Happy Easter!

  Family-in-Mind Reviews would like to wish all a very happy and blessed Easter Sunday! Christ is risen; He is risen indeed!

Ordinary People are Great, Too: A Movie Review of "The Lego Movie"

The song Everything is Awsome of The Lego Movie says that "everything is awesome when you work as a team." An unlikely hero must lead a band of creative Lego people against an evil, corporate villain. Learning to work together is one of the major themes in the film The Lego Movie.
 The Lego Movie stars Chris Pratt as Emmet the construction worker (and the film's main protagonist), Elizabeth Banks as Wildstyle the "Master Builder," and Will Ferrell as President/Lord Business. The film also stars big-name actors Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman. The movie was a box office success and a favorite of family audiences.

SUMMARY

   In a secret fortress, the magical Vitruvius must protect a weapon known as the "Kragle" from the villainous yet orderly Lord Business. However, Lord Business blinds Vitruvius and is about to steal the Kragle when Vitruvius prophesies about the "Special" who will find the "Piece of Resistance" in order to stop the Kragle. 

   A little over eight years later, President Business controls everything, seeming to be a benevolent leader. The audience is introduced to an ordinary, every-day construction worker named Emmet Brickowski. While at work one day, he runs into a mysterious female named Wildstyle. He accidentally falls down a deep hole and finds the Piece of Resistance.

   After touching the Piece, Emmet passes out only to awaken in a black room. He has been captured by President Business' top henchman Bad Cop (who has a split personality with Good Cop). The officer interrogates Emmet, but learns nothing because Emmet, of course, knows...nothing. 

   Emmet is rescued by Wildstyle, who believes he is an interesting, creative, and amazing person until she finds out he is just another brain-washed citizen. She takes him to meet Vitruvius, and the three must escape the evil police robots and find the other "Master Builders" (who secretly oppose President Business) and hatch a plan to defeat the Kragle.

   The heroes must battle evil, with help from Batman and other Master Builders.

CONTENT

   Since The Lego Movie is a cartoon film dealing with Lego bricks, any violence is not quite realistic. There are, however, multiple uses of guns and other destructive weapons. When things are destroyed (such as buildings and vehicles), the worst it gets are Lego bricks flying around. A major number of robots are destroyed, but there is also the death of a "human" Lego person.

   When Emmet first comes across Wildstyle, he is taken aback by her appearance, and we see light shining on her. Also, Wildstyle and Batman are in a relationship and constantly call each other "babe" throughout the film. But there is not a single kiss to be found.

   There is no foul language, but there is occasional name-calling with words such as darn and dang. "Heck" and "gosh" are also used, as well as a few mentions of "butt" (and in one scene, robots sit on a copying machine and make photocopies). 

   The Lego Movie starts to lightly touch on some strange theology, and one character returns as a ghost. Also, there is reference to "The Man Upstairs," but this is not referencing God (and I am not even sure if that phrase was to mean anything like that). And like many animated films of today, one of the main "lessons" is just to belief in yourself. 

   Also, the movie's main villain is President Business who runs a society of order with nothing unexpected and no creativity. This struck me as a possible slight on capitalism, which certainly does have its own share of evils, but I was hoping that they were not implicating that Communism is better. However, on a good note, the movie was much like a kid-version of 1984 in which a dictator sees and controls all things and attempts to keep everyone under his rule. This carries a few good messages for kids (and adults, too!). 

   The film did have a lot of good points, though. The main lessons encourage team work and individual creativity. It does not matter how ordinary any of us are; if we work hard, we can do great things (just look at many historical figures, for example). Also, the movie portrays that we can turn from evil, which mirrors real life; a sinner can turn to Christ for mercy and repentance. 

   Of course, this review would not be complete without mentioning Liam Neeson's great Scottish accent as Bad Cop or Morgan Freeman's role as Vitruvius, as both were wonderful (as usual!).

   In conclusion, The Lego Movie has some funny moments and good lessons. The ending scenes of the movie are both creative and witty. While this was certainly not a favorite of mine, I would encourage families to enjoy this film at least once or twice. Who knows? You might just find yourself "building a good time" (that was a bad pun)!

GENERAL INFORMATION

Length: 100 minutes

Rating: PG (for mild action and rude humor)

Directors: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

Producers: Dan Lin, Roy Lee

Music: Mark Mothersburgh

Year of release: 2014

Audience: Kids, family

Update to Blog: New Cartoon Shorts Page for the Family

   Stop by Family-in-Mind Reviews and take a look at our new page; "Cartoon Shorts for Kids and Families" page takes some clean and funny YouTube shorts and puts them on the blog for you! It is still in the BETA stage, as they say, so any comments are greatly appreciated!

~Family-in-Mind Reviews