Hannah Wiltshire runs the lighting for our shows. She’s also a friend with whom I enjoy discussing films. This week she discusses a problem with The LEGO Movie for us.
I’m going to preface this with the statement that I loved the LEGO Movie. I watched it twice in the cinema and both times I was howling with laughter. I was impressed with how LEGO had the balls to reclaim their product as a toy for kids (My Little Pony could perhaps follow their example), particularly as their highest priced products are pretty much only going to be bought by people with display tables for them in their spare room.
So yes I loved the LEGO Movie Right up until the last few minutes.
Plastic Romance in The LEGO Movie
The last scene of the film contained one of the worst betrayals of a female character I have seen in a long time. I spent the film really quite liking Wyldstyle; she had what I feel was a very valid reaction to discovering that Emmet was the Special, and I loved that she confessed she was jealous of him, a fault that is not often given to female characters unless it is about another woman. I was anticipating the inevitable romantic subplot between her and our leading yellow man, and sure enough, her introduction was like something straight out of a rom-com. My hopes rose when she proceeded to rescue Emmet with a style that lived up to her name, but they plummeted again when Batman showed up and it turned out she was dating him (nothing against Batman, I’m sure he’s lovely). With the hideous love triangle hovering on the horizon, I watched as the brilliant plot developed, gasped at the revelation that this was all in a kid’s imagination, and smiled at the redemption of President Business.
And then it happened.
The love triangle was resolved.
There was no elegance to this at all, no development, just a quick reassignment of the female prize. Emmet was the hero of this film, not Batman, and therefore the woman must go to him, like a trophy for winning. There was a moment when Batman left in the Millennium Falcon (and that is a sentence straight out of a bad crossover fic) where I thought that it might be less hideous than expected; with Batman gone time could be spent developing the relationship between Wyldstyle and Emmet, but Batman comes back with the engine they need, helps to save the day, only to be immediately dumped by his girlfriend. I would feel sorry for him if it didn’t mean he had some material to help him write his next song.
This entire romantic subplot was not only badly written, but entirely pointless. This is a kids film about small, yellow, plastic people, why is there any need for romance. Kids don’t care, and any adult thinking about a relationship between LEGO figures for more than thirty seconds will need some serious therapy. So why is it there? The only reason I can think of is ‘that’s just what films have’. They have action, adventure and romance, and female characters are there only to facilitate the third element. But this is a kids movie, there doesn’t need to be romance, the action and adventure is quite enough.
So Wyldstyle (or Lucy, whatever) is a questionable role model, but what about the other females in this film? Well there’s Unikitty (who is pink and has a high pitched voice so I’m guessing is intended to be a girl), and Wonder Woman (who has about two lines and shows up in the background a few times) and…that’s all I can think of. Apart from a couple of background characters they are the only other female characters I can think of, and to my mind Unikitty barely counts as she’s such an obvious ‘things girls like’ stereotype. Compare this to Emmet, Vitruvius, President Business, Bad Cop, Batman, Metalbeard, Spaceman, Superman, Green Lantern, and any number of background male characters. So not only does it betray the female lead, it offers no variety of female role models.
An attempt to justify this may be that this entire story takes place in the mind of a young boy, but my counter argument is simple; this film was not written by ten-year-old boys, but adults who should know better. I’m not a psychologist, but you have to question what effect will be of showing young boys that they, as the hero of their own story, deserve to be awarded a I think the thing that irritates me the most about this is the blatancy of it. The hero winning the girl is one of the biggest film clichés, but at least the girl is usually single for more than thirty seconds before getting together with him. But in the LEGO Movie, Wyldstyle dumps Batman and immediately turns around and holds Emmet’s hand (which I can only imagine is the LEGO version of kissing, and I’m going to stop imagining that right now). It’s a pointless, badly-written ‘love’ story, and I for one would have much preferred for them to stay friends. If nothing else, it would have reduced the disturbing LEGO-related imagery in my brain
Ultimately, the truest moment of the film for me was when Wyldstlye confessed that she wished she was the special, in that moment I wished the same thing. When I first saw the advert for the film my first though was ‘shame there isn’t a female lead’, but I made my peace with it. Having now seen the film, and the utter betrayal of one of the few female characters, that feeling is back in full force. I wish she was the special, I wish the stereotype of LEGO being a ‘boy’s toy’ had been smashed by this film, I wish she had been allowed to remain the kick-ass girl she began as instead of being reduced to a prize. So yes, I feel betrayed by the LEGO Movie, but I still love it, it still makes me laugh, it still does a lot to re-establish LEGO’s primary purpose, it’s just a shame it decided to cater it’s message so deliberately to boys.
