The Lego Movie Review
The Plot:
An ordinary LEGO minifigure, mistakenly thought to be an extraordinary MasterBuilder is recruited to join a quest to stop and evil LEGO tyrant from ridding the known world of imagination using a mysterious ultimate weapon.
The Good:
Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller demonstrated their own extraordinary creative potential with surprise blockbuster hit Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Now armed with an endless toy box of LEGO possibilities the screenwriting duo has delivered a brightly coloured adventure packed with imagination and winning one liners. It’s a perfect fusion of big kid nostalgia and childish wonder.
It helps that the Lego movie has assembled a truly magnificent array of recognisable voices, enthusiastically breathing life into the familiar yellow faced playthings. Will Ferrell is at his maniacal best as sinister Lord Business and Liam Neeson steals the show as his mean faced henchman Bad Cop. Chris Pratt is a likeable chump as accidental hero Emmitt and Elizabeth Banks is his sexy saviour Wyldstyle. Morgan Freeman even lends his god like voice to the wizardly resistance leader Vitruvius.
The film also makes the absolute most of the studios creative properties and LEGO’s numerous franchise partnerships. Will Arnett’s deliciously arrogant LEGO Batman is among an endless array of amusingly random heroes on show. Comedic cameos from Wonder Woman, Dumbledore, Green Lantern, Gandalf, Ninja Turtles, Han Solo and Superman all add a joyous insanity to proceedings.
The LEGO movie benefits from the quick wit and lush visual charm which Lord and Miller evidently know how to deliver. Those dwelling on memories of long hours spent painstakingly assembling LEGO play sets will find the big screen version far more wondrous and action packed then they might expect. The film reimagines the static LEGO universe as a frenzied Technicolor explosion of constant creation and destruction. The film’s animation has a vivid tactile quality quite unlike anything you’ve seen before.
Working with Chris McKay (Robot Chicken) the film’s vast team of animators deliberately created photorealistic 3D animation much closer to stop-motion than the artificial gloss of typical CGI. Individually crafting each of the 15 million bricks used on screen, the filmmakers proudly shunned lazy generic backgrounds and painstakingly created every single frame. The result is near perfect balance of epic cinematic storytelling with playful homemade charm. The animation precisely captures the true spirit of LEGO as both a simple pleasure and something ingeniously complex.
The film delivers children a fairly familiar message about everyone being special in their own way, but it does it in an utterly unique and consistently funny way. It also exploits an interesting conflict between different ways people actually play with LEGO in real life. The tension between those that slavishly follow the instructions and those that prefers to build randomly with reckless whimsy.
The Bad:
There’s very little to criticise with a film that puts together well chosen pieces to make a complete cartoon package. The only slight caution is that more unimaginative grown-ups may find the constant barrage of noise, colour and frantic building block action a little relentless or exhausting. But for anyone with a shred of childhood imagination left in them it shouldn’t be much of a problem.
The Ugly Truth:
Much like Pixar’s masterful Toy Story, The Lego Movie assembles an action packed adventure which builds to a surprisingly poignant emotional climax about what it truly means to play with your toys. Bursting with colour, laughs, imagination and charming vocal performances it’s a must see piece of masterful cartoon creation.
Mr Peabody & Sherman Review
The Plot:
The world’s smartest dog Mr Peabody takes his adopted human son Sherman on adventures throughout history in his time machine the WABAC. But after Sherman gets into trouble at school an ill-advised trip with his classmate Penny finds the unlikely pair trapped in a race to repair history and save the future.
The Good:
The Lion King Director Rob Minkoff struggled for nearly a decade to bring cult cartoon heroes Mr Peabody & Sherman back to life on the big screen. The character originally featured as a memorable part of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show in the 1960s. The unorthodox duo of a genius talking dog and his adoptive son remains a clever piece of role reversal. Subverting both the classic boy and his dog relationship and throwing up obvious parallels with the evolving definition of the modern family unit.
Appropriately, ‘Modern Family’ star Ty Burrell provides Mr Peabody with a voice that oozes a well-judged mix of erudite confidence and sincere affection. Peabody could easily have been a smug professor stereotype but as a talking dog and doting parent he exudes a bow tie clad charm instead. In particular his calm kind hearted tone allows the film to slip in a lot of educational content without off-putting a younger audience.
