I really hope that now that Phil Lord and Chris Miller have exposed the chosen one/prophecy story for what it is, authors and screenwriters can please stop writing it. A chosen one prophecy is the go-to archetype for all blockbusters that want to make us “care about the characters” to justify being a corporate product. Some “everyman” (rarely an everywoman) finds out they are connected to some mythology and have a destiny to fulfill. It is lazy and insincere and possibly enables the worst of society’s ego.
Just the fact that the chosen one/savior character is called “the Special” is a blistering commentary on this formula. Every storyteller wants to believe their character is the special one, and really every audience member wants to believe they could be the special one too. This is what The Incredibles warned us about. If everyone is special, no one is. It’s okay to be special sometimes, encouraged even, but when it’s this pervasive it becomes ego. People stop valuing being a vital component in a larger society, but I’m less concerned about society as a whole than I am about a generation of antisocial egotists. Most importantly, it’s become so boring in every franchise mythology, but it was all worth it to provide material for The LEGO Movie to satirize.
Lord Business (Will Ferrell) is going to use the Kragle to freeze everything in place the way he likes it. Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) prophecies that a special one will find the Piece of Resistance and become the most talented, brilliant, important person in the universe. Get it? So the person who ends up finding the piece of resistance is Emmet (Chris Pratt), the most generic LEGO in a world of LEGOs, but he’s happy about it. He sees himself as part of a team, but the world rejects him. It’s the inverse of the usual formula where a social rebel leaves his oppressive society and goes on a quest to prove his value to all the conformists. Is Emmet mistaken for special, or is he really the Special because he wants to make friends? Yes, making friends is special.
Related: Exclusive Interview: Mark Mothersbaugh on The LEGO Movie
The meanings of Kragle and Piece of Resistance are so mundane, because everything from the Allspark to the Horcruxes are mundane Macguffins. Even the good ones like The One Ring or the Tesseract are all the same on a story level. Our stories are slaves to these prophecies. I really hope stories can break free now.
I always try to review the movie and not review the reviews, but when The LEGO Movie came out earlier this year, so much was made about it being a corporate product designed to sell more LEGOs. If that is inhibiting viewers receiving the film’s positive messages, it is worth addressing. The LEGO Movie is such an extraordinary piece of satirical storytelling that either the LEGO Corporation is the greatest sport, or they actually didn’t get it.
It would never occur to me that a creative endeavor shouldn’t be based on an existing moneymaking property. If something captivates people’s imagination, it should extend to other media. More importantly, what movie isn’t trying to sell us something? Like all those Marvel movies aren’t trying to sell us comic books and action figures? Art vs. commerce is at the heart of the film industry. It’s our job to decide when art wins. The question is: did the storytellers use the material to tell a great story? The LEGO Movie uses the source beyond brilliantly.
Kids get satire too. They may not articulate it, but they recognize it. When “Everything is Awesome” plays, they know it sounds familiar, like all the peppy songs from act one of Disney movies, or even more blatantly the pop songs from Dreamworks movies. They may take the sentiment more literally, but why not? Movies are a world where everything is awesome. Satire doesn’t mean insincere. By the way, everything is not awesome. Listen to the lyrics. “Lost my job, it’s a new opportunity.” That’s a positive outlook but it is okay to acknowledge the problem of unemployment. “Stepped in mud, got new brown shoes.” Wow, they’re even satirizing optimism.
It breaks my heart that theatrical reviews of The LEGO Movie included spoilers. I will not include spoilers, even though this is a Blu-ray review in which many readers may have already seen the movie. There’s no benefit to analysis in spoiling it. I will say that a creative decision was made that I think articulates the value of imagination and creativity and simple conflicts that can be solved via those values. It may also be propaganda for the corporate brand, but I would rather the filmmakers make a creative decision where the former interpretation is possible, than avoid it for fear it will become the latter.
The bonus features have a fun tone in line with the film. I wouldn’t say they’re satirizing bonus features completely, but they’re irreverent. There is a major spoiler in the behind the scenes feature though, so please watch the movie first if you for any reason have not yet seen it all the way through. The commentary has several actors on it so unfortunately they spend the movie riffing and making jokes. I actually would have liked to hear Lord and Miller’s thoughts on the themes and creative issues, but they throw a few of those in there when they can.
I think Lord and Miller are the new great satirists of our generation. We still have Stephen Colbert, but he started his relentless persona 10 years ago so we can have Lord and Miller at it now too. I understand the resistance to a branded movie, and there may be no way around that for some viewers. I see a movie that uses the corporate brand to satirize everything that’s wrong with Hollywood blockbusters, which could be a subversive agenda that pulled one over on the LEGO company, but more likely they were good natured enough to hire Lord and Miller in the first place.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and The Shelf Space Awards. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
