My mother died today, or maybe it was yesterday. The telegram that came today said "YOUR MOTHER HAS PASSED AWAY. FUNERAL TOMORROW. DEEP SYMPATHY". My mother lives quite far from the city so it is more than possible that the retirement home sent it yesterday and it only arrived today, but it does not matter. I am heading to the home this evening, and I will spend a night by the body as is customary. If I take the 2 o' clock bus I should be there before dinner time. I was able to get some time off from work, however it was very clear that my boss was annoyed at my having to leave. I told him"It's not my fault you know." I know now that this was stupid. It was his responsibility to express his sympathy and whatnot. I took the 2 o'clock bus. It was a uniquely hot afternoon. It doesn't often get that hot in Lego City and everyone was clearly uncomfortable. Perhaps it was the heat, or the smell of the rubber, but I found it increasingly difficult to stay awake, so I rested my eyes and slept. When I awoke I found that my head was resting on the arm of a large man dressed like a pirate. He looked at me and smiled. "Have you seen me lucky socks?" I had not and told him that. The retirement home was a little over a mile from the nearest bus stop. I went there on foot. When I arrived I asked to see my mother at once, but the receptionist seemed distracted. "Oh my God look, it's Clutch Powers!" I didn't know who that was, but turned anyway just to see what was so interesting. "Whoa, rock monsters!" this made no sense to me as I had not noticed anything that could be described as a rock monster. I turned to the receptionist to ask him if he had seen any rock monsters, but to my surprise the 5' 6" receptionist was now a clump of stones and green light. I jumped back out of reflex. Then I thought to myself what difference does it make? If I stand here the result is ultimately the same, the receptionist is a rock monster. I felt the smooth but of Raymond's pistol in my jacket pocket. I stood there in the sun, it's heat burned my cheeks. I felt little droplets of sweat creeping down my back. The little monster drew toward me and raised it's arms above it's head. The sunlight bounced off them like blades digging into my eyes. I became aware of the blinding red that fogged my vision. I felt my grip tighten around the gun, and the trigger gave. The hard steel of the revolver jogged my palm. The whip crack of the gun broke the silence of the home. I knew I had broken the balance of the day. I fired four more shots into the inert pile of stones, all of which pinged off with no visible impact.Each shot was a reminder of my failure. I stood there in silence for sometime, until I became aware of the eyes digging into my back."Why does it have to be rockmonsters?" I didn't know how to answer that question, so I remained silent. "I just wanted one of your power crystals." He turned around quickly, leaving me in my silence.

My vote for this is really 5.5/10. Now Lemme tell y'all that this is not as greatly written as the Lego Movie. The Lego movie is creative, has unique animation, and was totally good for theaters while this is a direct to DVD movie that has only a decent story, the characters aren't as interesting, and the animation wasn't as unique. Its not as fun as the true "Lego movie", but OK, at least its a better movie that countless other bad movies. Its a good thing it still has some dialog because some very old Lego video didn't have the dialog it needed.

Bottom line: I prefer the 2014 Lego movie than this 2010 DVD movie. Well, it could've been a lot worse.

Before the Lego company finally got its first theatrically released film in early 2014, there were several direct-to-video productions. Also in the same realm were the Bionicle films, both of which were moderately popular. The thing is now, looking back at these early creations feels out of touch. When looking at The Lego Movie (2014),there are several things that were included in its construction that helped it define itself from other Lego films in the past and other films in general. It's not to say this movie doesn't work or have appeal, but there are elements to it that aren't as effective as they could've been.

The story centers on famed adventurer Clutch Powers. It's interesting how Clutch is the exact opposite of Emmet from The Lego Movie (2014). Clutch is popular and everyone knows him. Emmet is not popular and nobody knows him. Clutch is also the son of his equally famous dad, Rock Powers. Clutch is a solo man; he works alone, following in his father's footsteps. Yet, out of the blue after completing his latest mission, Clutch's boss decides that on his next assignment, he needs a team. The new members consist of demolition expert Brick Masterson, German engineer Bernie Von Beam and English biologist Peg Mooring. Naturally, like many other team effort films, nobody cooperates at first and then everything comes together at the last minute.

Writing the screenplay to the film was Tom Rogers, a man who before this production had written for several Disney direct-to-video sequels, his best known probably being The Lion King 1 1/2 (2004). There are points where Rogers does show some creativeness in his writing, but much of it is cliché, has unfinished subplots or has visible plot holes. To give an idea, cliché would be that one of the characters has to fall in love with someone they don't even know. An unfinished subplot focuses on Clutch's dad. In fact, the title reads The "Adventures" of-. This is unfinished because as far as characters go, this is the only movie about Clutch Powers. There were no more adventures. A plot hole would be that on a certain world, only primitive weapons work and high tech mechanical ones malfunction - but later on, a vehicle and jetpack are used with no problem. These are just one thing per flaw but there's always more one can find. I won't list them all.

This would be acceptable if the story also didn't deviate from its main cast. While aiming its message of teamwork to audiences, the story splits off and simultaneously looks at another character that is introduced halfway into the movie. Its not the greatest direction but I guess director Howard E. Baker tried his best. Baker has headed more TV episodes than videos so it's hard to say. Character dialog however is one thing that works occasionally. There are moments where the comedy pushes a little too much of the same. And then there are times where the characters acknowledge how silly a character sounded after saying a comment. It were those moments that should've happened more frequently. The voice cast is another element that help sustains its characters.

Each actor that lends their voice does a respectable job. The cast doesn't have many familiar names but some have lent their voices to animated films or video game characters. Even better is that Jeff Bennett, best known for voicing Johnny Bravo is the man behind Bernie. Maybe that's why I found him the most likable of Clutch's team. However, an even bigger help to the comical aspect and visual design of the movie, would've been using physical objects instead making it entirely CGI. Yes, no doubt with CGI animators could have various characters do things that regular Lego figurines could never do. But what's the fun in that? Having various limitations is what helps create the comedy. Another interesting part to this movie is that the characters build their creations just like a master builder would from The Lego Movie (2014). So are these guys master builders too?

It is strange with certain physical backgrounds though. Either some look too plain, like a tree here or there, and others are straight out green flat lands as far as the eye can see. Boring much? Then there's the city, which is good but still would've looked better with physical legos instead of CGI ones. Another minor problem is that everything isn't made of legos. I just don't see how making everything CGI, didn't permit anyone to thinking of making everything out of Legos. It sounds illogical in a world where everything is Lego. The music composed by Eric and David Wurst didn't do a bad job. There wasn't a main theme but the score did at least sound cinematic to a point. It wasn't memorable or powerful when evoking the emotion but it was appropriate for each scene. It's still a fun movie but it's more for kids since they care less about things making sense.

As an early Lego film, it gets the job done with goofy characters and sporadically comedic writing. However, the delivery of its story can feel flawed at times and its visual style isn't as fresh now with The Lego Movie (2014) totally blowing it out of the water.