For those who say they turned it off, didn't like it or didn't find it funny, why? I feel like if you thought it was that bad, you must have missed the jokes. There were a lot of them. Humor, of course, varies by person, so not everyone's going to find it funny. I'm just curious how something so good could be that bad to some people.
shareI'll give it a try (I gave The Lego Movie a 4). The following reflect my personal opinion. I claim nothing as fact.
1) I found the humour to be too modern and entrenched in today. Humour should be timeless. Added to which, I simply didn't find it funny. And yes, I did 'get' it.
2) The visual style and pacing were exhausting. There was no letup, no peaks and valleys, just a runaway train, a film designed to hypnotise because it's afraid if its audience looks away it won't be able to get them back.
3) None of the 'characters' really struck me as such. Mostly just modern cliche's that, like the humour, will not age well.
4) The message, right from the moment that irritating Everything Is Awesome (yes, I know it was meant to be irritating to some extent) started playing, was just heavy-handed and obvious. The film lacked anything by way of subtlety. It was a sledgehammer experience.
I'm not sure I should really reply to someone who makes assertions like "if you thought it was that bad, you must have missed the jokes" or "how something so good could be that bad to some people". It's the oldest defense of art in the book: "if you didn't like it, you obviously didn't understand it". It is possible to both understand something AND not like it, just as it is equally possible to like something without understanding it.
Anyway, just my opinions. I have only seen the film once and a while ago, but those were the main sticking points for me.
Never defend crap with 'It's just a movie'
http://www.youtube.com/user/BigGreenProds
I agree with you. Something must have really not clicked with me, as I loved Legos as a kid, and I think Pratt and Farrell are both hilarious in everything they do.
The whole movie just felt exhausting to me. By an hour in, I just wanted it to end.
It was animated very well, and I can see it appealed to a huge audience, I just wasn't one of them.
"People don't get what they want because they don't ask." -MG3
Agree with your second point. It's like Teletubbies on steroids. If your kid did not have ADHD before, it will now.
shareThe message, right from the moment that irritating Everything Is Awesome (yes, I know it was meant to be irritating to some extent) started playing, was just heavy-handed and obvious. The film lacked anything by way of subtlety. It was a sledgehammer experience.
When theres no more room in Hollywood, remakes shall walk the Earth.share
the movie is a satire. you probably missed it. i missed what you missed the first time also. you missed that the cliches were there because the kid was making the story. the kid used all the cliches and stereotypes in movies he has seen to make the story of the lego movie. also the movie is talking is an anti captalist movie. the everything is awesome song is part of that.
shareHere is my defense to your list:
1. No humour is timeless, this is my three stooges are kinda no longer funny. What makes jokes funny is that its timely. Humour is subjective, so I understand your point.
2. The visual style was a choice because it made sense. Making lego move fluid as *beep* wouldn't make any sense. I think you confused hypnotise with immersing the viewer to the world, which a lot films are trying to do.
3.Again with the word modern. It's like blaming news for not being old. I understand that you don't find them engrossing as someone like Hannibal Lecter.
4. Not all messages have to be subtle. It's like complaining about Brazil, 1983, or the bloody hunger games(bad example) for being too obvious in their dystopian setting and message that they're all being watched.
It's just opinions, man. I respect them. In the end of the day opinions don't matter, you'll like what you'll like and I'll like what I'll like.
But, cut them some slack they put a lot effort on the story and making the lego world, plus it ain't formulaic like most movies today. I just don't think 4 is a justifiable rating. It's not just any movie, it's unique. You can't snub out points for that. :{D
1983? Missed it by a year. lol
Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
There were plenty of chances to catch a break, maybe you're looking for something along the lines of The Sheltering Sky.
Trust no one.share
and you seem to have missed the important message within the movie
you must be those idiots that buy $37 coffee
Ed Wood movies also had an 'important message'.
A message means NOTHING if the film is unwatchable.
But hey, the question was 'why didn't you like it', and I gave my reasons as accurately and articulately as I could.
Never defend crap with 'It's just a movie'
http://www.youtube.com/user/BigGreenProds
All of the jokes I found funny were already in the trailer and all of the other jokes I found rather predictable and meh. Combine that with the ADHD-style pace and a reveal that for me came way too late to truly appreciate it due to everything else I didn't like, and what you get is a poor movie experience.
I at one time on this board compared it to eating whole crab. Everyone but me seems to love it. For me, however, it's just too much work to get to what's very little meat.
I don't think it's necessarily bad. I think it's put together very well for what they wanted to do. It just didn't line up with my tastes.
If you're happy and you know it, go sit in the corner and think about your life.
Top 10 most overrated movie of 2014, easily.
