Good but only to a point

Rating: 6/10 (1 July 2019)

This animated feature follows an ordinary-living construction worker who is accidentally pulled into a group of people that includes superheroes. Their goal is to stop the evil President Business from destroying the world. The animation takes place in a massive Lego construct.
The early part of the film has a clever pace though it seems to depend too much on cartoon violent slapstick for cheap laughs. While there are better humourous moments elsewhere in the film, it seems to miss opportunities to satirize our modern world. It seems to get close to doing so but then stops short.
One such example is the rightly named character President Business. He is so mean-spirited, narrow-minded, vicious, and bullying that he could easily have been modeled after certain political leaders of today. There were missed chances to show how such a character is destroying Earth's environment. Instead, the film seems more to follow a far-out science-fiction fantasy premise.
I know I'm of the dissenting opinions here as the film is very popular with high critical acclaim. Still, I could only like "The Lego Movie" to a point. In any case, I did appreciate its message that "ordinary" people might be smarter than what most people would think.