REVIEW - 'The LEGO Movie'

'The LEGO Movie' (PG) ***1/2

 An ordinary LEGO minifigure Emmet (voice of Chris Pratt), mistakenly thought to be the extraordinary MasterBuilder, is recruited to join a quest to stop evil LEGO tyrant Lord Business (voice of Will Ferrell) from gluing the universe together.  Also features the voices of Elizabeth Banks as Wyldstyle, Morgan Freeman as Vitruvius, Nick Offerman as Metalbeard, Liam Neeson as Good Cop/Bad Cop, Channing Tatum as Superman, Jonah Hill as Green Lantern, Will Arnett as Batman, Will Forte as Abraham Lincoln, Charlie Day as 80's Space man Benny, and many others. 

Simply put...EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!  It's half tempting just to finish the review right there and hit 'publish'.  That pretty much sums up the movie.  The animation is great.  Despite being completely CGI it looks like it's stop motion using actual LEGO pieces.  It's also very funny.  It's from the same people who made the 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' movies (as well as '21 Jump Street' and it's upcoming sequel).  It's a love letter to anyone who has ever played with LEGO sets and pieces at any point in their lives.  As Emmet is in awe over characters building things out of the most random items, I was also in awe.  As Emmet was reacting to seeing a character or set by saying "AWESOME!" I too was quietly saying that to myself in my head.  I mean, it's awesome seeing the LEGO Batman flying in and helping out the main characters.  Heck, this was a better Batman movie than 'Batman & Robin'.  

To me, the last act of the movie is perfect and I wish there wasn't a sequel...but after getting extremely good reviews and making tons of money on opening weekend, the sequel has been penciled in for May 2017. 

Now I saw this in 2D.  Seeing it in 2D, there were many moments that would have looked great in 3D.  My only minor complaint was that for some of the action scenes I couldn't really tell what was happening.  Not because of rapid cuts, but just because they're LEGOs moving really fast.  But like I said, that's minor because I was enjoying the rest of the movie.  

Just go see this movie.  Right now.  Already saw it?  Go see it again.  Then go buy a LEGO set and put it together.



TRAILERS
'Muppets Most Wanted' - I liked the previous 'Muppet' movie enough to go see this one.

'Mr. Peabody and Sherman' - I don't know.  Maybe it'll be good. 

'The Boxtrolls' - From the same people who made 'Coraline' and 'Paranorman'.  Most of the trailer is showing how the figures for the movie were made.