Last weekend, we went to the movies to see a matinee of Monuments Men. Unfortunately for our plans, it was sold out. But, starting five minutes later was the Lego Movie. Luckily, it was surprisingly really good.
I mean, I hadn’t seen any reviews of it, and don’t so much pay attention to kid’s movie releases. Frozen came (and went?) without me even hearing that it happened (the only reason I’ve heard about it is in discussions about the Lego Movie). But, hell, why not, I used to play with more Lego than you probably have ever seen, so even if it were stupid, there’d still be some nostalgia.
But, hell, it was funny. Smart funny. On multiple levels, so goofy enough for the kids to lose their shit, but real, subtle jokes that made us adult viewers lose our shit. But even more than that, the movie is damned subversive. The villain, as such, is President (or, Lord) Business, who, as he introduces himself at the beginning, is president of (first) the Octan Corporation and the world. Right off the bat we have an evil leader who personifies the corporate takeover of the state.
The movie’s theme is even a cold stab at the soulless business of popular music/culture. “Everything is awesome!” is a super-catchy and fun track, given real voice by Tegan and Sara as well as The Lonely Island, and absolutely perfect satire. But, just try and get it out of your head. (I’ve listened to it four times so far while writing this post.)
As we left he theater and dropped off our 3-D glasses into the reuse receptacle, I turned and just said “Somebody call Billy Wilkerson get the writers of that movie on his blacklist.”
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