Totally bonkers.

Rating: 7/10 (28 February 2014)

It looks like 2014 is going to be a very full year for movies, starting it early too with a huge family movie and a star-studded caper. Only one more week until The Grand Budapest Hotel which could possibly stand to be my Best Picture throughout the whole year, who knows. However, so far, the year is starting on mild disappointments. Though perhaps I just had my hopes up a little too high. The Lego Movie is good, but it's just getting way more acclaim than it deserves. It's being treated as the new Toy Story for a generation. Quite an overstatement for a film that's likable and quirky but doesn't have the gravitas in its emotion for quite a bold statement. It really could have been a disaster though, they pulled off the marketing perfectly. Completely nailed the idea that this is a film with breezy awesome attitude.
The beauty is in the little personal touches as each lego peace has their natural imperfections. Chris Pratt is the perfect casting choice for the lead, I'm very glad he's starting to blow up because his personality shouldn't be limited to Parks and Recreation. He's ideal as a Spongebob-esque naive blank-slate protagonist. The Lego Movie is kind of like The Matrix plus Wreck-It Ralph but unfortunately I just found the film far too manic to register what was going on. Impressive animation especially how it adds so much depth in 3D but too often it just felt all over the place. Not that I couldn't follow the story, I just couldn't catch the details. I never felt jeopardy or tension and it was too messy in its stakes to care deeply. Just a good time. It's a film that deliberately wears its themes on sleeve being very on-the-nose about individualism and so forth.
It wants to be a satire but it doesn't commit enough to its observations. While it breaks the fourth wall sometimes in attempts at dissecting its screenplay formulas they just seem like winks rather than deconstructions. It's just a way around using clichÃ©s rather than truly criticising them and using them inventively. But perhaps I'm taking a light film a little too seriously, at least its wonderful optimism makes up for what it lacks in conviction. It has several clever ideas and integrations into the real world that make it connect a little more though I do feel like the meta story takes stuff away rather than adds, especially with the melodramatic execution. However, as fun as the film is, I still don't think it can quite get passed the fact that it's a 100 minute advertisement for a toy. It is marketing the spirit of the toy with a touch of nostalgia, but seriously, go buy the toy.
6/10