Almost Subversive, The Lego Movie Hedges Its Bets!

The Good: Good voice cast, Themes, Good plot progression
The Bad: Overstates itself, “Twist” guts the adult aspects, Predictable
The Basics: The Lego Movie has a strong start, but becomes unfortunately obvious and thematically heavy-handed.


There are only a handful of films from 2014 that I am still looking forward to seeing. Near the top of the list was The Lego Movie and so, as the new year gets under way and my wife and I have more date nights, it was one of our first choices to pick up and watch. The Lego Movie initially lives up to its promise of being a smart, thematically-subversive film intended far more for adults than the obvious children’s audience. With its impressive voice cast, most of whom are familiar to adults as opposed to children, The Lego Movie is a fun film.

In fact, the real issues with The Lego Movie come from overstating itself. In the last fifteen minutes of the film, there is a twist that nails the themes home in such a way that The Lego Movie pretty much mortgages its own themes and cleverness. While The Lego Movie makes allusions to things like The Empire Strikes Back (reviewed here!) and has some generally adult themes on the nature of capitalism and social order, it plays a number of its jokes over and over again, making it a tougher sell than it should have been.

Emmet is an ordinary worker in the Lego block world that is surprisingly mundane. He is a construction worker who follows all the rules and has a very regular schedule. President Business runs both the government and the big business in the world and the citizens are thrilled when he announces the forthcoming Taco Tuesday. As Emmet is leaving his construction site, he sees a mysterious stranger, Wyldstyle, who is sifting through the rubble for something. Emmet wakes up with a device – the Piece Of Resistance - stuck to his back, in the custody of Bad Cop. Emmet is rescued by Wyldstyle, who takes him to Vitruvius.

Vitruvius explains that Emmet is The Special, a man of prophecy. It is his destiny to bring the Piece Of Resistance to Lord Business’s Kragle weapon and stop the villain from unleashing his weapon upon the many Lego realms. Pursued by Bad Cop’s forces (after President Business removes his “Good Cop” alter-ego), Emmet, Wyldstyle, and Vitruvius try to escape using their imaginations to reorganize their vehicles. Rescued by Batman, the heroes head to Cloud Cuckooland where all of the disparate Master Builders are meeting to plan how to get the Piece Of Resistance to the Kragle. But Bad Cop’s forces break things up and soon the heroes are fleeing once again. While Emmet slowly learns how to live up to his potential, Lord Business begins to reveal his maniacal plans!

For a film that is basically an advertisement for every property Warner Brothers is affiliated with (the DC Comics universe, Harry Potter, LEGO The Lord Of The Rings), The Lego Movie does a decent job of attacking corporate mechanisms. Lord Business utterly screws over his most loyal lieutenant and that plays well throughout the film.

The Lego Movie utilizes an incredibly talented voice cast. Led by Chris Pratt as Emmet, The Lego Movie has fun vocal performances from Will Ferrell, Morgan Freeman, Elizabeth Banks, Charlie Day and Will Arnett. Each member of the cast is expert at emoting using only their voice talents and whatever problems exist with the film, the cast and their line deliveries are not at fault.

The Lego Movie looks good and has moments of charm, but it plunges into average territory as it progresses and takes a safe, albeit somewhat surprising, route. The departure from the main narrative beats home the themes the film was building to and it undermines the imagination and style of the film. The result is that The Lego Movie is good, but far from flawless.

For other works with Chris Pratt, please visit my reviews of:
Guardians Of The Galaxy
Her
Movie 43
The Five-Year Engagement
Moneyball
Bride Wars
Wanted
Strangers With Candy

5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Outside The Self-Referential Bits, 22 Jump Street Is An Unremarkable Sequel!

The Good: A few funny jokes, One or two performances
The Bad: Obvious plot and character arcs, Most of the humor falls flat
The Basics: A largely unremarkable sequel, 22 Jump Street pretty much just rehashes the first film.


Summer Blockbuster Season has hit a lull of sequels. Outside the new X-Men film, the sequels I have seen so far this summer have been complete duds. Sadly, 22 Jump Street does not break the string of unremarkable sequels hitting theaters this summer. A straightforward comedy, 22 Jump Street is the sequel to the cinematic reimagining 21 Jump Street (reviewed here!) and it is not at all necessary to see the first film before catching the sequel. In fact, the strength and weakness of 22 Jump Street is that it more or less recreates 21 Jump Street. The weakness of 22 Jump Street’s forced recreation of the first film’s plot is that viewers who saw 21 Jump Street will see all of the relationship jokes coming miles away. The strength of 22 Jump Street reusing the plot of the prior film is that some of the jokes that reference the film’s nature are the funniest of the movie.

Where 21 Jump Street was a comedic reimagining of the FOX television series, 22 Jump Street is a parody of its predecessor and a mockery of sequels in general. That means aspects like the delightful cameo provided by Johnny Depp (let’s face it, Richard Greico was going to be available, so that the film got him was not a surprise at all) are absent from the new sequel. Twelve hours after watching 22 Jump Street, only two jokes stood out enough to be memorable. The unlikely subject of a sequel, 22 Jump Street continues the story of Odd Couple cops Schmidt and Jenko.

Following their success at busting a high school drug ring, Schmidt and Jenko continue to work for the narcotics division. There, they have a terrible bust which leads to an octopus launching itself on Schmidt’s face and a gun fight that does more damage than good. The pair reports to Chief Hardy, who assigns the pair to 22 Jump Street where he expects they will do exactly what they did before (exactly!) by going undercover at McState College where a murder has occurred during a narcotic’s deal. Arriving at McState, Schmidt and Jenko work hard to get involved with college groups that might have a drug connection. As the undercover police officers investigate the campus connections for WHY-PHY (Work Hard, Yes – Play Hard, Yes), Schmidt and Jenko begin to experience torsion in their relationship.

Jenko befriends a football player and gets into the local fraternity, which leaves Schmidt working the art scene angle. There, Schmidt hooks up with Maya the college student . . . who turns out to be Captain Dickson’s daughter! After Jenko and Schmidt apparently close the case (the exact same way as before!), the result of their investigation does not sit well with either of them. The two reteam to find The Ghost and stop the WHY-PHY trade at the college.

Fundamentally, the problem with 22 Jump Street is that it is essentially the same film as 21 Jump Street. In addition to having a similar pulse-pounding soundtrack, 22 Jump Street has virtually the same character conflict as its predecessor. In fact, the only real character change in 22 Jump Street is that Schmidt gets laid and the idea of him getting exposed to Captain Dickson offers one of the film’s few moments of joy. It also offers Channing Tatum a wonderful moment to let loose as Jenko in a way that his goofy jock character did not open up in the first film.

The plot of 22 Jump Street is deliberately derivative of the first film and that makes Nick Offerman’s brief role in the film a chance for the often deadpan actor to completely deliver comedically. Outside Offerman and a single moment of Tatum exploding with mockery, the acting in 22 Jump Street is unremarkable. Jonah Hill plays Schmidt with the same deadpan as before and the sheer number of attempts to play the joke wherein Jenko fails completely to improvise in a dangerous situation wears thin quickly.

22 Jump Street is a tough film to say more about; it truly is a case of “if you’ve seen the original, you’ve seen the sequel” and the lack of spark or zest to the movie makes 22 Jump Street impressive only in that it could ever dominate the box office. That such an utterly forgettable film did so well is more of a reflection on the weak market than the quality of 22 Jump Street.

For other comedy sequels, please check out my reviews of:
The Whole Ten Yards
Horrible Bosses 2
The Hangover, Part III

3.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |