Animated Adventures: "The Lego Movie" and "Mr. Peabody & Sherman"

The Lego Movie

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The song released in connection with The Lego Movie is titled "Everything is Awesome." Unfortunately, that title isn't very accurate when being used to describe the film.

Your average, run-of-the-mill LEGO person, Emmett, is used to living every day just as scheduled. Wake up, work out, go to work at his construction site, then wonder why everyone else is out having fun without him. By chance, Emmett becomes involved in a resistance attempt to thwart the evil Lord Business from sealing off each of the LEGO worlds. Lord Business (Will Ferrell) wants to keep everything routine and doesn't want anyone stepping out of the place where they're supposed to belong.

The resistance is made up Emmett, an inept Batman, Batman's girlfriend Wyldstyle, and a god-like wizard voiced by Morgan Freeman. Working for Lord Business is a police officer (Liam Neeson), who is struggling to balance both good cop and bad cop personalities. The battle of evil control vs. free will and independence ensues, but unfortunately, The Lego Movie is never quite as good as everyone makes it out to be.

Some laughs come at the beginning, but as the minutes go by, the laughs become more and more scarce. There's little to no drama, excitement, or memorable moments. And I know what you're thinking - "AJ, it's a kid's movie." Well, I have two counters to that. 1.) Animated kids movies can cater to children and still be enjoyable for adults if they're really good (see recent releases Frozen and Epic). And the second, well, I'll get to that in a bit.

Not only was the movie rarely a positive experience, it was rather dark and upsetting in some parts. Let's take a look at the cop character. His face is disturbingly erased by Lord Business - a cruel, uncaring villain who is completely unfit for a children's movie. In one scene, Business freezes the cop's kindhearted parents as the cop witnesses, unable to stop them. All the while, Business is smiling and basking in the emotional torment of his henchman. Now that's disturbing.

As promised, here's my second counter to the claim that the only reason I didn't love this is because I'm not a child. I saw this with my nine-year-old cousin, who during the film, leaned over to me and said, "AJ, this isn't that great. It's not as good as I thought it was gonna be." When a kids movie doesn't appeal to kids, that;s saying something. And it's not saying anything good. The sporadic laughs of The Lego Movie and messages of individuality aren't enough to save the day from a mostly inconsistent and unimpressive movie experience.

Rating: 2.5/5


Mr. Peabody & Sherman

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Mr. Peabody & Sherman is a clear attempt of going back to past ideas in order to make money, but to the naked eye, this might not be so obvious. With its sweet, fit-for-family atmosphere, the movie kept my grin constant and my eyes on the screen. But to me, the filmmakers' true intentions were occasionally evident in the film. This was simply a way to get parents and grandparents who watched these characters growing up into the theater with their kids. But, with that said, I enjoyed it.

Mr. Peabody & Sherman centers around genius canine Peabody, who tells us he's obtained various degrees and invented Zumba, planking, and time travel. One day, he adopts abandoned baby Sherman, who soon becomes Peabody's reason for living. On Sherman's first day of school, a jealous girl named Penny bullies Sherman to the point of Sherman biting her. The school board comes in and, seeing Peabody as a bad guardian, threatens to have Sherman removed from his custody.

In the interest of peacemaking, Peabody invites Penny and her family over for dinner. When Sherman shows Peabody's time machine, the WABAC, to Penny, it sparks an adventure across time to rescue Penny, return home, and most importantly, save Mr. Peabody from losing custody of Sherman.

Consistently, the movie failed to be a letdown in any sense of the word. The only reason I come across as a bit unenthusiastic is because I feel that if a tad more effort had gone into the making of this film, it would have been fantastic. Otherwise, the film only benefits from splendid comedic timing and from Ty Burrell's voice work on Mr. Peabody.

Also, I feel compelled to say a few words about Penny, who makes Angelica Pickles from "Rugrats" seem like Mahatma Ghandi. Even though Penny grows a heart towards the end, she's more violent and selfish than probably any other character her age I've ever seen, and watching everyone in the movie bend over backwards to cater to her isn't very uplifting.

Good-natured and lacking any detrimental flaw, Mr. Peabody & Sherman offers enough satisfying entertainment to make you leave the theater smiling. Although it doesn't deliver to its full potential (maybe this would've served better as a reboot to a new TV show), it's quite enjoyable once you can get over Penny's character. It ever-so-slightly breaks the surface of average, but even though there weren't any boring or unnecessary moments, I can't help feel like Mr. Peabody & Sherman could have been so much more worthwhile had a bit more effort gone into it.

Rating: 3/5

Divergent

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*This review contains some spoilers* Skip to the last paragraph for my spoiler-free conclusion.

The young adult novel-to-film saga continues. As if Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and unfortunately, Twilight and The Mortal Instruments weren't enough to satisfy our desire for this type of movie, in comes the Divergent saga, based on the book trilogy by Veronica Roth. The story takes place in a dystopian future where teenagers must choose their future path.

This path, known as a faction, separates people by strength of bravery, honesty, peacefulness, intelligence and selflessness. Our protagonist, Beatrice, goes in for her test to see where she is supposed to belong, even though the audience never really finds out how exactly the test works. The test results come back inconclusive, indicating that she shows signs of belonging to more than one faction. Someone with this rare trait is known as "divergent," and Beatrice is told not to reveal this result to anyone she knows.

Despite the test, the government allows children to select their faction of choice (which pretty much goes against the entire message of the movie on how human will is detrimental). Surprising her parents of the selfless faction, Beatrice chooses Dauntless - the brave enforcers or the city. She puts on an eager and willing face as she jumps right into the Dauntless way of life, even renaming herself "Tris," but the name change doesn't necessarily qualify as a complete personality shift.

Tris finds herself struggling to get by in Dauntless training, consistently under-performing in her challenges and running the risk of being kicked out of the faction. Eventually, Tris starts to live up to the Dauntless expectations and is allowed to stay in the faction, but just when she starts getting comfortable, she learns of a possible war of the factions that could put her life and the lives of her family and friends at risk.

Surprisingly, Divergent proved to be rather fun. I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did, but a lot of the movie really did work. I think my favorite part was the on-screen chemistry between Tris (Shailene Woodley, who once again proves she isn't just your average American teenager), and her trainer Four, played by Theo James. By themselves, they both do fine, but together, they outshine Katniss and whichever boy she's in the mood for at any given moment.

Slightly more shocking was the movie's use of violence. Teenagers fist-fighting to the point of KO is shown explicitly, which I think sends a message to adult moviegoers who thought they would dumb down the violence for the sake of the younger crowd. They didn't, and for some scenes, you might think you're watching MMA.

Divergent in itself never quite reaches the heights of any of the installments of Harry Potter or Hunger Games (I may have to come back and re-edit that after I see Mockingjay). The shift from Duntless training to all-out war is a bit abrupt and unexplained. Characterization of some sometimes suffers at the hands of sufficient exposure to Tris and Four, so we don't get to see much of Tris' friends or family. Thus, when her parents are killed during battle, it can't help but feel forced. Also, does the government just hire out random tattoo artists (one played by Maggie Q in this movie) to administer the most important examination in the city?

Divergent could have simply existed to fulfill fan's wishes for a feature length film, but thankfully it went above those expectations, although not too far beyond that. Unlike the first Mortal Instruments movie, it also shows some real promise for the future of its franchise with its performances and sheer brutality. I'll see you in the theater for Insurgent.

Rating: 3.5/5