While I can’t speak for everyone, I wish that there was more
stop motion animation. I applaud people who go out of their way to make high
quality stop motion animation and use the style to their advantage along with
the material. Why do I say this, because Lego is generally the standard Stop
Motion material as people tend to make their sets, characters and props out of
Lego, because its so easy to do (in comparison to other stop motion styles like
using Transformers toys). Movies made by Lego on the other hand are...
forgettable for the most part. I only know of five other Lego movies, one of
which I couldn’t name off the top of my head to save my life. To my knowledge,
all of Lego’s films have been direct to VCR/DVD/Blu-ray and none of have come
to or launched at a cinema (at least not where I live...)... until The Lego
movie. So how does the Lego movie hold up?
The plot of the Lego Movie is really straight forward. Lord
Business (no I will not bring up the controversy of the villain because I think
it’s absolutely stupid) wants to take over the world...
Because of how “chaotic” it is. The reason for the chaos is
because Mini Figs (mini figures, the people of LEGO) destroy and rebuild the
world they live in all the time instead of following the instructions. To do
this, Lord Business takes control over the Kragle, a treasure that has the
power to freeze Mini Figs in place and keep the bricks locked together forever.
Emmet (a Mini Figg who is so generic that Lord Business’s sensors and records
can’t track him because “his face matches every face in our records”) must
learn the skills of a Master Builder, and use his imagination and power of
creation to stop Lord Business from succeeding with the help of colourful
characters including Wild Style, Batman, Princess Unikitty, 1980’s spaceman,
not Morgan Freeman’s god from the Bruce and Even Almighty movies named
Vetruvius, and Captain Metal Beard... I use straight forward by its dictionary
term as it’s easier to understand if you see the film. The characters
themselves are a joy to see in action. Its obvious who Vetruvius is supposed to
be, but the film takes it and uses it for its humour. I’ve never seen Batman
this comical since the Adam West days (Because some days you just can’t get rid
of a bomb) and Unikitty (I sweat I’m not making that up) takes more tropes then
I can remember and completely destroys them (just to name a few). Even the
supporting characters “including but no limit to Robin Hood, Mermaid lady, Gandalf,
Swamp creature, 1980’s something Space guy, 2002 NBA all stars, and Wonder
woman” along with “Green Ninja, Milhouse, nice vampire, Michelangelo (painter),
Michalangelo (Ninja turtle), and Cleopatra” and many others in the crowd.
The Master builders are a perfect case in point for what the
film is. If you know about Lego, then you will find something to enjoy here.
The world is not only made of Lego for almost every aspect (and the parts that
aren’t help make the world better) but it takes the medium and uses it to its
full potential. The “instruction” are actual Lego Instructions, the animation
is reminiscent of actual stop motion (to the point where the characters can
only move like regular Mini Figgs (except for the face, but that comes with the
territory of film, that needed to be animated), Master builders is a actual
term Lego uses (both in special sets (which can’t be bought in Australia...)
and what their design teams calls themselves), the world itself is Mini Figg
scale, no piece’s size was altered (I say this in comparison to something like
the Traveller’s Tales Lego games) and the attention to detail in the world
itself, along with its humour makes this a gem to watch. You can also tell that
the team behind the film designed it around a child’s imagination, because only
in a child’s mind could Superman be stopped by Chewing Gum.
There is one small issue with it though. The song that shall
be nameless (trust me, you’ll know it when you hear it). The song was used in
promotional material and all over the film. One of my issues with Let it go was
the fact that it was over used, this is worse because not only is it overused,
but its also a earworm. You will hear it, and it will not leave you head. On
top of that, the entire soundtrack is barren and forgettable. Aside from the
earworm, I could not pick out another song from that film (both vocal and
instrumental) to save my life (except maybe the gag song by Batman, but even
then I couldn’t sing it).
Would I recommend this movie? Absolutely, it is one of the
best films I’ve seen in a while (I wouldn’t say 2014 because the only other I’ve
seen at the cinema is Captain America). The movie is just a joy to watch. The
only two (pathetic) complaints I have with the film are 1. Why did it take so
long for a film made in Australia to get released in Australian cinemas and 2.
Not even a full second of Bionicle? But again, they are pathetic complaints. If
you haven’t seen the film, watch it. Next week’s a bit of a mood change. A
suicidal assault on a target you don’t break into, Batman: Assault on Arkham.
Before I finish this post, I just want to bring up a aspect
of both Blaster’s Reviews and Blaster’s Projects. I’ve started a Patreon
account, link found here (http://www.patreon.com/blaster?u=287158&alert=1
) in order to improve the content of both sites (a example of this is video
reviews eventually). If you feel like supporting the blogs, please do as it is
greatly appreciated. One of the bonuses of supporting the site is content
requests with a mention in the specified content (Do you want to see a review
or impression of something, I should stress that these reviews will not be
biased opinions, they will follow the same rules as any other review I do. One
other benefit that I’m considering is a preview of upcoming reviews and when
they go live so if you want to know more about what’s coming up, feel free to
support. I don't expect this to go anywhere, but I figgured I'd give it a shot while the opportunity exists.
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