My
favorite Roger Ebert quote is, "What makes a movie good or bad is not what
it's about. It's how it is about
what it's about." This is the case
with The LEGO Movie, which on the surface is a pedestrian - even cliche -
children's animation film designed to sell toys. (This is among the most
despicable of genres, often producing little more than 90 minute long badly
written commercials.) However, The LEGO Movie subverts and transcends its genre
and, while not a great movie, is one of the most important films of recent
years.
The
film starts by establishing the genre, launching us immediately into a
backstory battle of good and evil with the obligatory oracle of a redeemer to
come. Don't worry about catching all the
details up front - this is a family film after all, so the pretext will be
repeated many times. When we shift to the narrative present, we are bombarded
with the typically saccharine kid-movie elements, including a banal hyper
electronic lollipop theme song ("Everything Is Awesome!")
It
is at this point that we begin to appreciate that there are subtexts to the
film that engage the pop-culturally proficient viewer. The first is the lurking
awareness that writer-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs)
recognize the irony of the premise, namely that
a mass produced toy made of painstakingly identical pieces can make someone
"special" and "awesome."
They come dangerously close to devolving into either commercial exploitation on the one hand and self-parody on the other. They manage to avoid both through the
rapid-fire use of pop culture references and memes with occasional hilarious
effect. (The Billy Dee Williams cameo alone is priceless.) The references are quick and multi-layered,
and will keep pop culture fans coming back for multiple viewings to catch them
all. There is also a "revenge of the nerds" subtext at work in which
fantasy-wonk geeks saves the day. I don't think it is coincidental that the
central character is named "Emmet" (as in M-IT).
But
there is another dimension of the film that deserves kudos, namely the crafting
of the film around the LEGO play experience.
The CG animation recreates an elaborate LEGO world that appears to live
half in reality and half in fantasy, as if we were entering an imagined LEGO playworld. The story replicates the dual desires to create and to destroy that fuel construction toy
fantasies. (Which is more fun, to build something really cool or to blow it up
afterward?) The characters, which are a
fantasy brigade of action heroes, sci-fi and fantasy movie icons, historical figures and ordinary
LEGO people, break out of their individual narrative worlds to interact in a
pop culture remix reminiscent of “Adult Swim” shows on the Cartoon Network,
while also reflecting the imaginative flights of action-figure fantasy play. The characters are co-creators of their
world as LEGO-builders themselves, each with their distinctive styles (“Does
anyone have black pieces? I only work in black!” says Batman).
It
is the use of remix pop culture and the participation of the characters as co-creators that make the film
groundbreaking. Films of video games
have been noteworthy flops. The LEGO Movie
succeeds in replicating the video-game world where others have failed.
While
the dialogue and acting are at times plastic (I had to say it), there are
enough strong performances – particularly Elizabeth Banks as Wyldstyle and Will
Arnett as her boyfriend Batman – and notable cameos (Morgan Freeman, Jonah
Hill, and the aforementioned Mr. Williams, among others) to make this
watchable. And although the
cinematography and editing are at times manic, they are always interesting and
occasionally amazing. The film will
undoubtedly become a cult favorite among certain residents of Colorado and
Washington.
There
are some fairly accessible ways the film can be interpreted theologically. There is a parabolic dimension to the film
that becomes especially prominent in the third act (“Something can be made up
and still be true…”). The central themes
of order vs. freedom, creativity vs. conformity, and self-preservation vs.
organized resistance all have theological dimensions. The surface narrative – set in a
fascist dystopia run by “President Business” – has sufficient political
resonance to be denounced on FOX News.
However, the ultimate moral – that ordinary people can harbor
extraordinary gifts by just being themselves – seems too lightweight to carry the heft of the fantasy
storyline.
The LEGO Movie is no Citizen Kane, but it is a fresh and in
some ways groundbreaking exercise in Saturday matinee filmmaking that will appeal to children and adults alike. I saw it in 3-D, which makes the most of the stunning visuals. 3.0 stars out of 4.0.
