The Exorcist: A classic for a reason

So Halloween this year came and went and I watched several horror movies over the course of October. One movie in particular, though, was more impressive than the other movies I watched. The Exorcist made a big splash back in the day and its effects continue on today. Whenever you see a movie about possession, there's a good chance it was inspired, in some part, by this movie.
The plot is more deep than a simple girl does something stupid, girl gets possessed story. There is a lot of focus put on the priest as well, hence why he's the titular character. Loss of faith is a key part of this movie. The mother, although not religious, loses faith in science when after several, what I can only imagine as bank breaking, experiments fail to explain what's going. She gains some faith in religion. The priest, after putting his ailing mother into a home, begins to lose faith in not only himself, but the world around him. They come together to try to save this poor girl from the torture that the demon is subjecting her to.
One of the things I really like about this movie is the soundtrack and the use of silence. Tubular Bells is an awesome song, although we don't get to hear a lot of it in the movie and it can even feel a little miss placed the few times we do hear it. The real star of the show is the silence. The most intense parts of the movie take place without the all too cliche shreek of noise. The lack of music creates an all to real and eerie atmosphere.
The visuals in the movie are very realistic. No over the top gore that we see a lot of now, but feesable amounts of blood and puss. The green vomit might be a bit over the top, but that's a stupid might since we're dealing with possession. The writing is fantastic and every actor hits their mark. The special effects are done so well that I was wondering how they did it all! The lost technique of using flashing frames (where there is a quick cut to some minor disturbing image, such as an all white face) and no CGI makes for some rather creepy scenes.
The film isn't scary in the same way that most movies now are scary. No jump scares, nothing like that. But it is very disturbing. I think that is a thing that most horror movies miss now. I mean The Ring and Paranormal Activity still do fairly well there, but most now are just chalk full of jump scares.
The pacing in my opinion is great. It gives us time to actually care about these characters and want them to be happy. It might feel a bit slow at times and that's okay. Life doesn't happen in a rush either. Proper story telling allows for lulls so that we can build empathy for the characters.
The role of the dice give it a 9/10. The acting is great, pacing great, effects great. The only thing I can think of that knocks this movie down a peg is the sometimes misplaced music.

X-men:Days of Future Past, a lesson in Comic Book Retcon and the series that has done it the most.

I love X-Men. They're a big part of my childhood and I continue to keep up with them as an adult. I have always felt that I was sort of a mutant. I grew up in a small farming community while having seasonal allergies and hay fever that kept me inside while everyone else was playing sports. I felt different. Often times, due to these allergies, I would have violent sneezing sessions where mucus and snot the size of golf balls flew from my nose in bullet fashion. So, yeah, I felt like, and was treated at times, like a mutant. So let me tell you about this most recent film and why it's good, but there are a few glaring problems with the writing. I'll start with the bad, so you can feel good about it later.

The premise of the film is that Wolverine (again the G**D*** focus) is sent back in time, by Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page), through is mind to change the dystopian future where mutants are hunted and killed. They argue that it all started in 1973 when Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) kills Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) in a public fiasco. To stop this from happening, Captain Snikt! has to get the two most important people in her life to talk her out of it, Magneto (Micheal Fassbender) and Charles Xavier (James McAvoy). They need the help of Quicksilver (Evan Peters) to get to Magneto whose been locked up (the reason for which is pretty ingenious).

This story isn't too terribly different from the original and the remake in the 90's cartoon. The idea is that an assassination of a public figure ruins everything. In the original comic book, Kitty Pryde gets sent back, in the cartoon it's Bishop (Omar Sy). In both it's Mystique that is the assassin. So we'll give it props for this. Except there is one huge, and I mean major, issue here.

WHERE THE F*&^ DID KITTY GET THOSE POWERS FROM!?

