If there was one Lego movie to moisten the appetite for future Lego exploits it was last years home release of Lego Batman: DC Heroes Unite. From beginning to end it was fast, punchy and hilarious. So the bar has been set pretty high (certain wise readers will see where this is going) and unfortunately, as far as The Lego movie is concerned, the bar has been set far too high.
With a decent vocal cast from Will Arnett, Elizabeth Banks, Will Ferrell, Morgan Freeman and Jonah Hill, the Lego movie follows Emmet, an ordinary Lego figure who was mistaken for an all powerful, god like Masterbuilder. He finds himself surrounded by a bunch of heroes, (mainly Batman) and together they have to stop an evil Lego bad guy from gluing the universe together.
To say The Lego Movie is a disappointment would be possibly a bit too harsh, but its not far off it. With more laughs for the adults than the kids, this is another animated movie thats not entirely sure what audience its aiming it. The majority of the laughs revolve around predominately pop culture and old movie references, which is fine for the adults. The Empire Strikes Back nod is particularly brilliant for the adults, but for the average kid it will go so far above their head that they won’t even notice. I sat in an 80% full screening with the majority of the audience being made up of kids, including my own and I’d struggle to recall hearing one child laughing. The adults on the other hand had a handful of chuckles.
The posters and trailers promised an epic adventure, and while there are some brilliant set pieces, these are not enough to keep your attention, let alone the kids. The real let down though is the lack of characters. Batman (voiced by Will Arnett), President Business (Will Ferrell) and Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) take up the majority of screen time along with Emmet (Chris Pratt) and everybody else from Superman to Gandalf have a combined few minutes and thats it.
The vocal cast do their job well enough and Will Ferrell is genuinely brilliant and sounded like he had an absolute blast voicing the bad guy. Besides Arnett and Pratt, everybody else sounded like they weren’t entirely sure how to voice a piece of plastic.
The huge positive though are the visuals. While the 3D version is nothing to write home about, the level of detail on display is superb. The characters really look brilliant and all are complete with scuffs and scrapes which offers a brilliantly realistic look to the whole thing.
The Lego Movie promised so much and delivered very little. With only a handful of laughs that only the grown ups will get, this may prove a difficult watch for your little darlings, who like the movie, will find themselves getting very bored from time to time. Overall, this is nearly as frustrating as that big Lego set you get that didn’t come with instructions. Oh and by the way, you’ll have to get that “Everything is Awesome” song surgically removed from your brain.
