The weekend warriors starting February 7, 2014 includes Vampire Academy, The LEGO Movie, and The Monuments Men. Box Office Battlefield is a recurring rundown of all the movie releases for the weekend. Every week, movie studios select candidates to enter the glorious battlefield for your hard-earned dollars. Box Office Battlefield is here to help you decide which movie(s) will take priority over the others.

Last weekend, Ride Along scored its third consecutive W, making this very awkward for Focus Features who debuted in third with That Awkward Moment.

Can a bunch of brick people upset Ice Cube? Will a bunch of whiny, teenage vampires suck the life of the box office? Or will the big George bring out the big guns with his all star cast? If you build it they will come. This is the Box Office Battlefield:

The LEGO Movie (Rated PG) 100 min – (Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller) Starring Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Ferrell, Morgan Freeman, Will Arnett, Liam Neeson, Craig Berry, and Alison Brie

Synopsis: An ordinary LEGO minifigure, mistakenly thought to be the extraordinary MasterBuilder, is recruited to join a quest to stop an evil LEGO tyrant from gluing the universe together. (Watch the trailer)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: Critics – 97% • Audience – 92%

As one of my most anticipated movies of the year, The LEGO Movie delivers on all fronts. It’s hilariously creative, absolutely a joy to behold, and has so much energy and enthusiasm that it definitely calls for repeat viewings. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller build a perfect world filled with laughs at every corner, and suck you into their awesome LEGO world. The visuals and animation are stunning and the 3D is definitely worth it. All of the voice actors are great and not a single moment will you feel bored or uninterested in the wacky hijinks these characters get themselves into. SEE IT!

The Monuments Men (Rated PG-13) 118 min – (Directed by George Clooney) Starring George Clooney, Matt Damon, John Goodman, Bill Murray, and Cate Blanchett

Synopsis: An unlikely World War II platoon are tasked to rescue art masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their owners. (Watch the Trailer)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: Critics – 33% • Audience – 58%

When the film got pushed back to 2014, originally slated for December 18, 2013, one becomes a bit suspicious. What could the studios be hiding when they have such an all-star cast of A-listers in a dramatic war film? Sadly The Monuments Men fails to do anything interesting or inventive and doesn’t give the actors room to play. The film is rather bland and doesn’t have the charisma you would come to expect from these superstars. It’s rather unfortunate, especially as a George Clooney written and directed movie. RENT IT!

Vampire Academy (Rated PG-13) 104 min – (Directed by Mark Waters) Starring Zoey Deutch, Lucy Fry, Danila Kozlovsky, and Gabriel Byrne

Synopsis: Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, half human/vampire, guardians of the Moroi, peaceful, mortal vampires living discretely within our world. Her legacy is to protect the Moroi from bloodthirsty, immortal Vampires, the Strigoi. This is her story. (Watch the Trailer)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: Critics – 9% • Audience – 79%

Don’t waste your time on this made for TV movie shlock-fest. It actually might have done well as a TV show, but to our advantage we won’t have to endure another vampire show promoted yearly and we can just forget about Vampire Academy after it leaves theaters in a few weeks when it tanks. There is nothing slightly entertaining or new in this Scooby-Doo meets Twilight meets Harry Potter fantasy, action comedy. Already it just sounds like too much. And don’t let the marketing fool you with their ploy to draw you in with the writer of Heathers and the director of Mean Girls, it’s a trap! SKIP IT! (Read the full review)

Ride Along’s tank has to be empty by now. Vampire Academy is too niche to even bother to think that it will draw an audience of more than $8 million. The Monuments Men has not gotten that much press to even foresee it standing a chance against the likes of Frozen or Lone Survivor. And then we have The LEGO Movie, a super-powered, hilariously fun animated film that is perfect for children and adults alike. It hits all quadrants and is the energy moveigoers need with such a pitiful January. Plus no one wants to see The Nut Job, except maybe Kayden Kross. (Get it? (」ﾟﾛﾟ)｣) So as it stands, I believe the victor for this weekend shall be:

Winner: The LEGO Movie

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Movie synopses courtesy of IMDb.com and Tomatometer Scores from Rotten Tomatoes

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