Lego first launched in 1949, has become a massive multimedia empire, with toys, tv shows, and video games all based around interlocking pieces of plastic. Now the company is moving to the big screen, with an all-star cast including Will Arnett (as Batman), Will Ferrell (as boo hissable supervillain Lord Business), Liam Neeson (as the schizoid Good Cop/Bad Cop), and Morgan Freeman (as the all-knowing, all-seeing Vitruvius), and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller.
 

As I was getting up to leave the screening, I heard someone say “I don’t really think this is a kid’s movie. It would all just go over their head.” I was left to wonder what they would miss. The schmaltzy message? The themes explained plainly and directly to the camera three times in the space of about fifteen minutes? If anything, this movie talks down to children.
 

The themes are so recycled and blunt that they’ve lost all positivity and are just tired. I can count on one hand the movies that don’t address the same basic themes and points. There’s a lot of charm, particularly in the animation of Lego fire and water and the antagonist’s (played ably by Will Ferrell) boots steadily getting taller as he walks. Liam Neeson and especially Morgan Freeman both get the best lines. Besides the animation, I was just left unimpressed.

It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, but this time with a lot of cameos to pad the running time.
 

Forgettable but a box office favourite Warner Bros. animated Lego Movie is outstripping other new releases such as the sci-fi thriller ‘Robocop’, ‘Monuments Men’, George Clooney’s WW2 Epic and ‘About Last Night’ the romantic comedy starring Kevin Hart and Michael Ealy.
 

– Donal O’Connor