Bring on the inevitable (and already-announced) sequel!

Rating: 8/10 (8 February 2014)

These days, too many movies are made with one eye on their merchandising potential. Tie-ins and merch - toys/books/Happy McMeals - are planned with as much gravity and focus as, well, the actual plot of a film. That's why The LEGO Movie should invite the greatest scepticism: it's a movie literally built out of LEGO, every kid's favourite infinitely- connectable toy bricks. It's a franchise masquerading as a film, and should be derided as such... right? Well, not quite. As it turns out, The LEGO Movie has fast become one of the best-reviewed films of the year - and for very good reason. Smart, inventive and truly hilarious, it's proof that a purely commercial enterprise can still earn genuine, heartfelt delight from audiences.
Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt) is a perfectly ordinary LEGO figure - the kind of dude who tries really hard to fit in (ha!) and follows the instruction manual to the letter. He has no idea, of course, that the tyrannical Lord Business (Will Ferrell) has cooked up a nefarious scheme to bring permanent order to the LEGO universe, and that Master Builders across the galaxies are banding together in wait for the foretold Special: the Master Builder who will save them all. When Emmet accidentally bumps into spunky Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), he picks up the mythical Piece Of Resistance: the fabled relic that will stop Lord Business in his tracks.
Cue hijinks galore as Emmet is mistaken for the Special and swiftly swept up in an underground movement spearheaded by Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman), a wise, elderly Master Builder with a (stereo)typically sonorous voice. Emmet must find a way to save the world - something he's not sure he's qualified to do, especially when he's in the company of such diverse superheroes as Batman (Will Arnett), Superman (Channing Tatum), Abraham Lincoln (Will Forte), Wonder Woman (Cobie Smulders) and... uh, sparkling, rainbow-bright Unikitty (Alison Brie).
The chipper, joyful tone adopted by The LEGO Movie is what makes it such an utter delight to watch. Not only does the film trundle through one huge, action-packed set-piece after another (all gloriously executed in a combination of CGI and stop-motion animation), it's also shot through with a streak of cheerful, anarchic humour. Jokes fly thick and fast across the screen, packed so tightly together that if any one fails, there are about five more turning up in quick succession. It's hard to begrudge the film anything when its version of Batman is moody, broody, and willing to deal only in sombre-coloured bricks. This cheeky blend of irreverence and humour means that adults will find themselves every bit as entertained as the kids in the audience.
It's even more remarkable when the plot unfolds to display in full its surprisingly meta-rich complexity. Turns out that the toy franchise's many LEGO lines - each with its own story and characters - gets to play a part as Emmet and Wyldstyle go hunting for an answer to the world's dilemma. Even more impressively, the world of LEGO is effectively deconstructed in the film's third act and placed firmly in the hands of anyone who's ever tried to make something out of these little toy bricks - from carefree kids to obsessed adults. It plays on precisely what makes the brand so appealing: the seemingly endless potential wrapped up in these LEGO worlds, limited only by one's imagination.
The character work in the film is sublime, augmented by a wonderful cast of voice actors. Emmet - an everyman brimming with cheer and promise - suits Pratt to a T, and Banks struts her stuff as the independent, kickass Wyldstyle. Arnett is a highlight, his trademark deep voice played up to hilarious effect in Batman mode. The cast even includes sly winks to movie franchises (reuniting 21 Jump Street's Tatum with his co-star Jonah Hill, who voices Superman's super-fan, Green Lantern) and the clever-old-codger trope (Freeman is clearly having a blast as the slightly bonkers Vitruvius), while providing Liam Neeson with more acting range than he's had in a while as Lord Business' henchman, a cop with a personality split between good and bad.
Not every element of The LEGO Movie works perfectly - in the tumult of surreal comedy and surprisingly emotional plot, not all the bits fit together quite as perfectly as they should. It's a mite predictable, for instance, that Emmet and Wyldstyle inevitably fall in love despite her ongoing relationship with the self-absorbed Batman. But it's impossible to get too upset about it when the final result is packed with so much silly, cheerful fun. In the words of the film's upbeat theme tune, "Everything is AWESOME!" And so it is - for the most part.