I liked it a good deal the first time around. I laughed and liked it's energy. On a second watch though, while it still made me chuckle, it felt pretty standard and forgettable. It's a once and done kind of film. The charm wears off considerably. At least for me. And I really dislike the last 15 minutes. They could have had the same message executed differently, but I I just didn't like the way it was handled. It turned into a totally different movie at the end.
I saw it a few weeks after it was released and think I was disappointed mainly because of how amazing everyone said it was. I got the humor and thought some of it was funny and enjoyed the movie some but the way it had been over hyped by the time I saw it set me up for a disappointment. It was good and all just not great.
shareIt was horrible to watch, I felt dizzy at the end and the guy next to me left earlier, because he almost fainted. The first couple of minutes were fun, seeing these Lego's come to life, but that fun experience was over pretty quickly when the story started. After that it was horrible, I gave this 3/10, I believe my lowest rating of 2014.
shareIt was funny, i liked the humor and enjoyed it but it was like watching a long funny commercial,nothing more.
shareMaybe if I had ADHD i'd appreciate it more.
It just felt like a massive sensory overload.
And God knows what people like about that damn song.
"Everything is awesome" if you love commercialism and subliminal advertising i guess...
The three most over-rated movies of the year for me were 3 movies that a lot of people on this web-site loved.
The Lego Movie (4/10)
Guardians of the Galaxy (6/10)
Interstellar (6/10)
Not sure if I'm out of touch with the masses or if i'm just one of the few sane ones left.
My two favourite movies of the year.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (10/10)
Under The Skin (9/10)
Under the Skin is one of the underrated films of this year.
shareUrgh....the point of the song was to satirize commercialism and subliminal advertising you dolt. I don't like the film either, but the obvious message didn't fly over my head like it did you.
share"Urgh....the point of the song was to satirize commercialism and subliminal advertising you dolt. I don't like the film either, but the obvious message didn't fly over my head like it did you."
Yeeeah, me pointing that out insinuates it flying over my head?..
Just because i didn't think it was cute or clever doesn't mean i didn't "get it."
I wanted like it but couldn't get into it. it was just too silly. it's for kids. way overrated
shareExactly.
I knew it was a kids movie so I didn't expect much. It made me chuckle a few times but the pace was just annoying. It was obviously aimed at kids with ADD.
Not my cup of tea and I just hope that it (and its frantic ADD pace) isn't a sign of things to come as far as movies for kids go.
It's for kids and grownups who are nostalgic about the times they played with legos. I don't think it's really fair to simply dismiss it as "it's for kids". We have Strange Magic for that.
If you're happy and you know it, go sit in the corner and think about your life.
I just finished watching it and I can barely be moved to sum up my opinion. It pretty much leaves no impression. So I suppose that says it all.
It's perfectly functional. Occasionally borderlines on sentimentality, re-uses some tired jokes, and has moments of okay writing. With an animation style that slightly works against it. And a message and theme that is fairly weak and handled pretty poorly.
I didn't feel any of the characters were unique or interesting. The manipulation they piled on to get you to side with their 'average' hero was pretty heavy handed. And the jokes were very safe and didn't push any boundaries or even go as far as they could within the boundaries they set up.
People who find things like the Spaceman who is obsessed with building a spaceship, and then when he does, proceeds to say "Spaceship!" over and over, no doubt found the obsessive seagulls yelling "Mine!" from Finding Nemo funny too. (And Groot's line repetition from Guardians of the Galaxy too). But I felt like I'd seen it all before. Even before Finding Nemo. It kind of worked in Finding Nemo because they were also making a connection with the personalities of seagulls that many people find annoying but it was a pretty basic joke here. Even the anger repressed kitty-unicorn wasn't very original. Many of the jokes reminded me of others I had seen in various animated TV series. As a film it felt uninspired and 'nice'. Nothing more. I gave it a 4. It definitely had potential. But it ended up playing it really safe.
To keep it short? I've never seen a movie try so hard to be "original", "hip", and "funny". Nothing in The Lego Movie was the slightest bit edgy or cute. I didn't laugh once. The movie was like an 8 year-old on a sugar rush: aimless and incredibly irritating, and it won’t go away. You wish you could find a way to inject a film with a horse tranquilizer and get it to just shut up and stop trying so hard.
I also found it incredibly hypocritical that the film pushes an anti-corporate, pro-individualistic message, and yet this is nothing more than a feature-length advertisement for Warner Brothers, Lego, and DC Comics. Any time a Toy Story wannabe such as this is in search of a thin plot on which to hang bright, empty scenes to appeal to our ADHD youth, it’s always easy and innocuous to simply throw in Generic Corporate Villain. In reality, all these “pro-individual” animated films are beating the same idea into our children’s heads over and over again - that corporate America is evil, but don’t forget to go buy Legos after the movie is over, kids! So much for freedom of thought.
Oh boy, how I hated this movie. I wasn't amused - I saw right through all of its bullsh*t.
