The LEGO Movie

*♫*Thiiis Movie is Awesoooome!*♫*

I just got back from seeing The LEGO Movie at one of my favorite theaters and if you want a quick opinion, just read the subtitle ahead.  But you aren't here for a quick opinion, are you?  That would be boring and I don't think you're boring.  Alright, Take a Seat!

Spoiler Free:

When I first saw that a movie about LEGO characters was coming out, I wasn't very pumped about it.  With all of the LEGO video games like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, Marvel Super Heroes, and so many more I was kind of sick of looking at LEGOs.  And I'm a guy that was SUPER into LEGOs as a kid.  Really, you should have seen my room.  

Not my actual room. But... you get the point.

Then I saw a trailer for it before another movie I was seeing.  This completely turned me around on this one.  Just hearing some of the voices that i recognized told me some serious work was going into this movie.  Stars like Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, and Will Arnett stuck out right away.  In case you haven't seen it yet, here's the trailer:

I was juiced up about seeing it.  The animation was great and smooth, but more importantly it looked like it had a good story that was interesting and actually warranted being set in a universe of LEGO people.  It set it's own rules and building with the LEGOs of this universe was a big part of it.  

 

Now is where Spoilers are going to start flying, so if you don't want to know too much, skip down to the bottom for my general overview!

--Caution: Possible Spoilers Ahead--

Good, now we can talk shit on all the people who haven't seen it yet who skipped below. Eh, they're probably alright and I'm sure they'll join us soon enough. Anyway, here we go!

The movie opens with Will Ferrell (President Business) stealing an important item from Morgan Freeman (God maybe? Isn't he always?) and blinding him in the process.  President Business intends to use the object, The Kragle, to end the universe. Freeman gives a prophecy about the "Piece of Resistance" which would render the Kragle useless to Ferrell and that the Piece would be found by one called The Special.

Enter our main character, Emmet Brickowski.  He's a typical LEGO guy doing typical LEGO things.  Like a good LEGO person, he always follows his instructions.  He has instructions for everything, from brushing his teeth and showering, to putting on clothes, buying overpriced coffee, to doing his job.  He's a construction worker.  Everything is planned and all he has to do is follow the instructions.  Everyone is happy and everyone's favorite song is "Everything is Awesome" and everyone's favorite TV Show is "Where Are My Pants."  The show is literally a LEGO guy bearing his yellow legs asking "Where are my pants?"  Everyone gets a kick out of it.

  "Where are my pants?"  Yes, that's the whole show.

Emmet is also lonely.  He's trying to make friends at work and his instructions tell him to enjoy eating breakfast with the people closest to him.  That ends up being a plant.  One night after work, he sees someone snooping around the construction site when he goes to retrieve his instructions.  He's about to call for help, like his instructions tell him to do in that situation, when she lowers her hood and he sees it's a girl (Wyldstyle/Elizabeth Banks).  He is clearly struck by her and ultimately tries to follow her.  He falls down a a cavernous hole and ultimately lands near an interesting looking object.  When he touches it, he sees a mixed up vision of Morgan Freeman and the prophecy and passes out.  When he wakes up, the mysterious object is attached to his back.  This, as we learn, is the Piece of Resistance.

As you can guess, this makes him a target of President Business who relentlessly tries to get the piece from him.  Much of the movie is comprised of Emmet and his ever growing party of Master Builders (the LEGO people with a brand name, like Batman) evading Bad Cop, voiced by Liam Neeson.  The Master Builders don't need instructions to build.  They can make the instructions in their head and build what they need from whatever is around.  There are some cameo appearances such as Han Solo, Lando, and C-3PO, all voiced by their respective stars.  That really got the Geek in me going.

Humans exist somehow in this world, however, the President has several "relics" in his office.  There is a Band Aid (referred to as the Cloak of Band Ayeed) and later in the movie an X Acto Knife (The Sword of Exact Zero) among other things.  We come to learn that the Kragle is a bottle of super glue.  KRAzy GluE with some of the letters covered up, similar to VGER being the VoyaGER probe in Star Trek The Motion Picture.  

The plan to end the universe is to cover it in glue so nothing changes.  President Business doesn't like "chaos" or things changing. He has an army of things called Micro-Managers that can place people and tings right where he wants them. He wants things to remain the same all the time.  So much so, that there are different sections of the LEGO Universe for different types of LEGOs.  There is a Pirate area for the Pirate series, an Old West, and even an area called Middle Zealand which bears a striking resemblance to Lord of the Rings.  Gandalf makes an appearance at a couple of points.  The President buildt walls between these areas to keep things where they are supposed to be.

"YOUUU. SHALL NOT. PASSS!"

Guess what The Piece of Resistance is.  Go ahead guess.  Fine, I'll tell you.  It's the cap for the bottle of glue.  It was stuck to Emmet's back because there was some glue still on the it when he landed.  As Emmet was the one who found the Piece, he was The Special as the prophecy foretold DAYS before.

So Emmet is expected to be a Master Builder who can lead the other Master Builders to take the Piece of Resistance to The Kragle and stop President Business before he can freeze the LEGO universe.  Emmet is far from being a Master Builder.  The twist is that Emmet is able to lead the Master Builders by having them follow instructions, the one thing that President Business wouldn't expect them to do.

I don't follow anyone's instructions.  Not even my own.

It turns out that Morgan Freeman made up the prophecy.  He knew that if Emmet believed he was The Special, he could become The Special.  And ultimately, this was true about everyone.  All you have to do is believe in yourself and Freeman knew this.  When the plan to cap the Kragle fails and everyone is captured, Emmet sacrifices himself by jumping out the window with the battery that was going to electrocute him and the Master Builders.  He falls into some type of swirling vortex where it is believed nothing returns from.

While President Business believes he has beaten the Master Builders and is free to carry out his plan, Wyldchild goes on TV where all the other LEGO people can see her to spread the word that they can all build things to stop the President.  The uprising begins as the people fight back.

Now for the real twist.  I gave one before, but this is the real one.  This whole story is really happening in the mind of a kid that is playing with his dad's (Will Ferrel's) LEGO collection.  His dad is very particular with his LEGOs and has everything built exactly as he wants it.  There are "Do Not Touch" signs all over the place.  The kid just wants to play and is sad the his dad is going to commit a LEGO crime by gluing what he has build together so they won't be disturbed or broken.  

After seeing what the kid did to his LEGOs and gluing some down in anger, he realizes what his son built and stops.  After the kid tells him the story he was playing out, Will Ferrell realizes that the story is about him.  He sees that the kid just wants to play with the LEGOs as they were intended to be played with, not just leave them in perfectly built and set scenes.  Side-by-side we see how the kid and his dad repair their relationship and how Emmet stops the President from continuing to use the Kragle. 

In Summary:

There were hints of The Matrix and slashes of.. well Batman. This was a heartwarming story that was funny and interesting the whole way through.  It was imaginative and gave plenty of screen time to lots of different characters.  Everyone had their quirks which made it fun to watch.  There were surprising things and even some things for the adults watching.  This seems like a good movie for everyone, young and old.  Especially if you were into LEGOs like I was, there are parts that are just going to take you right back to playing with them.  

Darn, I'm running out of flat pieces....

If there was a moral to this story, it's to do your own thing.  Yes, there are instructions to help you along the way, but being yourself and building what you want is important.  Adapt to change, don't glue things down.  It's more fun to be able to change things than to be stuck permanently.