Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'The Lego Movie'

Written by Shae Rufe and Scott Edwards

Shae's Review
This movie is awesome. And not just because it has a song entitled ‘Everything is Awesome’. That's just circumstance! No, but really, this movie far exceeded my expectations. I went into it expecting some pointless movie made with Lego figures. Well, I was wrong. The movie's actually got a great message, enjoyable themes, and a fantastic plot, and a cast of fantastic actors lending their legendary voices!

Lord Business, the evilest of evil bad guys, steals the most powerful of all weapons from Morgan Freeman--I mean Vitruvius. The magical God-Like-Wizard tells a prophecy, a chosen one will find the Piece of Resistance that will stop the Kragle and Lord Business. This person is known as The Special. This is where Emmet, our hero, finds the Piece of Resistance. He's found by Wildstyle, a totally kick butt chick whose boyfriend is Batman. Seriously, Will Arnett did an amazing job of voicing Batman! Mad respect for him! They're chased by Badcop, Lord Business' right-hand man (Liam Neeson is one of my heroes!) and a bunch of robot henchmen.

In the end, Emmet reveals that he's not the Special, Vitruvius admits that there was no prophecy, he made it up. The underlying message is that it didn’t matter who would have found the Piece of Resistance, everyone is special in their own unique way. Add in some plot twists you don't see coming, a special, heartwarming ending, a catchy song, and you have a fantastic movie. It's fun for kids of all ages. Including us grown ones.

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Scott's Review
Following the instructions is something that we were taught early in life by our parents. Even though we were being conditioned to be safe when we grew into adults, most of us still look back to what we learned and continue to observe the lessons that we were taught. When we deviate from the rules that were laid out in front of us, we learned about failure and had someone standing over our shoulder waiting to say, ‘Told you so.’ Everyone has experienced this, but the positive thing that comes out of doing this, is it makes you your own person.

Emmet Brickowoski is a normal construction worker that has lived his life by following the instructions laid out for him.  Only wanting to be accepted, Emmet is not willing to deviate from the rules that everyone around town follows for living life but is unable to figure out why he does not have a large number of friends.  Not doing anything original around his group, he is not recognized for anything other than being present and doing things, but Emmet’s life is about to become more complicated. 

When preparing to leave the construction site, Emmet notices a stranger that is milling around, but when trying to confront the intruder, he falls into a cavern below the old building. Losing his instructions, he is met by the Piece of Resistance that will make him the most important person in the world. Being captured by Bad Cop with the Piece of Resistance stuck to his back, Emmet is rescued from the corrupt official by Wyldstyle who needs to take ‘The Special’ to meet with the Masterbuilders to save the world from a villain that has the power of the Kragle.

But when Wyldstyle finds out that Emmet is just an ordinary guy with nothing special about him whatsoever, she starts to doubt the validity of the prophecy that was told many years earlier. When meeting the Masterbuilders, Emmet comes clean about his past and is straight forward with who he really is.  He is not received well and that is when he is forced to come up with plans of his own to take down the evil Lord Business with help from his remaining friends.  Building skyscrapers from the instructions, Emmet knows every nook and cranny and will be able to lead a team to save the world from Lord Business but will anyone end up following a non Masterbuilder into the heat of battle?

A fun movie to say the least.  With so many great actors lending their voices, it is hard to keep track of everyone. With plenty of jokes, and a twist that occurs late in the movie, there is no reason not to cheer on your favorite characters as the story progresses. It is hard to find one character that could be your favorite, as there are so many good ones, but I will have to admit Batman made me laugh quite often, but Unikitty had grabbed my heart from the very beginning. Being your own person is something that everyone strives to be and the only way we are able to accomplish it, is to break the mold and have just a little bit of originality. Happy viewing.

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