The Lego Movie (Review)

The Lego Movie

Lego Movie
2014
Story by Dan Hageman & Kevin Hageman and Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
Screenplay by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
Directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller

Lego Movie
The Lego Movie constantly refrains the song “Everything is Awesome!” throughout the film, and though the song is presented as a joke because things aren’t awesome, it best describes The Lego Movie. Because everything is awesome. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller took a toy commercial and traditional hero’s journey narrative and turned it into a celebration of tossing out instructions and a collectivist uniting against conformity and conservatism. Also it’s fun and hilarious.

The unlikely group of heroes unite against President Business, who controls the entire world and wants things to stay just the way they are. He gets incensed when things are built that don’t follow the rules or are weird. His reign has seen the Lego city become a virtual police state where everyone follows a huge list of rules and destroys anything out of the ordinary to be replaced with construction that follows the rules. The people are lulled into accepting their reality with glee, thanks to control of television and music, where every show is Where’s My Pants? and every song is the aforementioned “Everything is Awesome!”
Lego Movie
The resistance becomes a celebration of individuality vs marching to the same drum beat. The Lego Movie encourages you to build what you want, and not worry about if your projects conflict with what someone expects you to do. While President Business seeks his stagnant perfection, the real progress and fun comes from the chaos of creation.
Lego Movie

Emmet Brickowoski (Chris Pratt) – Emmet is the most average man who ever averaged, and even when he follows all the rules (and there are a lot of rules), no one seems to remember him much at all. But things change when suddenly the Piece of Resistance is stuck to his back, and it looks like he has a prophesy to fulfill. If he can just be interesting!
Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) – A Master Builder who searches for the Piece of Resistance and finds it on Emmet. She mistakenly thinks he’s much more powerful than he actually is. But despite her disappointment, she becomes part of the inspiration for Emmet to rise up beyond his lot in life. Is dating Batman.
Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) – Wise sage who prophesies the downfall of Lord Business and the Piece of Resistance. He’s blinded, and later begins training Emmet, though there is little time for actual training. Has trouble telling Gandalf and Dumbledore apart.
Batman (Will Arnett) – The best movie Batman since Adam West. The caped crusader joins the mission to save the universe because he’s Batman and that’s what Batman does. He’s dark. Also he’s dating Wyldstyle, in between making his music. FYI, people in the audience cheered when Batman showed up.
Lord/President Business (Will Ferrell) – Lord Business is President of the Lego city and controls all aspects of it, in a creepy Big Brother way. He’s also a super villain, who has stolen an artifact that he plans to use to end the world (which involves freezing it in place.) That is, unless he’s stopped by The Piece of Resistance!

Lego Movie
Minor spoilers below the fold!
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Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim Title
2013
Story by Travis Beacham
Screenplay by Travis Beacham and Guillermo del Toro
Directed by Guillermo del Toro

PACIFIC RIM
An action packed ride from the first frames, Pacific Rim delivers the giant robots vs. giant monsters action promised, and crafts an entertaining flick around it. Del Toro provides a love letter to a genre he grew up loving, and succeeded in updating it technologically to craft something amazing. Almost every frame is a piece of art by itself. The design and look are outstanding, the jaegers (the giant robots) are banged up and realistic, and the kaiju are scarily beautiful yet deadly looking. Battles encompass multiple environments, from snowy seas of Alaska to the cityscapes of Hong Kong to the ocean floor.

Pacific Rim keeps its flow, the segments where the story is set up feel natural and are done in creative fashion. Following along, our minds are too busy to wander, bereft of distractions and eagerly anticipating the next monster brawl. And when the real action starts, boy does it start.

There are minor spoilers below, but nothing that isn’t in the trailers. But if you don’t want to know anything, just know that Pacific Rim is my favorite film I’ve seen this summer, and possibly 2013. It’s fun, fun, fun, heartfelt and not full of the gritty reluctant heroes that seem to be everywhere. There are giant monster, robots, and it’s awesome.
PACIFIC RIM
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Pacific Rim viral images and clips


[adrotate banner=”1″]Pacific Rim came out with some viral vids and a bunch of jaeger blueprints to make all the mech lovers drool. Jaegers are the name for the giant mechs that the pilots will use to battle the giant creatures attacking the planet. Judgeing from the videos released, Pacific Rim will be damn awesome. It’s getting so much good buzz already that they’re going ahead and writing a sequel! Though we don’t get a good clear look at any monsters or the jaegers, there is a dead monster in one of the videos. The second video is below all the images.

Pacific Rim stars Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Ron Perlman, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, Clifton Collins Jr., Robert Maillet, and Rinko Kikuchi. Guillermo del Toro directs.

Striker Eureka Jaeger

Coyote Tango Jaeger

Russian Jaeger

Gipsy Danger Jaeger

Pacific Rim Images

[adrotate banner=”1″]Entertainment Weekly had a new image from Pacific Rim in their Comicon Preview issue, and beyond the image there was almost no new information, excpet maybe that they are using huge sets, including the biggest set in North America (which only had room for two feet from the giant robot Jaegers that the heroes use in their battles with the giant monsters!) The image shows Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi suited up for battle. Hunnam is Raleigh Antrobus, one of those washed up bitter pilots who returns for glory and redemption, and Kikuchi is trainee pilot Mako Mori. They pilot an old school Jaeger when all the cool ones get trashed by the kaiju (or something.)

Pacific Rim Entertainment Weekly

Let’s not forget this other image featuring Idris Elba as his General Stacker Pentecost character:

Idris Elba Pacific Rim

I'll kill the next person who makes a "Rim Job" joke!

The film also stars Charlie Day as Newt Gotlieb, but no photos of him have surfaced yet. But they’re waiting. At the bottom of the Pacific Ocean…ready to surface…like monsters…

Pacific Rim gets a synopsis

[adrotate banner=”1″]Is there a monster movie I’m waiting for more than Pacific Rim? I don’t think so! Even the new Godzilla film must take a back seat to this giant monsters vs giant robot action! Hopefully del Toro is enough to make up for the writer giving us films like Clash of the Titans. From el Toro’s other films, there is no way this won’t look spectacular.

Synopsis

From acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro comes Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ epic sci-fi action adventure Pacific Rim.

When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity’s resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes–a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi)–who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind’s last hope against the mounting apocalypse.

Oscar® nominee Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) is directing Pacific Rim from a script by Travis Beacham (Clash of the Titans). Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni and Mary Parent are producing, with Callum Greene serving as executive producer.

The film stars Charlie Hunnam (TV’s “Sons of Anarchy”), Idris Elba (Thor), Rinko Kikuchi (The Brothers Bloom), Charlie Day (Horrible Bosses), and Ron Perlman (the Hellboy films). The ensemble cast also includes Max Martini, Robert Kazinsky, Clifton Collins, Jr., Burn Gorman, Larry Joe Campbell, Diego Klattenhoff, and Brad William Henke.

via Dread Central

Pacific Rim