Favorites of 2014- The Lego Movie

The Lego Movie (2014)
Starring: Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks
Directed by: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller


Plot Summary: In a universe made entirely of Legos, the wizard Vitruvius guards a weapon called the "Kragle," until it is taken by the evil Lord Business. Vitruvius tells Lord Business of a prophecy about a person called "the Special," who will find the Piece of Resistance capable of stopping the "Kragle." 8 1/2 years later, construction worker Emmet Brickowski finds a mysterious woman in his construction site. When he tries to follow her, he falls down a hole and finds the Piece of Resistance. After waking from having weird visions, Emmet is under arrest with the Piece of Resistance stuck to his back. He is rescued by the mysterious woman named Wyldstyle, as she takes him to meet Vitruvius, under the assumption that he is "the Special."


Those last two reviews in my Marvel Mania month really got me thinking about films that I enjoyed from 2014. Last year was probably the year that I went to the movie theater the most, and a lot of that I owe to my movie column in the school newspaper. In October 2013, my college's newspaper printed the very first edition of Fowler's Films. Can you believe it? My own movie column in a newspaper! Of course, with that comes the responsibility of getting to the movie theater every week to see the most current movies and talk about them. I've decided to share some of my favorite movies that I saw in the last year. Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy both definitely fit in that category, and there will be the opportunity to talk about other franchise films down the road. But for now, let's start by talking about some standalone films, including what I considered to be one of the biggest surprises for me last year and my favorite animated film of 2014: The Lego Movie.

Our main hero in The Lego Movie is Emmet Brickowski, voiced by Chris Pratt. Leave it to Pratt to leave me entertained with TWO great characters in the same year. Emmet is the everyman wanting to be someone special. So when others put him down, we really feel for the character. It's ironic how a generic character like Emmet is fighting to be more than just a generic character, when our empathy for a character like him is the most generic possible. Still, we root for the little yellow guy and really admire how determined he is to save the day. A hero is only as good as his villain (in most cases), and this film's villain is Lord Business, voiced by Will Ferrell. What else is there to say? It's Will Ferrell voicing an idiotic dictator. We've seen shades of this before with his role in Megamind, but here, he's absolutely ruthless. The best part of Lord Business is something I can't give away, but trust me when I say there is a method to his madness. And it's a method he's not even in control of.

Along the way, Emmet is joined by some hilarious companions, including Wyldstyle, voiced by Elizabeth Banks. Wyldstyle is a great fighter and has some attitude to her, but you know she's there to be a character for Emmet to crush on. One of the best running gags with her is whenever it seems like Emmet is even remotely close to hitting on her, she overcompensates her feelings by saying she has a boyfriend and it's "super serious." Later on, we find out she actually DID have a boyfriend, and it's freaking Batman, voiced by Will Arnett. I actually think Arnett did a great job at voicing Batman, but I did have one minor gripe about Batman in this film. Now, coming from the mindset of a Batman fanboy, I can't help but notice that Batman is a COMPLETE TOOL! I understand that he's being fed tons of stereotypes about Batman, and so it's definitely a parody of the character. But imagine how the little kids who love Batman must've felt going into the movie and seeing Batman not only get in the way of a relationship between Emmet and Wyldstyle, but also take credit for Emmet's ideas, be a TERRIBLE boyfriend to Wyldstyle, and just sound lazy and inconsiderate towards all the other characters. He's kind of a bully in this film, and that's just not what Batman is.

But the best part of this film was seeing serious actors have a blast playing some of the most comedic characters in the film. The first was Liam Neeson as Good Cop/Bad Cop. Knowing he voiced BOTH is absolutely hilarious (can you imagine how that voiceover session went?), but it's his portrayal of Good Cop that shines brightest in his performance. It's easy to see his other gruff action roles formulate a lot of Bad Cop's mannerisms, but where does Good Cop's come from? It's stuff like that that makes a viewer go "THAT'S Liam Neeson!?!?" But my favorite character of the film was Vitruvius, voiced by Morgan Freeman. Vitruvius was already a funny character with a lot of his jokes and quirks, but it's Freeman's voice that absolutely makes it comedic gold. We don't expect Morgan Freeman to deliver jokes that are this childish and almost seem out of his league, and we he does them spot on, it's absolutely hilarious to see him go there. He has the voice for the wise mentor figure that Vitruvius SHOULD be, but he also brings a lot of humor to the role for a character that always leaves me in stitches.

I didn't even get an opportunity to talk about some of the other hilarious characters, but trust me when I say this film has an all-star roster of supporting talent who bring great characters to life. Some of them may be great generic characters, like Princess Unikitty (voiced by Alison Brie) and Benny the Astronaut (voiced by Charlie Day), and others are well-recognized heroes like Superman and Green Lantern (voiced by Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill). This film assembles a roster of Master Builders that encapsulates all the great Lego creations into one room. In that room, we have representations from DC superheroes, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Simpsons, Abraham Lincoln, William Shakespeare, and even Shaquille O'Neal (voiced by himself). And with all the beautiful landscapes and innovative action scenes, it's absolutely incredible to see how much thought and creativity went into making this film possible. I, like many people who first heard of the plans to make a film about Legos, threw my head back and scoffed at the idea. Boy, was I glad to be proven wrong on this one. I should've known with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller directing (the two men who showed the world how funny their Meta humor was with 21 Jump Street films), that the film was in capable hands to deliver the goods.

By the end of the year, there were 3 animated films I was very impressed with: Big Hero 6, How to Train Your Dragon 2, and The Lego Movie. It was a really close race for me, as all the films did something a little different to stand out, but I had the most fun with The Lego Movie. It was a film that reached out to audiences of all ages, created a fun and meaningful story, gave us memorable and lovable characters, and delivered some of the best jokes of the year for a movie period. So, when it came time to announce the nominees for the Academy Awards and this film was NOT nominated for Best Animated Feature, people everywhere lost their minds. It was declared the biggest snub at the Oscars (and trust me, there were a lot of those this year), and many felt had it been nominated, it would have won. I'll throw my two cents in there and say it had a great chance of winning. When I gave my Oscar predictions for Fowler's Films this year, I worked alongside a fellow movie buff (shout out to TB!), and when it came time to choose Animated Feature, we both noted that we would have chosen The Lego Movie if it had been nominated. Instead, he chose How to Train Your Dragon 2, and I ended up choosing Big Hero 6, the film that ended up winning Best Animated Feature...


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Everything is awesome when it comes to this movie. The Lego Movie was a film that absolutely surprised me the first time I saw it. I was expecting something completely stupid and unimportant, and got one of my favorite animated films of the decade instead. Thanks to its comedy, its cast, and its creativity, I strongly recommend every moviegoer check this film out at least once, as it is sure to bring out your inner child.

The Lego Movie and movie images are copyrighted by Warner Bros.