This evening we head up to Sheffield to visit Daughter and
to hand over a bottle of nearly Russian Vodka along with a gold medal from the Sochi
trip.
The dogs have been walked and left at home. Third placed Derby
have been defeated by second placed Burnley in the big game of the day.
L has bartered her way into me taking her to see the Lego
Movie, so we all visit the Odeon in Sheffield.
Our hero is a little Lego figurine called Emmet (Chris
Pratt), a slightly dim construction worker. He’s a smiley chap though because,
well, everything is awesome thanks to President Business (Will Ferrell) who provides
everyone with instructions on how to live their life by.
However Emmet’s little world is uprooted when he
accidentally comes cross an unfamiliar object that’s not out of the Lego box.
This, which sticks to his back, is the ‘Piece of Resistance’ and it comes with a
prophecy that he who finds it must be the ‘Special’ one with extraordinary
master builder skills.
It can’t be hopeless old Emmet surely but before he gets
chance to deny it he’s been struck dumb by the foxiest assembly of Lego bricks
he's ever seen.
This is Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), a member of a resistance
movement determined to end the rule of President Business. To them he is just a
dictator who can’t bear anything out of place and who is determined to glue
everything together permanently.
Emmet, promptly declared an enemy of the state, runs off
with Wyldstyle. Who immediately quells his ardour by declaring that her
boyfriend is Batman. Yeah, they all say that when they’re not interested but then
when she introduces him to Wonder Woman, you realise this is no ordinary bunch
of revolutionaries.
Their world is a world where random creativity rules no
matter what the printed instructions say. Their band of misfits is lead by the wizard
Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) but up against them are Business and his two faced
policeman Good Cop/Bad Cop (Liam Neeson).
It's all done with computer animation that is designed to
look like real Lego. Actually doing it with Lego would have been great but
probably not practical. The jobs a good un though. Everything here is Lego,
right down to the water they shower in and the water the sail their ship over.
Personally I always struggled to make a wall that was all one colour let alone
a whole ocean. President Business would not have approved but I guess the
revolutionaries would have.
At times it all descends into total chaos. Everything
happens so fast that it’s not only hard to follow at times but also doesn’t
give you enough time to decide whether the constant stream of in-jokes are
funny or not. The film takes a well aimed dig at all sorts of parts of culture
from overpriced coffee to cheesy music and equally cheesy television shows. A
bit ironic really coming from what is basically an extended advert for little
coloured building bricks dressed up as a blockbuster movie.
Things slow down in the final act, where everything turns
out to be a bit more profound than what you would think as a little kid
challenges his father to just let him run with his own imagination.
Quite who the target audience for all this is I’m not sure.
There was only one child in the showing I saw of about 30 people and the
majority of the film would have sailed well over the head of your average
child.
I leave the cinema with a nagging a feeling that it was
probably a lot better than it seemed at the time and it left me with such
nagging philosophical questions. Such as... who the hell are these people that who
are gluing Lego together?
Afterwards we retreat to the East One noodle bar to chew the
fat and the noodles.
(Saturday 1st March)
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