The Lego Movie

Besides the recently released, "The Nut Job", we have our second animated film of the new year in our midst. Now this isn't just any animated flick, we're talking about "The Lego Movie". The difference here is this is like watching actual Lego bricks that come to life with a, well life of their own.

This follows lead character, Emmet (Chris Pratt) a completely ordinary, clueless, but affable LEGO mini-figure who is mistakenly identified as the most "extraordinary person" called "the special" and the key to saving the Lego universe. He is prophesied through Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) as being a "Master Builder" or one who can save the universe. Emmet and his friends, Wyldstyle/Lucy (Elizabeth Banks), Batman (Will Arnett), Metal Beard (Nick Offerman), and Unikitty (Alison Brie) go on an epic journey to stop the evil tyrant, Lord Business (Will Ferrell) and his henchman, Bad Cop/Good Cop (Liam Neeson) who is bent on destroying their LEGO universe by gluing it all together instead of letting the people think and create for themselves.

Others to round out the cast are Charlie Day as Benny, Cobie Smulders as Wonder Woman, Channing Tatum as Superman, Jonah Hill as Green Lantern, and Dave Franco as Wally.

It was written and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller ("Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" '09, "21 Jump Street" '12). Considering the minimal experience these guys have in the director's and writer's chair, these guys produced a fairly interesting film. Mind you, this script was fairly predictable, not to mention somewhat ordinary, but first of all, these guys clearly need more experience which they will receive, and two, somehow, I can't help but think that maybe, just maybe the premise was purposely simple in order to showcase the real stars here: the visual effects company, Animal Logic ("Babe", "Mousehunt", "The Matrix", "House of Flying Daggers", "300", "The Great Gatsby") to name a few. This has got to be one of the finest animated films I've seen in a while.

Believe me, if I was to rate this film only by the visuals, this would clearly be a 4 star, however I must rate this according to overall performance, and for what it was and how it was carried out, it somewhat missed the mark. The one interesting part here is who and what ends up being 'the man upstairs'. It's creative and surprising. Go ahead and take the plunge, because of the visuals and being presented in 3D makes this fun no matter what.

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                          Rated: PG                         100mins.