Friday, February 21, 2014

The Lego Movie


While there are some "boy oriented" movies I have been excited to see, the Lego movie wasn't one of them.


I think this is why. 

My life is consumed by Lego.  I have an entire dining room covered with a layer or two of little plastic bricks.  My 2 year old carries at least 1 mini figure around at all times. I spend nearly 2 hours a day connecting weapons to square mini people with circular hands. The boys fight constantly about what belongs to whom (do you see the picture above? Who can tell?).  I can explain Ninjago, Chima, Monster (Hunters), Harry Potter and Star Wars sets in detail. My 8 year old woke up today crying that a brother had destroyed his "Mixil". I don't even know what that is but I know it's Lego. 

So, when my boys began clamoring to see the new movie centered around Lego, I was more than hesitant - I was adamant that their father go with them alone. But, as any guilt-ridden mother of young boys would be, I was torn because I didn't want them to see or hear anything I could not immediately explain in detail (it's a sickness). The movie is PG and I wasn't sure how much parental guidance might be needed. So, I went to see the movie too, armed with a purse full of snacks, juice boxes and alcohol (joking on that last bit. I had 2 beers before we left). 

Here is my review: The movie was fine. It was funny at points. It wasn't as sarcastic or ironic as I expected it to be (some Lego shows are really negative humor-wise). The main character is a little construction guy named Emmet. 
Emmet is funny and a conformist and probably a lot like myself and a lot of the people I know. So, I liked him. I won't continue too much with the plot because I figure, if you're going to go see it then you already have plans to go see it (or you already did) and if you aren't interested, you won't go. If you aren't interested, definitely DON'T GO.  I don't think this movie rewards curiosity with value for the money. It's not exactly a "sleeper hit." 
On that note, my boys really liked it. They have been quoting the movie for a week. I did really like that a big message of the movie is that "master builders create from their own minds and not instructions." I loved that message because my boys have taken it and run with it. The movie celebrated actually playing with Lego in their own ways. This helps since we have about 25 un-constructed sets which never got around to being the "right" shapes. 

The only thing I really didn't like about the movie is that it *tiny spoiler alert* became live action in the final act. This lost my boys in general, seemed a bit "mostly for the parents" and wasn't really necessary. It would rewrite the movie in a big way but I found myself wishing it had been just a Lego movie and not a meta-fiction trying to connect itself to reality. The last 15 years seems to have a lot of movies trying to be cute using the irony of connecting their mythology to "real life." I get enough real life, thank you, that's not why I go to a comedy, action or kids' movie. Save it for the Oscar contenders, I say. 

So that's my Bourg take. I'm sure it won't affect whether anyone actually goes or not. :) 


(Canadian note - they plurarlize Lego as "Lego", not "Legos"- and because this is where my intro to Lego came, it's what I do - it's a cultural thing).

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