So I think we have waited long enough to freely talk about The LEGO Movie; everyone who wanted to see it should have seen it already by now… at least once… however if you did not see the movie yet, and you don’t want spoilers, please stop reading now! Watch the movie first, then come back to discuss it. Again, this is the LAST WARNING and SPOILER ALERT! 😮
You probably heard by now that The LEGO Movie was extremely well received. As of this writing it has grossed well over $234,000,000 worldwide, and in North America it was the number one film in both its first and second weekend. The LEGO Movie has received overwhelming critical acclaim with nearly unanimous positive reviews. It has a 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The website’s consensus reads, “Boasting beautiful animation, a charming voice cast, laugh-a-minute gags, and a surprisingly thoughtful story, The LEGO Movie is colorful fun for all ages.” Similar high ratings are also the consensus on other ranking websites and polls.
The LEGO Movie obviously touched adults and children alike, and not just hard-core LEGO fans. In fact I know of numerous people who got back into the hobby (or started out) because of The LEGO Movie. And almost everyone ends up going to a LEGO retailer straight after watching the movie to pick up a set or two to build! The LEGO Movie was able to achieve something very challenging; appeal to both adults and children, and deliver a story with little plastic guys and gals that speaks to the heart.
I’m not going to repeat what other people thought of the movie (you can read the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes linked above and also on other LEGO fan-sites and forums), however I was interested to know what our community thinks. I will go first and share my opinion, then it will be your turn to share yours. Sounds good? 🙂
➡ THINGS I LIKED ABOUT THE LEGO MOVIE:
All of the main characters were likable, believable, well-developed and well-rounded. With so many characters this is actually a great accomplishment in itself. Most movies (especially cartoons) would have a few main characters and from those maybe one or two are really developed. In The LEGO Movie there is Emmet, Wyldstyle, Vitruvius, Batman, Benny, Unikitty, Bad-Cop and Lord Business as the main characters and none of them feel bland or shallow. Emmet is a genuinely likable ordinary guy, Batman with his deadpan humor is really funny, Wyldstyle is one courageous heroine with some mad LEGO building skills, Vitruvius’ smooth voice is to die for, Benny… I’m in love with Benny and that’s all I will say about that, Bad-Cop/Good-Cop is quite a complex character with lots of internal conflict, Lord Business is just the perfect badguy with the right amount of evilness, and Unikitty… I’m still wondering about her… sweet and disturbing at the same time. 😈
The movie is full of Easter-eggs for long-time LEGO fans. Benny’s cracked helmet, references to all-time favorite LEGO themes and characters, the controversy of gluing LEGO, the LEGO man-cave of Finn’s dad with all the “do not touch” signs, sorting cabinets, display shelves, and more!
There are also Easter-eggs that children can relate to; drawing faces on minifigs with markers, using non-LEGO toys and other items to enhance the play experience, mixing yellow and flesh-colored minifigs together, building crazy rainbow colored contraptions, etc. (The following favorite character poll is from The LEGO Movie website.)
I found the ending of The LEGO Movie very touching. By bringing the story to the real world the movie felt all the more authentic and complete. Reminded me of Toy Story – another very touching movie about toys. And of course we already know there is going to be a sequel to The LEGO Movie, scheduled for May of 2017, so the story – in both dimensions, I assume – will continue! 😀
The fact that the minifig movement was kept realistically restricted was a brilliant idea. It made the characters all the more likable. I also appreciated all the other realism; like the all-LEGO backgrounds and scenes, the cracked and worn LEGO pieces, and in general only using pieces that appears in actual LEGO sets.