We've a set continuity. We know what her powers are. In no way (0%) do they ever even mention that she gets a new power. That would have been fine. Just a line saying, I can do this now, would have worked. Hell, doing what the original comic book did would have made more sense, that Xavier does it, since he's an already established psychic. This change of power also does nothing for the story whatsoever. At one point Claws goes crazy and accidentally cuts her. This is supposed to create tension in an already extremely tense situation that they're in (Sentinels are on their way to kill them again). I kind of snickered. It doesn't really come up again except for Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) to say, she can't keep this up, and have Xavier reply too bad kiddo she's got to.

The other big problem the movie has is why doesn't Quicksilver stick around? He just proves his worth in, what I think is, a pretty funny scene where he trips up a bunch of troops. I mean, yeah, he's a dick, but who cares? He's a huge dog in this fight, considering he begins to piece together that Magneto is his dad (gasp!). It also would have made the Sentinel fight scene a hell of a lot cooler. It would have established that even the first Sentinels were badass enough to take down a speedster.

One thing that bothers me a little bit, is that Havok gets pushed to the side. He's in it for a few minutes and then gets rescued by Mystique. Then he falls off the earth. Toad, F*&^%$# Toad gets more screen time. It's established in First Class that Alex has no home to return to. Why wouldn't he go back to the Xavier institute and join in the fight? Again, this would have made the final action scene a s*&% ton cooler.

Those are some big problems, the first two should be for everyone, the last one, well, that's mostly me (I like the Summers Brothers a lot). One other thing that bothers me a little is the ending. Everyone dies and in a CG gore fest without the gore. And it's one of those build-unnecessary-tension moments that doesn't serve much.  Alright, lets talk good things.

I like Quicksilver. This particular incarnation of Quicksilver (as we'll get another in Avengers 2), I thought, will give us a good enough distinction between the two. He's a whiny, entitled punk who thinks he's invincible. It offers a deep contrast to Xavier's broody I-want-my-heroin attitude and Hugh Jackman acts like, yeah this is the young version of that son-a-b*&%!. I think it works out great. It would have been great to see his ass kicked by a Sentinel, but I said something along those lines already. The scene where he's meant to shine is done very well. I laughed quite a bit at the sophomoric tricks he pulls on the guards.  This Quicksilver works.

James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender bring their A-game once again. These guys...man, I kind of fangirl about this, but they're really good at their jobs. The writing on their parts was done quite well, I can't think of changing anything. I liked that Xavier was more or less addicted to a drug, kind of showcasing the newer drug scene of the 70's. Then using that drug later in the movie as part of the action.

The action scenes are well done and the CG is good. The Sentinels are cool, but I would have liked to see them do more action than the 1 or 2 we get to see actually do anything.

The countering philosophy between Magneto and Xavier isn't as showcased in this one as much, but it is personified within Mystique. Her whole thing is that she's torn between the two and can't really find her own ground to stand on. It's cool to see her argue with both of them and to see her grow into what will probably be an excellent villain (fingers crossed).

I liked Warpath and Blink and Bishop as the "new" mutants we get to see. They do a great job doing some serious kick-@$$ against the Omega Sentinels. However, I would have liked to have seen more mutants in the 1973 scenes since we only really get to see Quicksilver. Yeah, Havok, Toad, Ink, and Spike are there, but for maybe 5 min. If those 4 had joined back up at the Xavier Institute, things would have been much much better. But, like I said, the "future" X-men scenes are all pretty damned cool.

The roll of the dice gives this movie an 8/10. If you're a fan go and see it in the theaters, if not, redbox it. But you should see it, if only to see how a movie can erase all previous movies while sticking to comic book roots (at least a little bit).

Concept Albums; The Good, The Bad, The Alien through your door.

