So as a child Lego was for me one of the best toys to possess, it essentially made all other forms of entertainment redundant really. Save of course for the ever constant flickering color box that still to this day dominates my life. With Lego the entire world was yours for the making, and the only limit to the fun you could have was the limits of your imagination, which as a child was usually when you fell asleep.
Now here’s a little confession I want you other Legoholics to make, in truth we always tried to make what we’d seen on the TV. Don’t hide in the back, you all know we did it. The possibilities might be endless with Lego but only so far as what we’d already witnessed, what Television had programmed into our brains and demanded our creative attention. Now don’t go getting all depressed or antagonistic with regards to this idea of children being programmed into acting certain ways or following specific trends. It’s something we all do as members of the human race, and while sometimes it can be a harrowing and indeed tiresome affair. You are programmed to love your children as well, to want to eat and sleep. Repetition is a necessary part of the human condition and at times repetition is one of the greatest human accomplishments. I had more fun as a child with my Lego guns than I did simply watching them on Television, it was me essentially fitting in with the world around me but getting to use my own creativity along the way.
Now skip forward a decade and a half to today, I’m still playing with Lego and still on a fairly regular basis. Yet this time the concept of creativity composed of repetition has already been created for my enjoyment, mirroring even further the giant flickering light box that first captivated my creative mind. Lego has indeed taken some of the constructive enjoyment out of some of it’s latest releases, but the concept of interaction is still there. What I mean to say is that I’ve been playing Lego Lord of the Rings.
Almost all of us must have played a Lego game at some point, and while I can imagine that Tolkien is either performing cartwheels in his grave or shaking his fist angrily form on high (take you pick), at the concept of his ingenious creations being reduced to such idle caricatures. They are bloody fun to play. The game itself follows the arc of the entire Fellowship trilogy sticking closely to the Lego series released alongside the films. As such everything is instantly recognizable if you’ve watched Jackson’s wonderfully constructed trilogy, whether it be the theatrical release or the extended edition collection.
Lego have, rather brilliantly, decided to include the soundtrack from the films themselves, meaning that Lego Aragorn sounds like Mortenson… as does Lego Gandalf seem imbued with the wisdom of Ian McKellen. Yet this all goes hand in hand with the trademark humor of Lego games in general, I mean, who can really take a Lego hobbit all that seriously in the end? At the moment I’m part way through the second film having just reached the battle of Helm’s Deep (for the second time I might add… technology can choose to fail you at the worst of times). So far I’ve seen synchronized horse riding form the Rohirrim and Lego Sean Bean being killed off with a banana to the chest. The delightfully childish sense of humor takes me right back to the time when I made those first Lego creations as a child.
With a wide range of titles on offer form the Star Wars trilogy, to Lego Batman and the news of a Lego Avengers on the horizon, I honestly recommend you pick up a copy today. Sadly Lego LOTR and Batman 2 are the only ones to include actual lines for their characters to speak. Yet this doesn’t diminish the quality of the other titles, so pick up a copy, make sure to watch the wonderful films beforehand that these titles are based on and have a fun night with friends attacking each other until you explode into little blocks.
Keep Watching and Don’t Worry.
GG & Filmland 