Mr Peabody is instrumental in setting the comedic tone of the film, inventing as many silly puns as he does ingenious contraptions or plans. The chemistry between him and his clueless young protégé Sherman is right at the heart of the film and works effectively throughout. Relative newcomer, 10 year old Max Charles, gives Sherman endearing legitimately child-like qualities and spars well with Mr Peabody.
Though the film isn’t above slapstick aimed at grabbing easy laughs from a young audience, it never forgets that beside every child watching will be an accompanying adult. For example it quickly follows jokes about Greek warriors being smelly with a decidedly more adult themed reference to Oedipus.
The historical periods and characters the story introduces are predictable but none the less; play fondly with familiar historical stereotypes and well-established clichés. It’s perhaps understandable that aiming for a young audience the adventure stays conveniently away from any sensitive or remote historical eras.
The Bad:
DreamWorks has never truly equalled the photo realistic CGI magnificence of rivals Pixar and yet again delivers a style of animation which is more obviously cartoonish. Perhaps this time it is part of a deliberate visual choice to stick visually closer to the original cartoon. However it still skews towards a younger audience an may leave older kids feeling a little more self-conscious than they would be settling down to watch The Incredibles or Up.
Whilst the film is generally kind hearted, Sherman’s bullying classmate Penny certainly isn’t. Though she inevitably softens as the film progresses and obviously serves as a catalyst for the story, her presence does distract at times from the more interesting dynamic between Peabody and Sherman. The film perhaps also does too good a job of establishing her as an obnoxious bully early on, leaving her a little irritating for much of the film.
Although the films premise features a few unique elements, in truth the appearance of historical figures like King Tut, George Washington, Marie Antoinette and Leonardo Da Vinci is hardly a huge surprise. It certainly won’t be the first time you’ve seen Da Vinci pop up in a children’s movie as a scatter-brained Italian inventor.
Likewise, the film’s final act feels a little like an obligatory blockbuster climax. The film toys with the idea of making unconventional choices and veering off into more offbeat territory, but ultimately comes back to wrapping everything up in predictably neat conclusions.
The Ugly Truth:
With Mr Peabody and Sherman, DreamWorks delivers another mostly satisfying animated effort. It’s a good natured history lesson for young audiences kept entertaining by the obvious charms of a talking dog and a superb supporting voice cast.
Filth Director Joins Danny Boyle Babylon Series
Filth Director Jon S. Baird has confirmed that he will direct the first three episodes of a planned series of Babylon, based on the pilot directed by Danny Boyle. The new show focuses on life inside the inner circle of the UK police force. A subject matter the Filth director is all too familiar with given his recent award winning adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s sordid account of a Scottish police officers decent into madness.
Speaking on the red carpet at the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards, Baird collected several awards for Filth and star James McAvoy and told Red Carpet News just what we can expect from the new series:
Naomie Harris talks Moneypenny & Bond 24
On the red carpet at the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards 2014 Bond star Naomie Harris spoke about taking on the iconic role of Miss Moneypenny.
The beautiful British actress who recently won rave reviews for her performance as Nelson Mandela’s wife Winnie, spoke about the intention to make the Moneypenny a strong feminine role model in the ongoing spy franchise.
Naomie agreed that this was an especially important decision given the fact that Ralph Fiennes has now replaced the departing Dame Judi Dench in the franchise as Bond’s boss M.
Video Interviews below:
Amazing Spider-Man 2 Reveals Electro Origins
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 introduces audiences to several new villains which should be easily recognizable to comic-book fans. Paul Giamatti is playing Rhino, conveniently re-imagined as a criminal thug inside a tank-like armored suit with a horned helmet. Chris Cooper and Dane DeHaan are likewise playing Normon Osborne and his son Harry, with one of them clearly getting on his Green Goblin Glider.
However the film’s main nemesis is clearly Jamie Foxx as Electro. Sony’s latest official trailer for the superhero sequel reveals just how Foxx’s character finds himself transformed from a meek mannered fan of Spider-Man to his most deadly lighting throwing enemy. Keep your Spidey eyes out for a few lighting fast glimpses of Goblin and Rhino in action too.