Concept albums have been around a long time. They're albums that tell a story from beginning to end, where each song flows together to give you a bigger picture. The first time I really got exposed to one was when Coheed and Cambria started to get big. I've listened to several since. I like Coheed's musical style, it's metal. However and this is where my gripes begin to take shape, the lyrics didn't hint, to me at least, any real story.
Story-telling is something that is a big part of what I am. Those you  have spent time with me know that I can tell story after story and keep your attention and you don't get lost. I also went to college studying writing for a few years and I've read everything from ancient fables to some of the more recent New York Times Best Sellers. I've played Dungeons and Dragons since I was 8 (so 16 or so years at this point) where story-telling is exactly what you're doing and the key to having with it is collaborative story-telling (give and take, not too dissimilar from improv comedy). I'd like to think I know a thing or two about telling a good story.
I'm also a music enthusiast. I've played drums since I was 12 and grew up in a family of musicians. My best friend plays guitar and most of my other good friends played some instrument (tuba included). Though I haven't studied music academically, a few of my acquaintances (there really needs to be a better word for less than friend but more than acquaintance) have.
I know my [expletives] as the phrase goes.
As I talk about specific albums I'm going to place a number next to it to let you know what I take away from each for example Kilroy was here by Styx (4/10). I only ended up keeping a few songs of the album. The lyrics weren't as bad as some of the ones we'll talk about later on, but musically it wasn't my jam. I'll also only talk about concept albums that I've been exposed to. There's a lot out there and I haven't heard all of every concept album. Let's make a list of things that make I'm going to judge and move on from there

• The lyrics have to make sense, either independently of each other or as part of the whole album. The less the lyrics tell the story or the closer they resemble just a bunch of words the lyricist thought sounded cool, the less I like it.
• Does the story end or is there some sort on inconclusive ending? Good stories end, the best in fact.
• How much exposition does the album use. In this case, exposition is going to be non-musical tracks or segments that give us details and context 
• Songs that tell stories aren't concept albums, but in the best concept albums each song is it's own story and can be heard (as above) independently from the rest.