The whole LEGO city of Bricksburg, as well as the other realms were fantastically detailed! And I guess this is a good time to switch over to some of the things I didn’t like, because it is related to this last point…
➡ THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE ABOUT THE LEGO MOVIE:
As I have mentioned above the scenes for the movie were beautifully created, however we had very little time to enjoy them. Most of them flashed by so fast there was no time to take in all the intricate details. This is especially disappointing in regards to The LEGO Movie sets. They hardly got any airtime in the film. In fact most people have missed them all-together. The fact is that the ice-cream truck, plumber-van, fire-truck, etc. were all there in both their normal and converted forms, but if you blinked you missed them. The movie was only an hour-and-a-half long. They could have easily added another 20-30 minutes and slow some of the scenes down so viewers could actually enjoy them. Interestingly, the movie did slow down towards the end when it entered the real world. Maybe all that speed was just in Finn’s mind… kids… you never know what they are thinking about. 🙄
My second complaint is also about the unnecessary speed of the movie. There was so many funny jokes and references, but it was hard to fully enjoy them and let them sink in because by the time it landed the movie was already somewhere else. On the plus side the speed kept kids really quiet. I was worried that the movie-theatre will be full of little kids, and even though it was, I didn’t hear a squeak from them – they were fully absorbed!
My third complain has to do with the trailers and teasers that came out before the movie. There were too many of them with exact scenes from the movie. I’m one of those people who couldn’t wait to see the film, so I watched every one of those shorts, and they spoiled about half of the jokes and scenes for me because I have already seen them. They should have kept advertising to the two main trailers and maybe some bloopers and behind-the-scenes shots, instead of showing direct scenes from the movie.
All in all I really enjoyed the movie and I will be first in line to get the DVD. Plus I already have all of The LEGO Movie sets and I can’t wait for the summer sets to get released! I think I will stop here though and let you share your thoughts, as I’m really curious of what you think. Also, maybe we should start a list of Easter-eggs we found in the movie! If you remember some you are welcome to list them in the comment section below! 😉
And you might also like to check out The LEGO Movie section for more news, reviews and discussions, or select from the following recent posts:
- The LEGO Movie MetalBeard’s Pirate Ship Available!
- The LEGO Movie – Benny’s SPACESHIP!
- The LEGO Movie in Theatres Now!
- The LEGO Movie Books & Guides
- The LEGO Movie Summer Sets?
- The LEGO Movie Sets – First Review!
- The LEGO Movie – More Updates & New Trailer!
- Unveiling of The LEGO Movie Sets!
- LEGO Collectible Minifigs Series 12 Details (The LEGO Movie minifigs)
- The LEGO Movie Video-Game, Sets & Minifigs
- The LEGO Movie – Coming to Theatres Soon! (first trailer)
- The LEGO Movie – Second Full Trailer!
I agree the movie went too fast to take in all the details, I wished there was a pause button in the theater so I could see everything.
I also agree the trailers gave away several of the best scenes, but I’d say this is true for nearly every movie that has come out in the past 20 years. I usually avoid all trailers for that reason, but for the Lego Movie trailer I couldn’t resist watching it a few times.
One thing I’ve wondered about, Is the word “Lego” ever said in the movie? I’ve only seen it once, so maybe I missed it but I don’t recall anyone ever saying it.
Tom, that’s an interesting question… I don’t remember, but I’m planning to go see the movie again this weekend and I will keep an eye out. Good point about the trailers. I guess I haven’t been as excited about a movie as this one. On most movies I watch one trailer. On this one I watched all of them… several times… 🙄
That Blooper reel is so funny (at least most of it is)! I can’t say that the movie didn’t move quickly, as I can’t remember the whole thing. But there was enough time in the scenes with the Flying Flusher and Rescue Reinforcements for you to notice them – the FireMech even got its own destruction scene (where the dad crushes it w/ his hand). I don’t remember seeing the Ice Cream Truck though….
Also, admin, is the moderation filter fixed so we can use smileys again?
Yes, yes! The “smiley-bug” is fixed! Smile away! 😀
Yes!!! 🙂 😀 😀 😛 😛 🙂 😆
(smileys are awesome)
Also, my brothers and I may get to build MetalBeard’s ship starting tomorrow! 😀 🙄 😎
LOL! I guess we are all smiley addicts.
what!!! you get metalbeards ship tomorrow!
