The building blocks, Lego movie fit in the right places. Like the song says, everything is awesome.

Rating: 8/10 (20 February 2014)

Legos is probably the most successful toy line in the World. It has its own theme park, series of video games and now its own film. Directed by Phil Lord & Chris Miller, the Lego Movie is surprising pretty good creative, it builds well on its Lego concept. The movie is about Emmett Brickowski (Chris Pratt), an ordinary construction worker who doesn't really stand out from the crowd. He comes across, an out of this world relic call 'the Piece of Resistance". He learns from the Wizard Vitruvious (Morgan Freeman) & a mysterious woman named Wild Style (Elizabeth Banks) that the Piece of Resistance is the only way, to stop the evil Lord Business (Will Ferrell) and his henchman, Bad Cop (Liam Neeson) from using a super weapon call the Kragle that can freeze the universe perfectly in place. Emmett join the Vitruvious's group 'The Master Builders', people that are capable of building anything they need, both with great speed and without instruction manuals as their prophecy chosen one call the 'Special', whom will bring balance to the all the worlds of Legos. It's really has this odd, Michael Crichton's Westworld, the Wachowski's Matrix series, and Michael Bay's Transformers series going on with it. I love how the characters jump into different worlds. The movie is pretty smart, using not only pop culture themes worlds, but also ancient stories like Cloud Cuckoo Land taken from the book 'The Birds' by Aristophanes, about an unrealistically idealistic state where everything is perfect. The variety of some of this theme worlds are honestly real toy line set such as the Old West & Pirate World. They even mention Fabuland, Duplo, and Bionicle toy franchise. The computer animation is amazing. It has that glitch-prone characteristic of what a Lego movie might look like. While, it's not stop-motion, at all. It's really does look like a really good old fashion homemade Youtube Brickfilm movie. Even some of the running themes, remind me of earlier Brick films such as Lindsay Fleay's 1980's hit, 'the Magic Portal'. I give mad props to the filmmakers would decide to change the frame rate to 15 FPS for the smoothest motion, which give the movie, its style. Everything in the movie was designed to look as if built out of Lego pieces. This even includes effects like water, fire, laser bolts, explosions and smoke. Without spoiling too much, a lot of various Lego characters, either original or from licensed properties, make cameos or play bit parts. These include characters from, Star Wars, DC Universe, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, NBA, and many. The voice cast was excellent, especially Liam Neeson's split personality police officer. The second had to be Will Arnell as Batman. He really got that down. The worst in my opinion had to be Will Ferrell. I had to say, he could had done better as the man upstairs. He could had shown more emotional in that hug. Other minor faults of the film is that the movie kinda go against Lego's founder, Ole Kirk Christiansen's policy of not war & violence wanting to make seem like child's play. It was nothing too violent for the kids. Some parents might find some scenes disturbing like a Lego figure getting beheaded or getting frozen. Still, it was made in a light hearted matter. The combination of both stop motion and CGI is a bit hard to follow during a few action scenes. There was way too much things on the screen, going so fast that it's hard to figure out, who or what is going on. It's harder if in 3D. The humor is full of one-liners, inside jokes, and subtle allusions that depending how much you know, would tell if it's funny or not. A lot of the humor kinda goes over the head of some of the smaller children, and certain people. The satire and parody elements stand out, often downright mocking other similar films. Unfortunately, this falls into a very common criticize of the film not being more original. The movie is actually pretty predictable and formulaic if you think about it. It all sounds like a scenario dreamed up by a child who's read one too many comic books. It has the same "chosen one who would save the world" concept we've seen a few times before, but the way it's executed in the movie is very clever and the twist that occurs during the third act explain why the theme was so clichés. Even so, it's still formulaic as hell. The pacing is very brisk and moves the story along very nicely. The good things about the film is its unrepentant critique of social conformity themes. Much of the conflict revolves around organization art vs chaotic art. The movie's villains is George Orwell's 1984, trigger-happy cops, a corporate oligarch as president, rampant government surveillance and an oppressive system of compliance and mindless acceptance. The film's pop tune, "Everything Is Awesome," by Tegan & Sara is as catchy, but also frightening. Songs chosen by the government keep the masses pacified. The lyrics aren't just a generic call for teamwork and positive thinking, call for also conformity and consumerism, nothing short of a reminder of the fascist regimes of the 20th century like Hitler's Strength through Joy program or North Korea's K-Pop program. The happily and unquestioningly pays $37 for a cup of coffee as a good consumer should do. It's like paying for an over expensive movie ticket and popcorn. At less, the movie didn't take our beloved childhood memories of Legos, and use it a cheap, hollow cash-in or bloated, special effects. The Lego Movie reminds us that the power of imagination and teamwork can go together in the process of building and creation. Recommend to the highest degree, no matter who you are or how old you are.