To start things off, let's go with the bad, the things concept albums I didn't really gel with. To be clear I like some of these and listen on regardless, but that doesn't mean a part of me pokes it with a fiery stick of irk. Coheed and Cambria's starting line-up of albums, 2nd Stage (6), Secrets of Silent Earth 3 (5), Burning Star 4 (didn't really want to listen to) all were great to listen to. The lyrics on the other hand...even with context, which can be picked up in the form of a comic book (I recommend this and I'll talk more about that later) they were fairly nonsensical and hard to follow as a story goes. Screaming them out at the concert I went to was a blast just it was similar to every time I publicly sang It's the End of the World by R.E.M. The biggest gripe I have with these albums is that Claudio Sanchez, singer and writer, is telling a story that has, at this point, a beginning and middle. The story hasn't really ended yet. The band has done a lot of side projects and the latest albums have been prequels (we'll talk about them later) to the Amory Wars. Good stories end and so does this one. Does that mean I hope they stop playing? Of course not. I want to see the story end, resolution.
Let's move on.
Let's talk about one of the more famous concept albums every created. Pink Floyd's The Wall (7/10). It wasn't too long ago that actually sat down and watched the feature film The Wall that gives visual context to the story. The story here makes sense and can be followed from one song to the next almost implicitly. The bigger issues with this album are, in my opinion, the vocals and the structure of the songs. On the entirety of the album there are only two songs that really stand out independently of the album, The Wall pt.2 and Comfortably Numb. The rest work well when taken into the context of the album as a whole, but that still feels a bit drudgery and like wading through muck to get to the good stuff. Also, I happen to like David Gilmour as the singer as opposed to Roger Waters (seeing as how he was the singer and sort of lead producer on Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here).
There was a time when punk was making a strange revival movement that quickly dissolved into what became the emo genre this pseudo artsy-"I'm so complicated and so is life" bull****. Out of this we got retardedly weird lyrics from bands. One band that got completely over looked was The Early November. I picked up on them when they released what had to have been their most ambitious project. A 3-disc album, one of which was a concept album; The Mother, The Mechanic, The Path (7/10). I really liked these albums and this whole idea of including a story album and then songs separate from it for the independent factor. For this though, we'll only talk about The Path. The story is cohesive and every song makes sense, but here is the problem. Since they made two separate albums apart from the concept album, only one song actually sounds good when listening to it away from the whole album. I like the album, but you have to listen to the whole thing, from beginning to end, without really breaking away. The other issue is that there is a lot of non-musical breaks where the characters talk to one another and sometimes that mixes with the music and...it falls short. If you like 2000's punk, get this triple album.
You thought Rush was dead yeah? They're not. They released a concept album in 2012 called Clockwork Angels (8/10). This album is bit more like what Coheed does where the lyrics don't make much sense, but there is definitely a story there and you can follow it if you focus. There is a reason Rush has been playing since 1968. They're good. The album was since novelized, but I haven't read it and I understand that I wouldn't want to.
Let's talk about removing the story from the concept album and trying to place it somewhere else shall we? Concept albums don't give you the whole story, it doesn't give you the details. That is what the music is for. The music is the filler, words don't exactly translate well from pure instrumentalism. Here is where Coheed got things right. They wrote a comic book to go along with the albums. People put down comics as for children, that time has passed (read Spawn to your children, I dare you). Comics allow for a varied amount of art styles (about as varied as music itself if not more so). You can find any art style to really fit whatever you're writing. Rush decided to do the same thing. There is now a Clockwork Angels comic book that gets released monthly. It's great and it looks like the music. It's a weird thing to think about, seeing music, but when you read comic books based on concept albums, it makes more sense. With that, lets make a quick return.
Coheed and Cambria's latest albums Ascension and Descension (8/10) are fan-freaking-tastic. As concept albums go, they figured out coherent lyrics and fluid story-telling. The music rocks and all things are good with the world. These albums are exactly what they should be doing...once they finish the G**D*** Amory Wars. You can stay in the same setting and build the universe, but you should probably finish what you start and release album 5...and preferably soon.
One of my favorite concept albums is Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime (9/10). Every song leads the story further into the plot and gives details. Nearly every song can be heard independently from one another and it still tells a story. The lyrics make sense and the band sets the mood fantastically. It also just happens that I really like 80's style metal and the styles that followed in it's footsteps (progressive metal, power metal, etc..). There isn't too much exposition, but there is enough to let you know that something is going on. Man, I just love this album.
Concept albums are a tricky thing. When they're done right, they rock and move you and it's really good. You get a cake and eat it too. But that is a rare thing, it can be tough to make a concept album work so that people know what is going enough so that they can follow the story without outside help.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier, if the rest of Marvel is like this one, they'll continue to make money through 2028

