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Created Feb 27, 2014 11:44PM PST • Edited Dec 31, 2018 01:48AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Perfect 5.0

   The Lego Movie pegs the meter, several of them actually: comedy, smarts, humanity, trendiness. Simply one of the most brilliant movies of recent years and a helluva lot of fun, it’s every bit the wonderful and transcendent movie that Toy Story was, albeit a bit more remote, notwithstanding a touch of real humanity. Perhaps because TLM is totally arch nearly the whole way through, while TS was equal parts tender-ironic.

   It’s also the most buoyantly funny movie since Spielberg’s Adventures of Tintin. As if that joyful lightness of being isn’t enough, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s movie brilliantly tweaks the ids, egos and alter-egos of boys, girls, men, women, children and adults. All while playing to matinee tots in the cheap seats.

   Shakespeare didn’t do it so well: high-low, young-old, farce-humanity. Lord & Miller — in the pantheon.

   Their movie is studded with major characters, some even voiced by major moviestars.

   • Will Ferrell’s President Business isn’t a slam at all businesses, but rather at one – the Lego Group. The Lego Movie springs from and has the blessing of the Lego Group, making the irony thick. The pretentious coverage this supposed indictment of capitalism has received? Thick also.
   • Batman is TLM’s Buzz Lightyear, a farcical übermensch who toys with our superhero dreams.
   • Emmet Brickowoski is an everyman extraordinaire, a guy with a great attitude who wants to fit in.

   Got a kid? Take ‘em to see The Lego Movie, though you may want to avoid the overstimulating 3D.
   Don’t got a kid? Go to a late show like I did. We older kids get the theater to ourselves then.

4. Acting

   Perfect 5.0

   Chris Pratt voices an everyman for the ages: Ages 7 And Up that is. His Emmet Brickowoski is the movie’s hero, a guy who just wants to be part of a team and always keeps a great attitude, which carries him far in life. Pratt invests the little fella with just the right pluck.

   Primary Voices

   • Will Arnett’s Batman / Bruce Wayne is probably better than any Batman since Michael Keaton. That’s saying something.
   • Elizabeth Banks delivers a supersexy turn as Wyldstyle. Similar to Scarlett Johansen’s Her, hearing a sexy actress turn in a supersexy vocal performance makes her sexy in a whole new way.
   • Morgan Freeman’s Vitruvius is a consummate white-haired God-like figure from the current master of such deified roles.
   • Liam Neeson’s Bad Cop is a stock role for him. His Good Cop is amazing however, sweet as syrup – from Liam Neeson. Give the big Irishman a Golden Trophy!
   • Alison Brie’s very sexy Unikitty reveals her scary side. Wow. Oops, I mean Meow.
   • Will Ferrell is to comically evil villains as Morgan Freeman is to God-like figures. Lord Business, President Business and The Man Upstairs comprise a new trifecta for him however.
   • Nick Offerman’s Metal Beard is a stupendous character and a key one to The Lego Movie’s buoyant power. Offerman is now one of the major talents of the current cinematic era.

   Star Wars Cameos

   • C-3PO – Anthony Daniels, the original
   • Han Solo gets voiced by Keith Ferguson, not the original
   • Lando – Billy Dee Williams, the original and a big time favorite Star Wars character

   Historical Cameos

   • Will Forte as Abraham Lincoln
   • Shaquille O’Neal as Shaq
   • Jorma Taccone as Shakespeare

   Other Cameos

   • Dave Franco as Wally
   • Todd Hansen as Gandalf
   • Jonah Hill as Green Lantern
   • Keegan-Michael Key as Foreman Jim
   • Chris McKay as Larry The Barrista
   • Christopher Miller as TV Presenter
   • Graham Miller as Duplo
   • Doug Nicholas as Surfer Dave
   • Chris Paluszek as Robot Foreman
   • Cobie Smulders as Wonder Woman
   • Channing Tatum as Superman

   And Jadon Sand as a plucky little boy

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

7. Female Costars Perfect 5.0

8. Male Costars Perfect 5.0

10. Film

    Perfect 5.0

    The Lego Movie is exhausting in 2D. The mind reels at the prospect of seeing it in 3D. That said, I chose to sit in Row 6 of Theater 1 at Camera 7, which made me the only one in the front section on a quiet Sunday night. The other dudes there that night were more sane and sat in the back section.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

12. Play Really Great 4.5

13. Music Perfect 5.0

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0

    30 Lighting Artists

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.8

17. Sex Titillating 1.6

18. Violence Fierce 1.8

19. Rudeness Salty 1.9

21. Reality

    Supernatural 3.7

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.5

23. Biological Fantasy 4.3

24. Physical Fantasy 4.3