Episode 24 | Going to hell on a goat simulator

Today on the junkcast, Red spews puns, Matt doesn't even try, and Justin doesn't know how the internet works!

Movie junk

The Lego movie!

"This is the kind of thing hollywood enjoys doing, much to the chagrin of fans that know better. Thankfully this wasn't the case..."

This is one of those movies I was unsure of, Hollywood had taken another classic toy of our generations childhood. Was this going to be another Battleship movie? There had to be at least some sort of substance in it this time!? Boy, was I ever pleased to see this movie! I've taken up the task of actively avoiding movie trailers, mainly due to the fact that modern trailers usually contain most if not all the big moments in the film OR they contain absolutely nothing resembling the film(the typical bait and switch.)

   Many folks that have reviewed this film already have toted at it's millennial style of quick jump shots and short takes. It is a lot to take in, some might complain that there is too much to see once, I love that. To be able to re-watch a movie and view things that you have missed gives the movie another perspective. Not only do the references bleed into modern anachronisms that deal with our world, but they also took it further by referencing anachronisms established within the world of Lego. For example, Octan was fictional gas company that was introduced in the Lego world in 1992. In the film it is also a company owned by Lord Business. Along with that we also have the character "Benny" who was introduced in the 1980's, when lego decided to randomly build the space line of Lego.

   These little references can mean a lot for some lego lovers. Rather than write a script and re-adapt the toys and their roles around the script. This is the kind of thing hollywood enjoys doing, much to the chagrin of fans that know better. Thankfully this wasn't the case with the Lego movie. A lot was done to push the idea that it was actually lego. 

   In the inception of the lego movie, the film makers took on the task of attempting to integrate CGI with stop-motion style animation to give lego a bit more of a retro look and feel. Unfortunately this was not possible, and they had to stick with just CGI, but that didn't stop them. They managed to take the task of CGI and kick it up by actively adding little pops and squeaks to make the animation a bit dirtier look to their motion. From my view, this allowed them to take CGI and imbue it was the ideals of stop motion animation. In addition with this idea, they created the mis-en-scene by using lego bricks and pieces for nearly everything.

   It was a very different take from the previous direct to video lego movies. Those were more generated around a life-like feel for their setting's and props. This movie was specifically rendered to look like a home made lego movie. The effect was both positive and negative. Younger patrons who grew up with lego to some extent probably enjoyed it. Older patrons who may have not played enough in general accused the movie of being cheap and anti-capitalist. (even thought movie itself is box-office gold, bringing in 70 Mil. on it's first weekend.) 

   The thing I loved the most about this movie, it was fun. Movies themselves are be used for many different circumstances and meanings, a lot of them have been hollywood bullshit combined with "based on a true story" bullshit. A lot of them are out for Oscars and trying to achieve highest profit sales. Granted, the Lego movie did and is still making a lot of money, but I believe this is something the film makers had a lot of passion when they were making this film. 

   To step back a paragraph, this movie was about fun. We have two dualities the son who wants to play and try stuff out(how else are you gonna create a Unicorn and Cat hybrid?) and the controlling father who wants to permanently keep pieces together. As soon as I saw this duality I thought on how many different circumstances this ideology could fit in. Personally, the first one that it struck in my head was the dualities of Traditionalism vs. progression. We have one character that wants to permanently fix things into a certain place, and the other doesn't care where things go. From this point I took a much larger, and longer existential look at dualities (I'll save that for a memoir.)

   In this modern world where risk is high and profit is the be all and end all, it's hard to take a some time and play. Which is exactly what this movie is trying to get across. Lego is quite useful... I myself, used lego to build a mock-up for a theatre set I was designing in school. It was perfect, I could easily tear it apart and rebuild it. As a kid, it was perfect, for example if I wanted to see what my lego city would look like after a seven year old's creates a "tornado" you could! Then you could rebuild it! This was solidified when I played Lego with my younger cousin, we'd build all kinds of shit and then destroy it. You can't exactly go out into the street and attempt this, without being arrested. 

I'm in the mind of Aristotle, as opposed to Plato. Plato believed that if saw a play/movie that involved war or death, then thinking about that war and death is just as bad as actually committing it. I severely disagree, our minds are our playgrounds. From brilliant minds, we got lego. Why not play every once in a while?