Let's get something out of the way. Captain America has gotten a little bit of hate after Avengers came out since his powers weren't super crazy or high-tech (Black Widow and Hawkeye got the same treatment as well). I've liked Captain America since I first saw him in Marvel: Civil War and, after reading some older comics, he's really one of the coolest characters in the Marvel roster. This movie really shows how great he is as a fighter and symbol. It also shows his somewhat naive view on life and the problems found in it.
Captain America takes place sometime (probably a year or two) after the Avengers movie. There are a few references to the Avengers in Winter Soldier, but nothing quite like Iron Man 3 where that was a defining thing in the movie (Tony Stark's PTSD from almost dying). Cap is doing exercises where we meet Falcon (Cap's second sidekick, but who could easily be part of a team with Black Widow and Hawkeye). Cap then gets called on a rescue mission with Black Widow to take out some pirates that have hijacked a S.H.I.E.L.D. frigate. The mission goes mostly as planned and there are some great fight scenes. You also really get to see how tough Cap actually is by the way bodies go flying when he hits them.Things  go a little awry when Black Widow isn't at the right location and is found instead backing up data. This turns out to be important later. Upset that she was given a separate set of orders than those he was given, Cap confronts Nick Fury. Nick reveals that  S.H.I.E.L.D. is getting ready to launch 3 new heli-carriers that, with new tech, can stay lifted indefinitely and "neutralize threats before they happen". This doesn't sit well with Cap (Not that it should really sit well with anybody). This then leads to a scene where Nick gets attacked on the road (and there's some pretty darn cool action shots there) and he winds up at Cap's place ready to die. He then gets shot...three times...in the back...BY THE WINTER SOLDIER!! I don't think I should talk more about the plot and story of the movie other than it's going to pull the rug out from under you so hard...so very very hard.
The acting is great as it should be. It's good to see these previously secondary characters (Black Widow and Fury) get a little bit more screen time than in the other movies. The coolest character though is by far Falcon (played by Anthony Mackie). He fits in very well with the cast and he adapts to a super hero side-kick roll with ease. His suit is also easily the coolest thing to see since Iron Man's armor. One thing that I did think was strange though, and I didn't see this coming, was that Sebastian Stan has a bit of a baby face. He does a hell of a job as Winter Soldier though, but when you see him without his mask...it's a little pouty. But the emotions that you can pick up just from his face while he fights Cap...it's superb.
This movie also has a different feel from any of the other Marvel movies in that it's a lot more serious and a lot less fantastic. I mean, it has cool tech, and super strength, but it doesn't have Tony's snark fighting other suits of armor or high powered beings. Nor does it have all the mythological elements that make Thor so magical...or Tom Hiddleston (Fangirls go crazy for that guy). I think that this lack is a big bonus for this movie. That's a big pull to why this movie is really good. Most of these characters, they can die...and that adds a permanence to the action scenes. They have to recover for some time before they can kick more bad guy butt.
I nerded more than a few times while watching this movie. They mentioned Stephen Strange and I'm sure that I missed more than a few more after that. They stayed true to the comics and made them great. I don't think they could have handled it much better.
The only real problem I have with the flick is...where the *&%@ is Hawkeye? It's not that he needed to be there mind you, Falcon more than fills his role. But could we have gotten at least some line saying "he's still in Tahiti after having Loki in his brain"? It's the same problem with Dark Knight Rises. Yes, lets talk all about the first movie, but never mention the villain....It's a bad idea and is, in my opinion, really rather disrespectful to the character and actor. However, in this movie, it's not as near as bad as Dark Knight Rises.
The roll of the dice give the movie a 9/10. Go see it in theaters and add it to your collection of Marvel Movies.

300: Rise of the Empire. Did we need it? No. Is it worth it? Sort of.

This is a completely unnecessary sequel/prequel to the original 300 film. However it is a great addition to the already good movie, even if it falls short of the quality of the prior. But let’s make something very clear. These movies made money because they looked cool. There isn’t anything really redeeming about them plot or story wise. But they are visually fantastic. So all you boys you argue graphics make the game, you should see these flicks and every other Zack Snyder movie.

            As it might have occurred to you when watching the first 300 movie, they never really address why Xerxes can’t just take his armies around the Gate by using his navy. This movie addresses that question in spades. Themistocles is the Athenian leader that rose into power by killing Xerxes’ father, Darius in a previous war. From there he tries to unite all of Greece under the banner of Democracy. This is met with mixed reviews but starts to work out when the Persians return to get revenge (mostly to slake the ire of Eva Green’s character as opposed to Xerxes). Here is where things get a little interesting. Leonidus then leads his doomed 300 to die at Thermopile and Themistocles uses this as the uniting factor to get all of Greece on his side. The Spartans then join him on the 4^th day of the battle and start taking names.

