurassic World"), Cobie Smulders (last seen in "Delivery Man"), Shaquille O'Neal.
RATING: 7 out of 10 batarangs
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