I like smileys, smileys are awesome, la, la, la. okay, I think I just embarrassed myself. 😳 oh well! 😆
anyway! back to subject. i think that about the movie, yes, it was going i little too fast. if you weren’t into LEGO or the movie i think it would be hard to follow, but if your someone like me, that waited a whole year for the movie and your mom is willing enough for you to drive you there through REALLY deep snow, (moms rock! 😀 ) then, its not hard to follow, at all. I’m definitely going to get that movie, and maybe the videogame! so overall, AWESOME MOVIE! it will be one of the movies I have that will never get old!
I got the ship but I’m not allowed to build the boat part until spring break. to pass the time I made a largeish flying sailboat/pirate battle fortress. the first one committed suicide to try and defeat my friend’s large armada (also causing my Ninjacopter to be totally obliterated, but I rebuilt it into 2 battle boats for my new armada) so I started building a new, more complicated boat.
My comment got long, here’s the rest: with a sail that is a siege ladder and a cannon that is normally blocked by the sail but when the sail lowers it can shoot at a wall or shield or something else. it is also made out of technic pieces and has 2 large wheels as flight boosters. it also has a little keep with a folding wall were foot soldiers come out and it has a little ladder for sieges. it is really cool. Oh! and there are 2 spinner caps on the sail and Mini beard is the captain!
I loved the LEGO movie and agree that the characters were well developed. I thought some parts were slow and some parts were fast but overall the pace was fine with me.
My favorite ‘Easter-eggs’ were the Castle world being called Middle-Zealand and then when Wyldstyle was talking about all the different LEGO Realms and the old themes were shown.
My favorite Character was Vitruvius and his death scene was ruined for me because everybody cracked up when he died 🙁 I also liked Benny.
Yeah, that was one awkward death scene. 🙄
it was cool when they showed the old themes like fabuland and other ones I can’t think of, and what was also awesome in that movie was THE GREEN NINJA! AWESOME!!! and the dealth scene. “you didn’t let me finish because I died.” 🙄 and when he was on the string!!!!!! that was best part!!!! (well, one of the best parts.)
and I meant to say death. not dealth. 😳
I really liked that string part too. That was the first clue of the BIG SHIFT from the LEGO world to the real world.
That was kind of weird for me…I wasn’t expecting Vitruvius to die 🙁 . But the free-moving string did hint of something other than animation. Which is cool, but odd when you don’t know what’s coming next. But what Vitruvius says on the string is funny. 🙂
We should also start a list of the funniest moments in The LEGO Movie. But there were so many of them! 😛
Ok, I’ll start.
1. Welcome to Cloud Cuckoo Land!
2. Virtruvius on a string!
SPACESHIP!!! SPACESHIP!!!…………………………………………………….SPACESHIP!!!!!
I could say SPACESHIP, SPACESHIP, SPACESHIP all day!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yeah, it was very funny! 😆
The movie was funny, well-made, and in my opinion the best movie since 2013, and I believe it will stay that way until Winter Soldier and GOTG come out. Yeah some jokes came before I was done laughing at the previous one so I missed a few, it was really fast, but I cannot wait for teh BluRay to pause and rewind, my wife loved Batman. I couldn’t stop laughing at the very final Duplo scene LOL, and the Batman song on the credit roll is Goth Rock N’ Roll gold
I’m so waiting for the DVD release! And I’m thinking of watching it again this weekend. I think second time around I will absorb more. 🙂
The only problem I had with the movie was Batman awarding Wildstyle to Emmet. Otherwise I loved it and so did all the kids I dragged with me.
no idea why this posted here. It was meant as a general comment not as a reply.
Comments have their own way of behaving at times. 😉
I remember that scene. I didn’t interpret it as awarding Wyldstyle to Emmet. If anything, it was more like he was awarding Emmet to Wyldstyle, saying he was the better guy. To me it was a touching and humble statement from Batman.
Oh and it was number one last weekend, so it was #1 3 weeks in a row
When I was working on this post those results were not in yet, but that’s AWESOME! 🙂
I really enjoyed the movie. I was a little disappointed that the movie sets weren’t really featured in the movie. Though some of them are cool, it admittedly kind of makes me less interested in them. However, the basement setup. OMG!!! I wish I had that kind of space and the piece sorting shelves for my own Legos, it would be awesome!
