Silly Emmet ... Legos are for Kids

It's not often that I actually get the opportunity to see a movie while it's still in the theaters.  It makes perfect sense that when I do it turns out to be a children's movie.  This weekend, I had the opportunity to take my son on a date.  Which, if you never have the chance to do this with your child, I highly recommend it.  There are all sorts of things going on in my boy's head I never get the chance to hear.  Ask Uncle Dan who is now on the hook for a Robot Car and a Batman Car.  But I digress.

Date for us was dinner and a movie.  Not bad in the grand scheme of things.  Question was, which movie to see.  There is not a great variety of children's movies to see right now.  One of them he had already seen, the other one didn't really grab my interest, so we went for what was behind curtain number three.  To be honest, one of the big selling points for this movie was the time it was available for viewing.  After nap time with a good shot at getting into bed at a decent hour.  Don't you love my filtering process?  It could be Friday the 13th Part 27 and I'd be thinking "yeah, we can grab a dog at the theater and still hit bed by 8:30.  Let's do it."  Again, I digress.

You're probably wondering by now what we actually did see.  For those of you still in the dark, it was the Lego Movie.  Let me start out by saying, this movie was fun!  The guy at the popcorn line said it was a blast.  I'm not saying that he's God's reincarnation of Siskel and Ebert or anything, but I figure if you're working at a theater, you've probably seen quite a few films.  Hence, you're entitled to your two cents.  I must say, I agree with the popcorn guy. 

First of all, how can you go wrong with an entire movie about Legos?  Anyone who has watched the Camelot short on Monty Python knows that Lego films are just good clean fun.  I couldn't stop laughing as they simultaneously capitalized on Lego humor, pulled out every movie stereotype available and managed to wiggle in a message about creative thinking.  With all the motion picture characters they managed to squeeze in there, I can assure you that you will not miss the one or two they left out.  Not wanting to ruin all the surprise appearances, I will type no more now.  Except to say that Batman is better than ever.

Casting for this movie was well done.  Can't say that any one Lego stood out in my mind, but then again, you're just supposed to be having fun watching Legos, right?  In my humble opinion, I should not be sitting there thinking "hey, that's Morgan Freeman!".  I just want to watch Vitruvius dispensing his bits of Lego wisdom.  Definitely a success for the little yellow guys; I mean, nicely done to the voices behind the plastic faces.  One special nod to Anthony Daniels who I was pleased to hear reprise his role -- way to keep it going! 

My only criticism of this movie isn't even so much a criticism as a note for other parents.  While I enjoyed the movie, I really don't think it's geared towards children.  And I don't mean that in the sense that there was a lot of off-color humor or violence in the movie.  There's a bit of violence, but it's Lego violence.  Nothing bloody.  There's perhaps a few objectionable words, but again, these are four-year-old objectionable (i.e. "stupid") and not cringing in my seat because my child is walking out of the movie with a new vocab.  My real objection is that a lot of the humor is right over my son's head.  While he definitely enjoyed the movie, and got sucked along by the action, he missed a lot of the humor that had me rolling in my seat.  Perhaps that's a nod to the movie makers that we could both enjoy it on our own level, but a shame that he doesn't get why the Kragle was such a menace. 

Overall, I have to agree with popcorn guy.  This movie was a blast.  Maybe next week, I can give you a review on 3 Days to Kill.  Looks like there's a good showing right between nap time and bed time ...