mr.blanks1981
02-11-2014, 02:39 AM
I want everyone's opinion on this movie, what do you think it was about? Very serious.
I just saw this movie a few hours ago--alone, like always (if anyone had wanted to go with me I would have preferred they didn't anyway). It really surprised me in all the right ways, but the message I took away from it was astonishing. What I originally thought was a lazy attack on corporate stereotypes actually seemed like...(and I am in a very biased position right now)...a clunky but compassionate validation of those struggling with unexceptionalism. My anxiety. I was nearly moved to tears a few times in this otherwise hysterical movie of CG, stop-motion block-toys. At the story's resolution they were rolling down my cheeks as I sat in the middle of a mostly empty theater surrounded by small children and their mothers.
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|| For those who haven't seen it yet, here's the spoiled ending: ||
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Emmitt sacrifices himself to save the Master Builders by plunging out the window of Lord Business's corporate tower, into The Abyss, taking the battery that was going to power a lethal shock with him. When he comes-to, he is on the basement floor of somebody's house and realizes that all the LEGO worlds exist as intricately-designed sets on tables, painstakingly pieced together by a young boy's father. The boy wants to play with the LEGO's himself, but his father (Will Ferell) is almost neurotically attached to his project and it seems that he is hiding an emotional investment from his son under lofty rationalizations. He intends to glue his masterpiece together that night ("Taco Tuesday", according to his wife upstairs). His son pleads with him not to and seems a little hurt by his father's calm but detached rejection of all the "hodgepodges" he has assembled and placed among his careful designs. At this point it is not only clear that all the events in the movie are actually the fast-forward make-believe fantasies of the boy, who sees Emmitt as the hero saving the LEGO worlds from Lord Business's evil plot, but that Emmitt and Lord Business are personified by real people and real anxieties.
The boy tells Emmitt he has to save the world as his father starts putting together adhesives and the LEGO world is in climatic battle simultaneously, with Lord Business trying to spray krazy glue all over his pristine designs as the LEGO citizens scramble to make "weird" designs (and weapons) he will think too scrambled to freeze in place. Emmitt confronts Lord Business at the top of the tower and tells him to take his hand. At the same time, the dad starts looking carefully at the battle scene and finds the Lord Business character at the top of the tower, about to strike down Emmitt ("No, he's just an ordinary construction worker, there's nothing "Special" about him."). He walks slowly to his son and says, "So Lord Business is the bad guy, huh? [...] What do you think Emmitt would say to Lord Business?" Emitt tells Lord Business that *he* is special--as is everyone else, all the time, conveniently--and that others are making hodgepodges of his creations because he has inspired them to make new things. This moves lord Business (and me) to tears. He hugs Emmitt and accepts the Piece of Resistance from him. It turns out it was the krazy glue cap all along. He puts it on the bottle. A few other very funny and very creative things happen afterwards but the point settles very well.
So what about you? What did you think of the movie? Did anyone take anything else away from this?
I just saw this movie a few hours ago--alone, like always (if anyone had wanted to go with me I would have preferred they didn't anyway). It really surprised me in all the right ways, but the message I took away from it was astonishing. What I originally thought was a lazy attack on corporate stereotypes actually seemed like...(and I am in a very biased position right now)...a clunky but compassionate validation of those struggling with unexceptionalism. My anxiety. I was nearly moved to tears a few times in this otherwise hysterical movie of CG, stop-motion block-toys. At the story's resolution they were rolling down my cheeks as I sat in the middle of a mostly empty theater surrounded by small children and their mothers.
========================================
|| For those who haven't seen it yet, here's the spoiled ending: ||
========================================
Emmitt sacrifices himself to save the Master Builders by plunging out the window of Lord Business's corporate tower, into The Abyss, taking the battery that was going to power a lethal shock with him. When he comes-to, he is on the basement floor of somebody's house and realizes that all the LEGO worlds exist as intricately-designed sets on tables, painstakingly pieced together by a young boy's father. The boy wants to play with the LEGO's himself, but his father (Will Ferell) is almost neurotically attached to his project and it seems that he is hiding an emotional investment from his son under lofty rationalizations. He intends to glue his masterpiece together that night ("Taco Tuesday", according to his wife upstairs). His son pleads with him not to and seems a little hurt by his father's calm but detached rejection of all the "hodgepodges" he has assembled and placed among his careful designs. At this point it is not only clear that all the events in the movie are actually the fast-forward make-believe fantasies of the boy, who sees Emmitt as the hero saving the LEGO worlds from Lord Business's evil plot, but that Emmitt and Lord Business are personified by real people and real anxieties.
The boy tells Emmitt he has to save the world as his father starts putting together adhesives and the LEGO world is in climatic battle simultaneously, with Lord Business trying to spray krazy glue all over his pristine designs as the LEGO citizens scramble to make "weird" designs (and weapons) he will think too scrambled to freeze in place. Emmitt confronts Lord Business at the top of the tower and tells him to take his hand. At the same time, the dad starts looking carefully at the battle scene and finds the Lord Business character at the top of the tower, about to strike down Emmitt ("No, he's just an ordinary construction worker, there's nothing "Special" about him."). He walks slowly to his son and says, "So Lord Business is the bad guy, huh? [...] What do you think Emmitt would say to Lord Business?" Emitt tells Lord Business that *he* is special--as is everyone else, all the time, conveniently--and that others are making hodgepodges of his creations because he has inspired them to make new things. This moves lord Business (and me) to tears. He hugs Emmitt and accepts the Piece of Resistance from him. It turns out it was the krazy glue cap all along. He puts it on the bottle. A few other very funny and very creative things happen afterwards but the point settles very well.
So what about you? What did you think of the movie? Did anyone take anything else away from this?