Kim, yeah, those vehicles from the sets went by so fast it was really hard to notice. And I agree; the basement was awesome! BTW, you can get those sorting shelves at any department store. I have them myself. They are very practical to keep your LEGO nicely organized, plus clean-up is a breeze! 🙂
All of my family’s Lego stuff is in a small attic room, so there’s nowhere for those shelves. I sometimes wish I had them though. 😐 All my spare pieces are kept in small tubs, Lego-built boxes, or on long bricks. I call them stacks. They’re nice, but hard to organize.
LEGO boxes work too. I also use some of the PAB cups for projects that I’m working on, and also for parts that I want to keep completely separate. You might consider tackle-boxes or craft-boxes too. Many LEGO fans use them, there are many different sizes and they are quite cheap. 😉
I found the perfect box Stack On 60 Drawer Plastic Cabinet and it was so inexpensive too. I first found it on Walmart.com but it was out of stock and not in my local store, so I checked Amazon and the price was a little inflated not including the 7 dollar shipping charge. I went to the manufacturer’s website and someone had actually written a review on them that said they used them for Lego so I knew they were perfect. So I googled it and found that Kmart not only had it for $6 cheaper than Walmart, but I was able to order it online today and pick it up in the store and it’s perfect and totally affordable to get more. http://www.kmart.com/stack-on-60-drawer-storage-cabinet/p-005W045098511512P?prdNo=1&blockNo=1&blockType=G1. This is quite excellent because I had tried to sit down and sort my pieces in piles and with baggies and I felt overwhelmed and this changes everything. Thank you for encouraging further search, all I had ever found before was the super expensive ones meant to be super durable for heavy tool items.
Kim, nice find! Mine are the same brand, except that on mine the bottom drawers are larger. I bought mine at Sears and they were $25 each, so you found a great deal! The nice thing about these also is that you can always expand your system by adding more units – they are readily available.
Personally I like these better than the more expensive ones. Those are made of a tougher, but also more brittle plastic. My grandpa used them in his tool-shed so I’m quite familiar with them. For LEGO these cheaper ones are perfectly fine.
You can also get deviders for each drawer so you can make even smaller compartments, but I don’t recommend those. They are made of a more brittle plastic and don’t last very long, plus as your collection grows you will most likely just give the parts a new drawer anyway. 😉
the basement was “off the chain!!!”
Personally, I felt like I had been duped when I saw the live part. It was like one moment I was part of an awesome Lego adventure and the next I was witnessing some cheesy father son interaction that told me everything I had just watched only existed in some kids imagination. I did enjoy Will Ferris’s argument as a hardcore AFOL, and it was kind of neat how it all tied things together, but I felt as if the movie still could have been just as good for me if they had done something other then the live part. I loved the movie, Batman’s sense of music, how it could go from funny to amazing to terribly sad, Emmets humblness and eventually his awesome master builder skills, plus don’t even get me started on the part where Benny is yelling himself hoarse, “SPACESHIP!!!!!” and shooting those two micro managers :D. And the very ending was really funny, but I am still wrestling with if I am okay with the live action part. Maybe if they had kept it to a minimum and just showed the other side for a bit, but it was such a huge part and it was kind of little kiddish if you know what I mean. Also, it immediately felt unprofessional and unwanted at first, because in a Lego film usually the thing you are trying to avoid is any signs of the real world, it has to be entirely Lego, or a whole different place altogether. (This feeling most likely comes from making brickfilms.) I loved it and I will be watching it many times, but I felt like the live part was a bit too much for me, and I kind of hope it isn’t continued much in the second movie.
Strider, thanks for sharing that. I have read other people who had similar sentiments about the end of the move. For me it felt natural and awesome transition, but I do understand those who would have rather had the whole movie play out in the world of the minifigs. And yeah, I’m also looking forward to seeing the movie many more times!
Yeah, me too :D.
Sorry I just realized how dumb that sounded since I was the one who said it in the first place 🙁 / :P.
Naw, it’s all right. It just sound like we both really-really want to see it several times! 😛
Definetly :). (Don’t feel like you need to reply because thigs could just drag on with one couple worded comments :p.)