tackling the list: the lego movie

The next film on the list was the LEGO movie. Now full disclosure, I have begun to watch this before, and thought it was rubbish and turned it off. However, with this list I thought why not give it another go…

The LEGO movie is a corny, silly children’s movie, and honestly, I actually quite enjoyed it second time around. Once I got past the silliness of the film at the beginning, I found the jokes and humorous moments more entertaining. The story itself appears to be one that has been seen before: evil villain, a prophecy, and an unusual hero there to save the day. It does follow these tropes, although in a more comical and ironic way.

The themes of the film however have some more significant meanings. The villain they are fighting is called Mr Business, he controls their universe, he decides what they watch, listen to, how they act, and it is mentioned that he makes the poll machines. This is all a representation of capitalism and monopolies, suggesting the idea of the villainy of society which we have been brainwashed to accept. Its quite a heavy theme for a silly children’s movie, but it gets the point across, at least to the older audiences. According to the Guardian, "adults will laugh themselves silly at the smart consumer satire gags".

Nearer the end of the film comes a twist that I genuinely didn’t see coming, which I was quite impressed by. I found this was both an, “of course” moment, while at the same time being little bit confusing; although that could be just me overthinking it as an adult.

Overall, I actually enjoyed this film. It is clearly a children’s film with its silly humour and jokes, but I did actually find some laughs as an adult, even if some were ironic. I also found the twist entertaining and was impressed by some of the deeper themes. In the end I would recommend this as an enjoyable time filler and a good film to watch with the kids.