In a sentenceA box of bricks puts Batman’s dignity under considerable strain
Emmet Brickowski (Chris Pratt) is the ordinary figure at the centre of an adventure built from Lego, with everybody’s safety at stake. He shares this brick-built world with Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) and Batman (Will Arnett), as well as Lord Business (Will Ferrell) and Bad Cop (Liam Neeson). The surroundings can be taken apart and rebuilt, making the bricks themselves part of the action. For Emmet, the challenge is to find what he can contribute among these competing personalities, as creativity comes up against the pressure to conform.
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Phil Lord and Christopher Miller make a funny, inventive defence of playing without permission. The pace can wear us down, but the affection for ordinary people gives the cleverness a purpose.
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have made a funny, generous film out of material that could easily have produced a long catalogue. It takes playing seriously without requiring its characters to behave with any dignity. Much of the pleasure comes from seeing what can be built, altered and made ridiculous with recognisable plastic pieces. We recommend it warmly, even if its determination to keep us entertained occasionally becomes tiring.
Grant Freckelton’s production design makes the bricks recognisable as things someone might have left on the floor. Their hard little shapes give the fantasy a pleasing awkwardness, and the construction itself supplies a good share of the humour. The cinematography credited to Pablo Plaisted and Barry Peterson helps preserve that tactile quality instead of smoothing it away. The images invite us to look at how things fit together, even when the action is trying to hurry us past them.
Chris Pratt makes Emmet Brickowski’s ordinariness likeable, which is harder than giving a hero a collection of quirks. The voice is warm enough for the film’s faith in unexceptional people to seem credible. We laughed more than we expected at Will Arnett’s Batman. His solemn delivery makes the little plastic figure’s self-importance look all the sillier, and the performance is funny without requiring an exhaustive knowledge of the character.
Writing as well as directing, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are sharp about the appeal of fitting in. Their jokes about consumer culture do not make the Lego branding disappear, and we would not mistake them for an attack on the toy business. What keeps that contradiction from becoming irritating is the attention paid to making things, changing them and enjoying the mess. The film’s enthusiasm for what people might do with the bricks is persuasive enough to overcome much of our suspicion.
The weakness is the speed. Editors David Burrows and Chris McKay keep the jokes coming so quickly that some lose the space in which they might have been funnier, and the middle can become tiring. Mark Mothersbaugh’s music adds to the bustle; we occasionally wanted it to give the voices and pictures more room. At 100 minutes the film is not long, but it is busy enough to feel overfilled in places.
There is also a tendency to explain a point after the pictures have already made it. The screenplay’s belief in creativity is appealing, but it need not be underlined quite so firmly. The characters have been funny enough, and treated kindly enough, for the earnestness to seem sincere. That makes the insistence easier to forgive, although a little less explanation would have helped.
As family animation, it works because the pictures offer enough to enjoy without requiring recognition of every familiar character. The visual comedy deserves as much attention as the voices, and a second viewing need not be spent waiting for favourite lines. We would choose it for a shared evening when a little disorder is welcome. Just do not expect much quiet.
Most critics are delighted, and more surprised than they expected to be: a film built to sell plastic bricks turns out, in their view, to be fast, funny and warmer than it has any right to be. Praise clusters on Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s script and direction, on the tactile, brick-by-brick animation that several reviewers compare to stop-motion, and on the voice cast, with Batman singled out more than once. Many also enjoy the satire of consumer culture and conformity, and a good number are caught off guard by an ending they find moving and decline to describe.
The spread is narrow; thirteen of fourteen reviews are positive, most at four stars or thereabouts. Reservations are small: a middle section some find chaotic, pacing that occasionally flags, and a debt to The Matrix that Slant Magazine notes without much complaint. The lone dissenter is The Wrap, which enjoys the pop-culture mashups but thinks the film stops dead to spell out its moral about creativity, and finds the spoon-feeding insulting.
The critic praises the film as a clever, irreverent homage to Lego that skewers consumer culture while delivering nonstop laughs and ingenuity through its animation and structure.
Read the full review →The critic hails the film as a rare animated free-for-all mixing shameless fun with razor-sharp wit and pure joy while tackling deeper issues. It singles out the third-act developments that shift into poignant questions about creation and the nature of a benevolent versus vengeful creator.
Read the full review →Lord and Miller deliver a weird, creative, ambitious film that captures Lego's surreal nature with visual humor and a moving ending, despite some chaos in the middle. It's enthusiastic and exciting, sure to delight Lego fans.
Read the full review →The review celebrates the film's subversive humor, hyper-kinetic energy, and inventive design that celebrates creativity over conformity, highlighting the voice cast and balance of kid-friendly fun with adult appeal.
Read the full review →The critic finds the film a clever, ironic celebration of Lego that pokes fun at positivity and product placement but succeeds with its inventive story and characters, especially Batman. The climax provides a genuine visual and thematic jolt that affirms ordinary people are special.
Read the full review →The film is a raucous and highly caffeinated treat that turns out to be a whimsical and hilarious piece of animated nostalgia rather than a shameless toy tie-in. The critic singles out the inventive, tactile brick-based visual tomfoolery and set-pieces for praise.
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A Town Called Panic · not reviewed yetMore toy figures cause trouble, with even less regard for sensible behaviour.
PlayTimePatient visual comedy finds endless absurdity in buildings, gadgets and organised modern life.
Kiki's Delivery ServiceA young heroine discovers that useful work and self-belief take practice.
The Wrong Trousers · not reviewed yetSmall domestic objects become the machinery of a precise and ridiculous thriller.
The Mitchells vs. the MachinesAnother family animation whose frantic visual jokes leave room for awkward affection.
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