Well conceived, poorly assembled plaything

Rating: 5/10 (6 June 2017)

The story involves the search for an object that can stop the 'Kragle'; a dangerous weapon threatening all of lego-mankind.
With its mechanical meta awareness, franchise jokes, and a daring third act that shatters (not just breaks) the fourth wall, there is no question that the Lego Movie is clever. The problem is that the self mockery is too heavy. That and a jumbled story line, visually incoherent action scenes, and shallow emotional content make for a mediocre movie.
Our protagonist is a modern version of the construction worker character from Lego's first packages. He is as amusingly mundane as the movie tells us he is, but remains mundane in those few moments when he is supposed to amount to something more. He goes from being a spoof on the hapless hero to being just another version of one.
The most memorable piece of the movie is the ear worm song 'Everything is Awesome' which is as cheesy as it is addicting. Other highlights are Liam Neeson's Good Cop/Bad Cop, and a happy go lucky unicorn with a demonic alter ego lurking just under the happy face. Lego Batman has enough moments to have made him easily worthy of his own movie (which he now has). We also have all the other DC and Marvel heroes who are there just so the makers can check their names off the list.
The ending takes us out of Legoland and into the three dimensional world. Here we get the punchline, the revelation of what exactly the 'Kragle' is. They has a cute idea, but it comes with notes of forced sentiment that fall rather flat.
By focusing to much on mocking the gimmick of the toy, as well all the franchise characters, the movie itself ends up feeling like a gimmick. There is no heart, soul or narrative shape, and the scattered laughs don't make it worth the time.