            This movie is good, but it fails in some areas that, if it didn’t, it would have been much better. One thing that was great about 300 was that every shot could have taken and placed in a teenage boy’s bedroom as a poster. There aren’t very many of those in Rise. The style of the first also came directly from the Frank Miller comic book and you could see frames of that comic book in the film. Rise isn’t based off a comic book and lacks those “comic book frame” shots that helped the first one look so appealing. The action scenes in this movie are, for the most part, pretty good, but there are some scenes that make little to no sense in the long run (I’m looking at you horsey) and they don’t look as good.
             The best thing that this movie has for itself is the acting. The two leads give a great performance. Sullivan Stapleton and Eva Green make this movie as great as they could and I really hope Sullivan does some more high brow work, whether that be more action flicks (which would be great) or more on the drama side. What can I say about Eva Green that hasn't already been said. That woman makes bad look so good so often that well...lets just say I've never thought leather was ever really a possibility until I watched this movie.
             One of the things that also kind of ruins this flick is that it doesn't complete the circle started in the first movie. The first one ends with Faramir *cough, I mean Dilios, getting ready to lead the big charge against Xerxes whereas this one ends on the naval battle instead of meeting us back there. It's a small error, but it throws off the jive a little. Besides, I think the end scene should have been of a united Greece instead of another unfinished battle.
              The roll of the dice give this movie a 7/10. It's smarter than the original, but doesn't use that to it's advantage. The visuals, although good, aren't as well thought out as the previous film. It's a good rent if you're in the mood.

Robocop BeRoot, a slight glitch in the system but on par for most/all remakes

I wanted to do a compare and contrast like I had with Conan: The Barbarian and its remake, however I haven’t been able to get a hold of the original Robocop movie from the 80’s so I’ll have to some of it by memory.

Robocop tells the story of an incorruptible cop that is turned on by vicious members of society and forced to go through radical experiments to save his life, namely by turning him into a cyborg. He returns to society feeling more than out of place and begins to try to solve his own attempted murder. This leads him down a path that forces Omni Products, those that made him a cyborg, to turn him more and more into a product as opposed to a cop/person. With his shear force-of-will/soul-power, he overcomes the programming that makes him a robot and “saves” the day from...well, he’s already lost (this is the other really big appeal of the Robocop movie)

The acting is as good as you could hope with relatively unknown faces. Joel Kinnaman does a good job, but ultimately just does what the director asks (and that's not always a good thing). The supporting cast carries some big names, like Garry Oldman and Michael Keaton. The rest aren't really known by name, but you'd recognize them if you've seen a lot of movies. They all do a good job, but it's not anything really memorably great (but certain things stunk, but we'll talk more about that later). 

The questions raised about humanity and free will, aside from the ultra violence of the original film, are ultimately the focal point of the film’s theory/theme/the-part-that-makes-you-think-about-stuff. Lamentably, the reboot doesn’t do this awesome idea the justice it deserves. Once “problems” get address with Robocop, Garry Oldman then explains the mystery of Robocop, that he doesn’t actually have any control and that he is just following programming. This isn’t the kind of stuff we’re supposed to know until the climax. That was probably one of the biggest appeals of the original Robocop. Where did the man begin? How much of a robot is he? Those kinds of questions need to be shown more than told. I know that in a recent bunch of reboots and other movies in general that is a giant push of “show don’t tell” (it’s a writers mantra that isn’t always the best, but it’s a good on in general) and it’s been a problem. There has been a lot of showing and it’s been losing audiences and critics. But in this case, and in the case of almost all action movies, showing is better than telling. With the Mystery genre you have to do a balancing act of showing and telling. The original Robocop had some flavor of mystery and this new one does away with it entirely.

The other big focal point of the social theory of the movie is that we’ve already lost the social war between the corporations and the “average Joe”. Here is where the villains are really meant to shine. But the writers really dropped the ball here. The villain, played by Michael Keaton, is so obviously a villain it gets a little obnoxious after a point. He seems rather fine until they encounter the “problem” with Robocop (which I didn’t think was a big deal and actually could have been done much more efficiently) then he turns all, “Screw the people, I only want profit for profit’s sake”. I like capitalist villains, I’ll admit I have a few “left of center” ideals, but there is a right and wrong way to do a capitalist-all-for-the-1% type of villain. This isn’t the way to do it. One line that he kept repeating that really got under my skin was “I don’t care how you do it, just get it done”. He kept thinking inside this box for so long that when he begins to think, “How can I get this to work to my advantage” it seems like it’s more of a survival tactic than innovated thought. Now this might be mostly current social commentary where the creators of the film see that the biggest problem with our society is corporate crony-ism (where the biggest corporations can get away with genocide because they’ve bought our politicians and yes it is a huge problem), so they decided to make him as obviously a villain as possible. However, how in the [various expletives] could his corporation ever have risen to where it is if he ran it the way he has been running it with Robocop? Instead of twisting things to “How can this make me more money” (and that is his ultimate goal, mostly dealing with changing public policy)

