Review of The Lego Batman Movie (2017) by Matthew O — 10 Jul 2017

Before I talk about the movie, I'd like to briefly share my thoughts of the first LEGO movie. Like everyone else, I surprisingly really enjoyed the first movie. I thought it was going to be a cheap movie-long commercial only to sell more LEGO toys, but it ended up being one of the funniest movies of 2014. It had tons of clever humor, lovable characters, a very heartfelt message, and astounding animation. Who would've thought a movie about LEGOs could be so poignant? I guess my main issue with the movie is that maybe it's a little too funny. Every other second, they throw in a funny joke and it kind of loses its edge as the movie goes on. Regardless, it's still a great movie.

With the success of the first movie, it makes sense to release another LEGO movie featuring one of the characters we knew already, LEGO Batman (Will Arnett), as the main character. He's dealing with the fact that he doesn't have a family and is stuck with this fear of having a family because he's been relishing his life just fighting crime and stopping his enemies by himself, particularly the Joker (Zach Galifianakis). But Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson) is sworn in as the new commissioner of Gotham City and puts an end to Batman's duties fighting crime and have the city police take charge. Meanwhile, the Joker seeks his diabolical plan of teaming up and releasing all villains from various franchises from the Phantom Zone in an attempt to take over Gotham once and for all. Realizing Batman needs help to stop the Joker, he teams up with Barbara, his butler Alfred (Ralph Fiennes), and his sidekick Robin (Michael Cera).

Sounds like a pretty generic plot, but they manage to have a lot of fun with it. There is a ton of metahumor that references the history of Batman. I'm not one of those people who usually likes pop cultural references used for a movie's humor, I feel like it's lazy humor that is clearly pandering to its demographic and is usually done just for the sake of referencing something. However, in this movie, it's done right because it makes sense, it's supposed to be a spoof of the Batman franchise. They've referenced all the movies, the TV shows, the comics, and constantly makes fun of the tropes of the superhero genre. It's really cool that DC has allowed the LEGO studio to poke fun at their media. Though I guess it makes sense, they're both owned by Warner Brothers. Being a movie fan and seeing a lot of these comic book movies coming out, this was a real treat, I was laughing pretty hard. There is this type of hero/villain "relationship" between Batman and the Joker. The Joker feels betrayed that he means nothing to Batman and he was never his true arch nemesis, which is poking fun at the fact that Batman never seems to truly stop him and that the Joker loves fighting with Batman. You can feel a little sympathy for the Joker. This joke carries on throughout the movie and it's pretty hilarious. The animation is just as amazing at the first movie. I love how the CGI looks like it was made as a stop-motion animation out of LEGOs, and the color scheme is really beautiful to look at. You expect animated movies to look beautiful nowadays, so this comes as no surprise. The cast was very enjoyable; Will Arnett as Batman, Michael Cera as Robin, Zach Galifianakis as the Joker, and pretty much everyone else is great.

Where the movie falters for me a little bit is the same problem I had with the first LEGO movie in that there's a little too much humor. You're enjoying the first half of the movie laughing your butt off with every joke they throw in at every second, and then the humor kind of wares off a bit by the second half. It's still funny, it just doesn't have that same effect as it did earlier. That's probably just me, you might find the entire movie consistently funny beginning to end not wanting it to stop. It also does follow a similar formula that first LEGO movie had with, again, the fast humor, that one song that repeats itself throughout the movie, the female side character, over-the-top action sequences, and a heartfelt message at the end. Not to say this is a bad thing by any means, just something that you should know if this is a personal issue.

These are fairly small problems that I expected from the movie anyway. The movie gave exactly what I thought I was going to get and I had a great time watching it. By far the best Batman movie since THE DARK KNIGHT, if you can count this as a Batman movie. Come on, you have to! Sure, it's a spoof of Batman, but it's still Batman! Anyways, I highly recommend you check this movie out, it's definitely worth your time. If you have kids, this is a must see for them, they will LOVE it!

Grade: A-.