‘Lego Movie’ for all ages

A movie about a popular children’s toy might not seem appealing to adults, but “The Lego Movie” supplies enough clean, humorous entertainment to thrill both children and adults.

After hearing all the buzz about the film, I saw this movie over the weekend with a few friends. I assumed it would be full of children, but the majority of the audience was college students and older adults sharing laughs with one another.

One of the best aspects of the movie was the star-studded cast that included Morgan Freeman, Will Ferrell, Jonah Hill, Shaquille O’Neal, Channing Tatum, Craig Berry, Liam Neeson, Charlie Day and Keith Ferguson. Having these popular actors do voiceovers made the movie more enjoyable, and I could relate to their characters’ personalities — even though Will Ferrell voices the bad guy.

Director Adam Mckay avoided the usual prince and princess prototypes found in many children’s movies and relied instead on characters from the existing Lego sets including Batman, Abraham Lincoln, C-3PO and Gandalf.

“The Lego Movie” takes place in a world created completely out of Lego bricks and run by Lego MiniFigures. The main MiniFigure, Emmet (Chris Pratt), is an everyday construction worker for the town and ultimately becomes the hero after a villain tries to freeze all of the Lego towns. Emmet becomes the popular hero when he begins to believe he is the “special” chosen one. Later, he has an epiphany when he finds out that there is no “special,” but rather everyone is special in their own way.

This is a great message to send to children and to adults, and while the overall meaning of the movie was touching, the humor of it all made it even better. The jokes were clean, yet entertaining even for an older audience, and several of them refer to other movies.

My favorite references was when Batman (Will Arnett) made a reference to “The Dark Knight” by telling Lucy (Elizabeth Banks) “He’s (Emmet) the hero you deserve.” The movie also referenced “21 Jump Street,” “Harry Potter” and “The Godfather.”

While it had a great vibe throughout, the soundtrack was obnoxious as several versions of “Everything is Awesome” played throughout the movie. I actually left the theater with this annoying song stuck in my head, and it plagued me for several hours afterward. Since the movie has been in theaters, I have not heard a single complaint about anything other than this song, but that just made the movie more memorable to me.

I give “The Lego Movie” five out of five stars. I don’t often want to go buy a movie right when it comes out of theaters, but this one is on the top of my list. Its quirky characters and overall heart-felt motive of the movie lead me to recommend this movie to everyone. Its humor is perfect for all ages making it worth the time and money to see it in theaters.

This is a great message to send to children and to adults, and while the overall meaning of the movie was touching, the humor of it all made it even better. The jokes were clean, yet entertaining even for an older audience, and several of them refer to other movies.

My favorite reference was when Batman (Will Arnett) made a reference to “The Dark Knight” by telling Lucy (Elizabeth Banks) “He’s (Emmet) the hero you deserve.” The movie also referenced “21 Jump Street,” “Harry Potter” and “The Godfather.”

While it had a great vibe throughout, the soundtrack was obnoxious as several versions of “Everything is Awesome” played throughout the movie. I actually left the theater with this annoying song stuck in my head, and it plagued me for several hours afterward. Since the movie has been in theaters, I have not heard a single complaint about anything other than this song, but that just made the movie more memorable to me.

I give “The Lego Movie” five out of five stars. I don’t often want to go buy a movie right when it comes out of theaters, but this one is on the top of my list. Its quirky characters and overall heart-felt vibe lead me to recommend this movie to everyone. Its humor is perfect for all ages, making it worth the time and money to see it in theaters.

Misti Meads is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected].