Snap Judgment: While not quite as awesome as its earworm of a song (everything is AWESOME! everything is great when you're part of a team...), this is still a fun movie. Plus, if I had to choose between showing this and Frozen to my imaginary children, I would choose The Lego Movie any day of the week. The Lego Movie teaches kids that everyone has the ability to step up and be a hero. Meanwhile Frozen teaches kids that you shouldn't become a shut-in (especially when you're the heir to the kingdom and bursting with magic), because otherwise when you finally do emerge, your social anxiety will be so bad that one embarrassing faux pas will send you running up a frozen mountain with no food to sing a power ballad about how great your life is now that you're a true hermit.
The humor in the Lego Movie is a lot like that in 22 Jump Street, except with fewer alcohol and sex jokes (fun fact: Channing Tatum is the voice of Superman here, with Jonah Hill his aspiring bromantic partner as Green Lantern). That means there's a lot of meta-humor and playing with established tropes, especially that of the Chosen One. Chris Pratt (Andy from Parks & Rec) is always endearing, even when he is just a voice for a yellow plastic figure. He voices Emmett, a regular Joe so average that none of his coworkers even remember him. But he's smart and caring and imaginative and kind, so even though he's not a badass like action girl Wildstyle or the egotistical Batman, he's the clear hero of the movie.
If you come at this with no expectations, which I'm sure the critics did in February (it's a movie based on toys and it came out in the dead season of winter), then it's going to be incredible. If you take the 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes to believe that it's the next Wall-E, you're going to be slightly disappointed. It's a fun, silly movie. Don't go in expecting more.
Grade: B+
Final Verdict: Take this for what it is - a tongue-in-cheek movie for kids based on some of their favorite toys. It's appealing, amusing, and contains some positive messages. And expect to find yourself singing everything is AWESOME for the next few weeks.
If you like this, watch: Wreck-It Ralph, Shrek
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