Review of The Lego Batman Movie (2017) by Dana F — 10 Jul 2017

Caution: This is a kids movie. For LITTLE kids, even. I'll start off by saying that my rating does not reflect what a little kid would think of this movie - there is no doubt that kids will love it.

But as an adult, and moreover, an adult that thought "The LEGO Movie" was one of the best films of the decade, I was profoundly disappointed. The movie starts out strong and exactly like it should have - as a parody of a real Batman movie.

Sadly, it soon deviates from this trajectory in favor of a kid-friendly story with a beat-you-over-the-head message about the importance of friendship. The fun and upbeat first half starts to get dull by the middle, and by the third act, the drag is palpable.

This might be the only Batman film that has ever bored me. Though I did laugh several times, for the most part, this movie is just not very funny. The Batman character is still great and stays true to his formulation in the LEGO Movie - sublimely narcissistic and delusional about his own awesomeness.

The setup of the character is inherently funny, and Will Arnett fully delivers on that humor with his appropriately gravelly Batman voice. But some of the joy of the character is lost as the film takes on a more serious note, delving into the Bats' self-imposed solitude and emotional isolation.

.. all of which his Batmannery is really just a cover for. It's hard for someone who is so lonely to be funny! Luckily, the movie throws in some laugh-worthy pop-culture references for the adults, specifically the previous iterations of Batman throughout the years.

The animation is beautiful, but many of the sequences are shot so frenetically that you miss a lot of what's happening on-screen, and I suspect I missed quite a few of the visual gags. Bottom line - this movie had the potential to have people of all ages rolling in the aisles, but it sacrifices humor and novelty in favor of telling a hokey story with a moral that we've seen a million times before.

Even for a kiddie movie, I expect more. The filmmakers just didn't dream big enough by only targeting a limited audience of small kids, without throwing in enough treats to keep the older folks satisfied.