While I'm aware he's been around for far more decades than myself,
it's still really hard to take anything Batman-related seriously
because, let's be honest, no one else seems to even when they seem to
demand your respect. The character, either through federal
intervention, lazy writing or just the simplest of greedy
motivations, has run the gamut of everything from hilariously bad
(Batman and Robin) to horribly bad (Batman vs. Superman) to goofily
awesome (Batman 66) to realistically average (Dark Knight Rises).
Throughout these iterations, it always feels like the creators all
had one thing in common: none of them were actually Batman fans.
Well, for those of you wondering about the creators of Lego Batman,
yes, they are fans and, yes, they are ready and willing to call out
the character for his shaky history. The good news? The result is
freaking awesome.
For all intents and purposes, Lego Batman could possibly lay claim
to not only the best version of the character ever (Will Arnett) but
also the first Batman movie to not take itself too serious to
actually be fun. The characters are interesting, the setting is fun,
the jokes are funny and, underneath the kid-friendly veneer of Lego
blocks and PG dialog, there's an encyclopedic knowledge of Batman and
his history that seems to exist for one very special reason: to make
fun of just how ridiculous he truly is. This isn't the broody Nolan
movies or the wasted Snyder attempt. At its core, its an argument
that, if Batman wasn't such a loner, maybe he wouldn't constantly be
reinventing himself (via numerous different writers and artists). Its
like a Batman movie that tells you that Batman kind of stinks if you
think about it too hard. Take that, nerds!
Unfortunately, and mostly because of its obvious connection to the
superior Lego Movie, not quite everything really lines up when its
supposed to. While the cast, setting and story are near perfect, the
movie falls into a rut near the beginning of the third act due to the
poor animation of what I call “Lego Action” (i.e. what happens
when you try to fluidly animate plastic bricks). And, while its
predecessor went out of its way to cleverly mock crass commercialism
and kid movies as a whole, Batman lacks some of the biting humor that
probably would have pushed this one over than particular ledge of
quality. Hey, they can't all have an annoying song that you don't
mind getting stuck in your head.
As for watching it, are you a Batman fan or a small child? Go watch
this. The fan in you will love the Easter Eggs of days gone by and
the kid in you will love the inherent silliness (sort of like the
franchise as a whole). Are you neither of these things? Go watch
Fifty Shades Darker as punishment for your boring existence.
Chris McKay (Robot Chicken) takes his irreverent comedic talents to
the big screen with The Lego Batman Movie, a movie meant to help
Batman fans get over themselves. When Gotham City, a multicolored
metropolis supported by a flimsy brick bridge over a void that
“smells strangely of dirty underwear”, is attacked by The Joker
(Zach Galifianakis), Batman, with the help of accidentally adopted
son Robin (Michael Cera), must find a way not only to put everything
right, but also help Batman work out his compatibility issues
with...well, everyone. Along the way, Rosario Dawson will be the best
Batgirl ever, Superman (Channing Tatum) will seem like a bigger tool
than he probably is and Jerry Macguire will be openly mocked as an
unintentional comedy. It's like the movie equivalent of a flame war,
but you have to be a comic book fan to either laugh or be offended by
it.
My score: 8/10. In the movie, the Joker does bad things because he
feels neglected and unappreciated by Batman's constant indifference
to him. This movie actually claims bad things happen because Batman's
a jerk. I wasn't aware filmmakers had guts like that. Respect.
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