The roll of the dice give this movie a 7/10. I didn't mind the lack of the ultra-violence, since the whole idea was to make his a friendly-public figure. I did however mind very much the dumbing down and blatant exposure of what could have been a great mystery and thought provoking film.

The Lego Movie: Everything is Awesome and everyone is happy...also Spaceship

I never really got into Lego's as a kid, but my younger brother and my nephew both did. Aside from them, countless other around the world have played with these infectious tools of unlimited creativity. I don't think that there has ever been a toy in the history of mankind that has had such an effect on us as the Lego.

So let's talk about this movie. It was made by Warner Bros. which is why we get the appearances by the DC superheroes (Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and Green Lantern). It tells the tale of a prophecy about the chosen one that will allow for unfettered creativity (and says it's true due to the rhyming nature of the prophecy). The chosen one,  a construction toy named Emit, finds that he has become stuck to the "Piece of Resistance" and must save the world from the dastardly President/Lord Business who wants to stop any sort of creativity with the Lego's.  Hilarity ensues as Emit is revealed (from the beginning no less) to be an empty headed fool.

This movie is by far one of the funniest movies I've ever seen and it's unwillingness to take itself seriously in any fashion is part of the charm. Taking from the various sets that Lego has created over the years, they even make references to ones that they know they won't have time for or that have already received the Hollywood treatment. It breaks the fourth wall on numerous accounts in that they know that they are Lego and that their point is to create whatever it is you can think of, not necessarily that you should follow the instructions. That becomes a large part of the third act when we learn even more about where things are, however I don't want to spoil it any more than I might have already.

Let's talk about that third act for a moment. It hits you right in feels. I mean, I started to get a little choked up for a moment, but then the movie comes out of left field and makes some of the best jokes this side of a classic comedy of errors (like Clue or The Court Jester). One of the things I like about this though is that it doesn't mess with the pacing or become too preachy. It's just a really simple message that carries some weight.

The visuals are extremely fitting. I don't think a Lego movie would be good if the visuals didn't make it look like a stop motion flick that anyone with the capability made when they had Legos. That they made the explosions, dust clouds, bubbles and everything out of Legos makes this flick visually stunning and just so fitting.

The voice acting is superbly done. Alison Brie as Unikitty is by far one of the best casting decisions that they could have made. Will Arnett as Batman is great for shattering the brooding and dark and deep Batman that we've had to deal with for the past Batman franchise because he's an exact parody of it. Elizabeth Banks has always been willing to show that funny is attractive as her character Wildstyle and Charlie Day is beginning to cement himself the Nerd Paragon (along with some of the best) as Benny. Will Ferrell, who I've never really enjoyed with few exceptions, does an excellent job as an actor and stepping out of Stupid and back into quirky villain that really made him stand out in the first place. Not to mention Morgan Freeman and the various other cast members. Just look at that IMDB page. Look at the names there. Look at them. This movie got all those people together to make this and it rules.

One of the things that lambastes incredibly is the idea of the Chosen One, that only one person is special, that only one person can make a difference. Amongst the feels that are presented at the end of the movie, one is that each of us is capable of doing what we dream of doing. This is rather important since the really big draw of Lego's is that you can do ANYTHING! If you have the parts

The roll of the dice give this movie a 10/10. The writing, cinematography, the pacing, all of it. The only thing you might have to worry about is the incessant quoting of this flick once everyone has seen it. Kind of like when someone has played Portal for the first time or Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail. GO see it and do so quickly.