Movie Review: The Lego Movie

By Shi Zekun

GRAPHIC: WARNER BROS

The Lego Movie

Adventure, Comedy [G]
Morgan Freeman, Chris Pratt, Channing Tatum
100 min

The Lego Movie isn’t just another run-of-the-mill animation. The story, revolving around the established Danish brand of building blocks, embodies the beauty of imagination, proving that it is not just another Lego marketing gimmick.

The plot follows the daily life of Lego character Emmet Brickowoski (voiced by Chris Pratt), a construction worker. He and his peers live under the rule of Lord Business, a tyrant who crushes all forms of creativity and runs the Lego universe like a corporation. The setting is similar to the totalitarian dystopian world in George Orwell’s 1984, where everyone behaves like obedient simpletons.

Brickowoski accidentally fulfills an ancient prophecy about the defeat of Lord Business and is erroneously regarded as one of the legendary Master Builders, a group of devoted anarchists. Master Builders possess an astounding ability to build Lego structures speedily and without instruction manuals, and this makes them heroes against Lord Business’ evil desire for absolute order.

Brickowoski soon finds himself falling short of these expectations as he is unable to exhibit the Master Builders’ level of creativity. However, he eventually overcomes the fallacy of the prophecy through sheer will, saving his friends and emerging as a hero in his own right.

Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller steer away from predictable fun-filled fluff by tackling darker, underlying themes such as the suppression of freedom and creativity in society. This seems like a brave move as it juxtaposes the rigidity of building Lego toys, which requires users to build figurines according to precise steps of instruction manuals.

Hence, the moral of the story is clear: Throw away the instructions and let the creative juices flow. However, this message can be ill-illustrated at times. The Master Builders’ have failed to disintegrate Lord Business’ corporation because they lacked teamwork. The movie ironically points out that creativity isn’t as exciting and useful as the creators make it out to be throughout the rest of the movie.

The Lego Movie eventually reverts to the Hollywood cliché of “believing in yourself” — an all-too-easy solution to the problems that arose in Lego’s land of uniformity. It makes the simplistic assumption that everyone is born creative and all it takes is the arrival of a hero to free the masses from the shackles of conformity.It is a shame that a movie discouraging homogeneity would enshroud itself in an air of tackiness towards the end, but that in no way makes this a bad movie.

The Lego Movie is not only fast-paced enough to meet the expectations of a family movie, but Lord and Miller also add depth by combining a feel-good formula with a reflection on social problems in a way that is relatable and inspirational for all ages.