Delectable Postmodern Melange

Rating: 8/10 (23 August 2015)

Despite its blatant marketing ploy and brand-oriented message, The Lego Movie is a delectable postmodern melange of pop-culture references, irreverent genre pastiche and elegant hyper-realist animation.
The casting is inspired. Chris Pratt is perfect as the hapless, bumbling protagonist (his predictable, generic style suits the role fittingly), Morgan Freeman excels in his overly familiar but enduringly effective wise-man role and Will Ferrell is hilarious just being Will Ferrell (when isn't he?). Complemented by strong performances from Elizabeth Banks and Liam Neeson, the cast is in good working shape.
Not only a perceptive satire on the insidious perils of consumerist society (which alone couldn't sustain the adult appeal), but also a nostalgic homage to, and parody of, genres such as the Western, the Cop Thriller, the Superhero Movie (primarily D.C. it seems) etc., The Lego Movie sets up a number of levels of operation and sustains them successfully without tipping too far in any one direction.
The real genius of this film lies in the brilliant writer/director team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller whose razor-sharp scenario whips you along at just the right pace, somewhat in the vein of Edgar Wright (it shares a great deal in tone with that of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World).
Overall, if you can survive being manipulated by a frustratingly clichéd 'message', and unfortunately you will be, then you will thoroughly enjoy this movie, as I did, for its many visual and conceptual treats.