Review of The Lego Batman Movie (2017) by António L — 16 Dec 2017

LEGO BATMAN MOVIE is a 2017 Animation Comedy Adventure written and directed by Chris McKay, and stars Will Arnett, Zack Galifianakis, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson and Ralph Fiennes, and is a spin-off of 2014's The Lego Movie.

The film follows the story of Batman/Bruce Wayne (Will Arnett), whether it is the relationship with his arch-nemesis, The Joker (Zack Galifianakis), his adopted son, Robin/Dick Grayson (Michael Cera), his surrogate father Alfred (Ralph Fiennes), his "platonic" love-interest, Barbra Gordon (Rosario Dawson), or his own loneliness, he clearly has issues in battling with "ships.".

Batman is constantly being a narcissist, rock-hard abs, egotistic maniac who is afraid of accepting responsibility. He enjoys playing Gotham's hero and doing things solo until Barbara Gordon succeeds her father as commissioner, and she suggests a closer working relationship. Soon enough, the Joker plans his revenge against the Dark Knight after he was denied to be acknowledged as a main adversary.

The first ten minutes of the movie are fast and exciting in a typical adrenaline-filled Lego-style,and perhaps one of the best action scenes in an animation. It is followed by 80 minutes of jokes, slap-stick and parody of the most iconic superhero DC has ever offered.

The success of this movie is mostly due to the smart, funny writing that seems more like unexpended Robot Chicken episode that understood the batman-lore as well as the Lego approach. The Lego Movie was one of nostalgia, fun product placement and relaunch of the LEGO brand for kids but heavily focused on adults. Like its predecessor, Lego Batman Movie has similar themes; however, it is most certainly focused towards kids with lessons about the importance of family, trust and friendship in a fun, edgy Batman way.

As far as performances, Will Arnett is a great batman, and Zack Galifianakis' Joker, may not seem at first like Mark Hammill's, is suitable for this rendition of theJoker. Ralph Fiennes performs very well, and Michael Cera as theBoy Wonder was just perfect. The only lacking performance was Rosario Dawson's performance and that is primarily due to the character more than the actual the actual performance.

The music by Lorne Balfe is brilliant. It's fast, epic and very Hans Zimmer-esque. For an animation, it is very grandiose, especially in the introduction. The equivalent for "Everything is Awesome," however, was a bit of a let down, and wasn't as effective as expected.

I can fairly say that there are two main weaknesses in the film as a the whole:

Not all jokes land properly. They are presented at such fast pace that one isn't able to process all the jokes. Also, most jokes are very pop-culture and Batman-lore; if a person isn't aware of the culture or lore, then lots of the jokes would be meaningless.

The movie was shot in CGI, but some scenes the shots seem too cartoony and less stop-motion.

Somewhere in Act Two, the movie just comes to a halt. It is intended to provide further development to the character; however, the application just made the film come to a stop that could introduce boredom.

The beatbox of batman (again more focused towards kids) was something I didn't care for.

Overall, Lego Batman Movie, is a very kid-friendly movie and although it lacks the meta feeling in The Lego Movie, but the Batman lore is greatly explored and compensates for that. Could the Lego franchise become the competitor to Pixar? We have to wait and see. This Lego film is light, fun and enjoyable for kids and adults, just stick to popcorn and keep the sugar away to avoid that sugar rush.

Lego Batman Movie gets a B for Batman.