Mixed feelings

Rating: 8/10 (9 June 2014)

I really liked The Lego Movie. I loved its minute attention to detail, its acknowledgement of Lego's own history and lore, its willingness to construct a narrative on multiple layers, and most of all, its heart. In many ways, it reminded me of a Muppet film in its aims and tone.
Along the way, it touches on peculiarly Lego concerns. For example, building by the instructions versus using the bricks to build whatever you want (no matter how goofy) is a central theme of the film. The film goes even further, to explore the competing natures of Lego as a child's toy and as a serious hobby for adults (AFOL -- Adult Fans of Lego). These are quintessentially Lego framings of the timeless opposition of order and conformity versus spontaneity and creativity.
Visually, the film is spectacular. Although computer-rendered, the world of the film is composed entirely of standard Lego parts and -- with more time and expense -- could have been made completely with stop-motion animation. The creativity exhibited is astounding.
Only two things disappointed me about this film: its level of violence and its gender issues. Lego is itself surely a metaphor for creation and collaboration. Yet instead of a story where characters had to work together to create something wonderful, overcoming various obstacles along the way, the Lego movie is a standard action-movie plot where heroes must stop a megalomaniac bent on destroying the world. There is an incredible amount of gunfire depicted in this film. I wish the vehicle of a Lego movie had been used for a more--ahem--constructive narrative.
As for gender, there are only two female characters of any significance: Wyldstyle and Princess Unikitty. Wyldstyle is relegated to the role of sidekick to the protagonist (male construction worker Emmett) and Princess Unikitty's stereotypical ultra-femininity is presented as vaguely ridiculous up until one climactic action sequence in which she becomes powerful only by shedding the markers of her femininity (compare Lady Macbeth's plea that the spirits "unsex me here" to make her powerful). This is not a movie that passes the Bechdel test except on the very loosest, flimsiest definition of "conversation" imaginable. It gets worse. Wyldstyle expresses her disinterest in men's advances by saying that she has a boyfriend, and underscores this by emphasising that the relationship is "serious". Finally the live action sequences that depict the "real world" outside the Lego world revolve entirely around a father and son. This could have been so much better.
So, although I really liked the movie, it had the potential to be so much more. At the very least, its makers have promised to make more of their female characters in the forthcoming sequel. I hope this is the case, and that the film is less violent too.