Clever, but disingenuous

Rating: 5/10 (21 January 2015)

In the Lego Movie, and evil minifig named Lord Business has decided that he is tired of all of the creative people messing around with his stuff. He is already the most powerful creature in Legoland, but to eliminate the chaos he has decided to end the world by gluing it in place with the Kragle (actually a big tube of Krazy Glue). The masterbuilders can only count on the "Special," a minifig destined to save the world by putting the Piece of Resistance on the Kragle. Emmitt, a regular construction minifig turns out to be the hero.
The Lego Movie is a new twist on an old idea, what some critics would call a dystopian science-fiction piece. These stared with George Orwell's 1984 and have come to full fruition recently in the movies with The Hunger Games. The purpose of these movies is to exaggerate some aspect of our society, usually an oppressive government or capitalist system, in order to "expose" it.
In the case of the Lego Movie, it is entirely peculiar that the villain is "Lord Business." After all, there are barely any better capitalist ventures in the world than Lego, and this movie in particular has already grossed $260 million. Making a boatload of money off of a critique of Capitalism strikes me as a bit disingenuous.
Nonetheless, one of the reasons for the big gross is that this movie is actually pretty good. There's lots of laughs, great animation, even interesting plot twists and some genuinely touching human drama. You have to love a movie that gives prominent cameos to both Abraham Lincoln and Shaquille O'Neal. Fair to say you are likely to be entertained by this movie, and that is better that simply getting a boring infomercial for Legos.
The problem is that these guys are criticizing Lord Business all the way to the bank.