The Lego Movie (2014)

Warner Bros. presents ... a Dreamworks Animation production ... Wrong. We don't have Dreamworks on the credits. Which makes "The Lego Movie" to get the title of "the most Dreamworks'ish production, where Dreamworks was never involved" ;) ...

The first time I heard about a "lego movie" the reaction was a wide eye-roll, telling myself that probably Lego doesn't sell enough bricks lately, needs some massive advertising, and what we'll get would be a sort of Transformers for kids (= minus the hot chick & more colored). Consequently, I've completely ignored the release in the spring, but following that, some very positive reviews got my attention. So .. I finally decided to check it out. To avoid spoiling too much I'll just say the story follows a sort of Matrix parody, where the One must save the Lego worlds from the terror inflicted by Mr. Business. We have a Trinity there too to train the hero. Morpheus is ... Batman .. or Morgan Freeman aka the God aka Vitruvius aka (well, a wise old guy with a long white robe) ... or maybe both. I'm still not certain about the Morpheus association. What's clear is that Agent Smith is Liam Neeson, although .. we have a multiple personality case here ... you'll get it when you see the movie ;)

Why is it the most non-Dreamworks Dreamworks'ish production? Because it's the funniest animation I've seen since Kung Fu Panda (or since Dreamworks decided to Pixarize itself ... ok, ok, I won't start again :P). I could even say that the jokes density is a bit exaggerated for the first two thirds of the movie (especially considering that many are quite light). Sufficiently enough to feel a pretty high contrast in the last part = seems like the screenwriters have awaken to realize that there must be a moralizing/heartwarming ending for a lego movie. Even so, what stays is the really nice parody mix of various references, which is true that requires some movie background knowledge to catch everything. Overall, a very pleasant surprise, and probably the best animation I've seen this year.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

I'm really struggling lately to keep this blog active. Which gives longer and longer delays from time x when I see a movie to time y when I manage to write an entry. There's a good part in this, as I said also before, and that's the ability to select better movies. And "Guardians of the Galaxy" is the perfect example.

I don't like the super-hero genre, and I guess that's not something new for who's been reading this blog. The effect is that, with few exceptions = "Iron Man 3" or the first "Captain America", to not be very fond of what Marvel is producing. When I've seen the first trailer for "Guardians of the Galaxy" - featuring "Blue Swede - Hooked on a Feeling" - I knew this is something else. And not just because it seemed clear enough that "GotG" is not a super-hero movie. But because I had the same feeling as when I've seen the trailers for "John Carter", the last "Star Trek"s, or even "Prince of Persia" or "The Lone Ranger". Yup, I know ... More than half of this enumeration was a box-office flop = I doubt there are many who liked all these ( except myself of course :) ). But all these have something in common. A story that is set in a complex SciFi/Fantasy world (well, less on "Lone Ranger", although that movie can be considered a SciFi in its own way), story that features a decent number of secondary threads, told in a witty & lighthearted manner, enough to give that "epic feeling" that you could find some time ago in "Star Wars" & "Indiana Jones". So .. the story in "GotG" ...

Is about an orb capable to tear down worlds, and 5 individuals of different "nationalities" who somehow reach to the conclusion that it might have sense to try securing the device for the greater good of the galaxy. Seems quite simple & tame as subject, right ? Well, here comes that part about secondary threads mentioned above. Without many spoilers, let's take a prison escape sequence as example. When in that sequence we have an escape plan featuring some surprise elements, one character of the 5 being introduced along with his background, the main hero with some childhood "issues" that require a detour from the plan, we can already talk about a sort of mini-episode inside the main story. This style of building-up adds a lot to the narrative, and even if the main thread stays simple, what's built along it is more than enough to say that you've seen an actual movie and not something like a VFX demo (e.g., "Transformers").

That's enough. This movie is so good, that I really don't want to spoil more. You should just see it. I have a single regret. I don't like Zoe Saldana = I was quite disappointed by the casting choice for the main female character ... but well .. Besides that, we obviously have some eye-rolling causing moments, but not that many. I don't have anything else negative left to say :) If I get back a bit to the titles list in the beginning (which I think I've enumerated at least partially also for other occasions), I can observe another relatively common thing: the anti-hero trait, which at least for me is quite catchy. And I think it gives way more potential to exploit to a movie than the opposite - and you can see this a lot here where we have 5 of them ;)

Rating: 5 out of 5

Lucy (2014)

I know .. It's been a while since I wrote an entry. I'll catch up (hopefully). Unfortunately, pretty much the same amount of time passed since I've seen "Lucy" = I lost the fresh impression it made (I hope this won't happen too for the next one). And besides that, this movie probably deserves a much more detailed entry than what follows. But, let's see ...

I didn't hear any very positive feedback on this before watching it, but I still kept my expectancies at the level of a decent action without any attempts for being more than that. After all we're talking about Luc Besson, who lately focused more on producing stuff like "Transporter" or "Taken". However, here Besson is the director, and what we see is quite different from the previous. The subject is quite catchy. Scarlett Johansson plays a foreign student in Taiwan, who in an unfortunate turn of events ends up carrying inside her a considerable quantity of an experimental drug. In another unfortunate turn of events the package starts disintegrating, and the effects are visible in the trailer = the brain usage capacity progressively increases.

1. It's a SciFi. 2. It's a Luc Besson movie. So, don't expect much scientific reasoning in what you're gonna see. On the other hand, "philosophically" speaking, the movie is surprisingly dense. From the ratio between the brain usage capacity and the level of manifested emotions, which stays quite constant to the ultimate superpower (spoiler: that's about time), we're presented with a set of ideas that are sufficiently ... "intriguing" let's say to pass the barrier of "just another action/sci-fi". Of course, everything is done a la Besson, meaning slightly chaotic, but the important part is that it doesn't get boring. It's not at the level of "Leon" and neither of "The 5th Element". The beginning is excellent (I got stuck in my head the reference to the mouse trap, you'll get it when you'll see it) but after two thirds starts to be quite rushed up to the end. In any case, it's probably the most original approach for a superhero movie that I've seen by now = I really liked it.

Rating: 4 out of 5