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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Neonchameleon" data-source="post: 8410201" data-attributes="member: 87792">"When everyone is super then no one will be" is a literal supervillain line. And if you think that the Lego movie is blandsville then that's to do with you not the Lego movie.The Lego movie was almost Toy Story level good. As well as it being well written, it matters that it's about toys and, more importantly, it matters that the toys are lego in specific rather than any other type of toy. It's thematically strong and coherent in a way few films are right down to taking a side in a philosophical question that's more clearly made by Lego than anything else - and it's a story that's practically perfect in that if you changed anything else it wouldn't work so well. Spoilers for how below.[spoiler]<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There's the boy and his dad and the dad's incarnation in the lego/toy world leading to real world character development that could have been any toy line - but needed to be toys or games.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There's the Chosen One thing that couldn't have landed quite as effectively with most toy lines because Legos are fundamentally interchangeable but that doesn't prevent you having either a favourite or a piece that you need right now and nothing else fits. Chosen One narratives also happen in the Toy Story universe - but they are very different because they are based on collector's editions and boxed sets because those are different types of toy to lego.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Most importantly and at a metaphysical level there are two ways to play with Lego. You make what's on the box and that's what you do - or you have a great big bucket of lego that you store together and grab things from. The superweapon of the bad guy is 'The Kragle' which is quite literally a tube of Krazy Glue. And nothing is further to the "you make what the box says" than gluing your Lego together so they can't come apart.</li> </ul>[/spoiler]By contrast the Playmobil movie was about appropriate for a movie trying to sell cheap knock-off toys. Instead of being about Lego and the ways people play with Lego and about a child playing with their toys and their relationship with other people the Playmobil movie just Isikai'd its protagonists into a dimension full of animated toys and played as a long toy commercial.If the first Transformers film had been equal to the sum of its parts it would have been a great movie - but instead it's a movie with a lot of great parts.The first Transformers movie has a solid story (other than the McGuffin of the glasses), two strong lead parts, decent comedy, and Michael Bay who is a director who is awesome at music-video length shots and, importantly, at shooting action sequences in a way that sells awe. It's less than the sum of its parts because Michael Bay shoots for the sequence more than the film as a whole - and because Mikaela (Megan Fox's character) is awesome and very well written in the script, but the camera basically pervs over her rather than supports who she can be.But crucially no one shoots action scenes like Michael Bay. He's not a great storyteller but he's the best there is at shooting massive chaotic action set pieces that feel overwhelming. And either giant robots or giant monsters are exactly what massive chaotic setpieces need to be turned up to 11. So although I'd argue that the first (modern) Transformers film isn't great and the rest (other than Bumblebee) aren't even good if what you want is to watch something giant, awesome, and overwhelming then the Transformers are the best films at that that have ever been made. Instead of being across the board good they take one popular thing and do it exceptionally well.</blockquote>

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