To be fair, the goings on in the lego world was essentially being controlled by an eight year old on a sugar rush. But that hyperactivity is also why I didn't like it.
" anti-corporate, pro-individualistic message"
That's not at all what the movie pushed. It pushed anti business-based fascism and the idea that when great, individuals minds work together they can accomplish something greater than they ever could by themselves. It's essentially why Eli has two super bowl championships while Peyton only has 1.
If you're happy and you know it, go sit in the corner and think about your life.
You took away that it's about "anti-business-based fascism"? I heard Lord Business and thought "okay, the businessman's the villain here - real original choice, fellas." The big joke of the film was that Emmet's world was dull and conformist - I remember Emmet's line "My favorite restaurant is any chain restaurant." Yes, those evil chain restaurants, like McDonald's, where Lego Movie toys were sold to millions of kids.
I guess the message of the film is that when the great corporate minds behind DC, Lego and Warner Brothers team up, they can make money even off an assembly-line animated film.
Now just to be clear, I'm not a film Scrooge being a contrarian for the sake of being a contrarian. I wanted to like this movie. I go into every movie with an open mind, but especially this one: how could I not when I love the Jump Street franchise and heard nothing but praise from audiences and critics?
See, I love Pixar's films. I love them so much, in fact, that they make me hate lazy animated films like this even more. Pixar can whip up a better, funnier, more soulful film than this in their sleep - even the dreadful Cars 2 was better.
Tell me, what exactly made Lord Business a businessman?
If you're happy and you know it, go sit in the corner and think about your life.
I believe his name is Lord Business.
shareAnd my username is Unvoiced-Apollo. I suppose that makes me a Greek god.
If you're happy and you know it, go sit in the corner and think about your life.
You're not a movie character though. A movie character named Lord Business is the Lord of Business.
Taken from The Lego Movie's wikipedia, character section:
Will Ferrell as Lord Business, an evil businessman and tyrant of Bricksburg and the Lego Universe who is the company president of the Octan Corporation under the name President Business
I don't really know how to be any clearer about this. Did you even see the movie?
and tyrant of Bricksburg
Did YOU see the movie?
If you're happy and you know it, go sit in the corner and think about your life.
Like I said, I don't know how to put it any clearer. Lord Business was the alter ago of President Business, a company President. Lord Business was a businessman. Are you for real?
Here it is on the Lego Wikia: http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Lord_Business
How you can argue that Lord Business isn't a businessman is either A) you being a contrarian or B) you not understanding the connection between the words business, company president, and businessman.
I'm surprised I still care about your opinion, but you're like someone trying to argue that 2+2 doesn't equal 4. Troll.
No. President Business is the alter ego of Lord Business. He used his guise as president of a company to hide his tyrannical aspirations. Again, it's not simply about business being evil, and in the long run isn't even about a businessman being a bad guy but a dad who's "all business".
2+2=4. Using a business to hide your true motivation=/=businessman.
If you're happy and you know it, go sit in the corner and think about your life.
From the Lego Wikia: Lord Business is the alter ego of President Business, an uptight company president who wants to organize everything around him.
So, you're wrong again.
You at least have to admit that the corporate villain is the most generic villain in animated films, because it's non-controversial and easy. A brainless kid or a brainless adult can walk in and understand "Business guy bad!"
I'm not some pro-business advocate saying movies can't make fun of businessmen, all I'm saying is for an animated movie to have a villain named Lord Business, President Business, whatever the hell you want to call him, the concept is stolen from a million other, far better animated films.
A brainless kid or a brainless adult can walk in and understand "Business guy bad!"
"You at least have to admit that the corporate villain is the most generic villain in animated films, because it's non-controversial and easy. A brainless kid or a brainless adult can walk in and understand "Business guy bad!" "
Well, I kind of thought that was the point, because in the movie, isn't the story all the creation of a child? He sees his dad as a businessman. Because lets face it, children don't get exactly what adults do for their jobs. They just have their suits, their briefcase, and their coffee. And his dad is the bad guy in his world because of his authoritarian rule of his Lego setup in the basement. The plot in the Lego universe is all a blatant metaphor for what this child is dealing with his dad. So when you say a brainless kid can walk in and understand "Business bad guy!", its because the character was indeed created by a kid.
lord business is a captalist not a business man
shareI also found it incredibly hypocritical that the film pushes an anti-corporate, pro-individualistic message, and yet this is nothing more than a feature-length advertisement for Warner Brothers, Lego, and DC Comics. Any time a Toy Story wannabe such as this is in search of a thin plot on which to hang bright, empty scenes to appeal to our ADHD youth, it’s always easy and innocuous to simply throw in Generic Corporate Villain. In reality, all these “pro-individual” animated films are beating the same idea into our children’s heads over and over again - that corporate America is evil, but don’t forget to go buy Legos after the movie is over, kids! So much for freedom of thought.