Matt Reviews: The Lego Batman Movie

The fact that the central theme of this movie can be summed up with lyrics from a Michael Jackson song means we’re in for a wild ride.

The Lego Batman Movie is a spin-off of the critically successful comedy-action-nostalgiafest The Lego Movie (is it too early to be calling this the Lego Cinematic Universe?). Will Arnett returns as Batman, portraying the character as an egotistical loner who won’t let anyone get close to him. But his life starts to see some changes: new police commissioner Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson) proposes an idea for the police to team up with Batman to solve Gotham’s rampant crime problem, and Bruce has to deal with raising a new son in the form of Dick Grayson (Michael Cera), who soon becomes Batman’s sidekick Robin. But it’s not just his friends and family Batman’s driving away. Spurned by the Dark Knight not taking their rivalry seriously, the Joker (Zack Galifianakis) hatches a plan to make Batman see him as his greatest nemesis. This involves getting sent to the Phantom Zone to team up with the greatest villains in the universe, which includes the likes of Voldemort, Sauron, and the Daleks. How they wound up in the Phantom Zone is beyond me. But considering this entire universe is set in a child’s imagination, I’ll let it pass.

Batman parodies are a dime a dozen, but what really makes this one stick out is the heart. While this movie does include elements of other Batman parodies – overly dark and brooding, a bit of a sociopath who wantonly puts his son/ward in mortal danger – it also portrays the Caped Crusader as a sympathetic figure, probably more sympathetic than I’ve seen in a while. Behind the bombastic Bat-music and guns that literally shoot merchandise, he’s a fragile little boy who’s so afraid of losing another family that he winds up becoming incredibly toxic to everyone around him. As the movie puts it, Batman’s greatest enemy is himself.

Also, it’s a Batman parody officially created, licensed, and distributed by Warner Bros. and DC. Meaning that these companies are poking fun at their most marketable character. It’s like if Marvel made a Spider-Man movie with a joke that every five years, Uncle Ben gets shot again.

But it’s not just a parody that takes the characters from the comics as they are and puts them in new and funny situations (like the Lego Batman games); it’s created its own version of the Batman universe with their own little changes. Catwoman and Two-Face are black, the Gordons are Hispanic (probably), Barbara Gordon is already an adult and is police commissioner before she becomes Batgirl, Batman has been fighting a full rogues gallery for years and has only just now taken up a sidekick, Robin looks more like Carrey Kelly than Dick Grayson, etc. That’s what sets it apart from other Batman parodies: it’s making fun of pre-existing concepts while also giving us an intriguing interpretation of the Batman mythos.

The Bat-Lens Flares (not pictured: J.J. Abrams)

Like The Lego Movie before it, it’s got jokes galore, ranging from the aforementioned franchise-specific gags (Batman and Robin punching bad guys so hard that words describing their impact spontaneously appear) to more general comedy (a minute-long scene of Batman trying heating up Lobster Thermidor in the microwave for two minutes, only to accidentally type in twenty minutes and having to backtrack and retype the right time). Plenty for the young target audience to laugh at, but also enough gags that only the older crowds would get.

Like I said before, the film has a ton of heart that often goes hand-in-hand with the laughs. The term “Batman Family” has often been used to describe Batman and his allies in crime fighting, like Alfred, Robin, Batgirl, and Bat-Cow (who is totally real and you should look him up). But this movie really captures the essence of the “family” part of the name. Batman treats Robin more like a son, and Alfred is Bruce’s exasperated single parent trying desperately to find answers in parenting books.

And for those of you worried about the Batman-Batgirl romance, fear not: it goes absolutely nowhere and has zero effect on the plot. Bruce is infatuated with Barbara when he first sees her, but it’s completely one-sided. Barbara’s much more mature than him in this version and would rather focus her efforts on fighting crime than dating a man-child who wears a bat mask while laughing at romantic scenes from Jerry Maguire. By the end of the movie, Batman sees Barbara as a “platonic friend who is a girl.” So don’t worry, Bat-fans, it’s not The Killing Joke again. (Seriously, what did a Batman-Batgirl sex scene have ANYTHING to do with The Killing Joke?)

At least this one had more screen time than Jared Leto, am I right?

No, the real romance in this movie is between Batman and the Joker. Yeah, you know how their relationship has always had that subtext where they care about each other as more than enemies (see The Killing Joke or the ending of Arkham City for examples). Well this movie pretty much takes a sledgehammer to that subtext and basically portrays the Dark Knight and Clown Prince as a couple who are having love issues. Only replace the word “love” with “hate”. One of them (Batman) has so many emotional walls that he’s driving the other one (the Joker) to try and prove that he really cares for him, only to get frustrated and deciding to move on. It’s kind of like the Perry-Doofenshmirtz relationship from Phineas & Ferb.

And like The Lego Movie, it looks GORGEOUS. The CGI looks so realistic that at times, it really looks like they filmed this with stop motion and real Legos. Everything is so shiny and bright, and all the sets are so gigantic that it looks like the entire Lego Batman world was built for kids, by kids.

It’s not as laugh-out-loud funny as The Lego Movie, but it’s nowhere less as creative. Batman Master Builds a giant cat/bat mech out of a crumbling building. The final battle pits Batman, his allies, and his rogues gallery against the Joker and an army of villains from other Lego properties. A torn-in-half Gotham City is put back together by stacking Lego minifigures together, flexing abs, and recreating a scene from Jerry Maguire. (Okay, if this movie is set in the same kid’s imagination from The Lego Movie, how many times has he seen Jerry Maguire? He’s like ten.)

The final act drags a bit in places, but that’s probably because there’s no big final twist like in The Lego Movie. Also, for it’s huge cast of characters, there are a lot that are not utilized to their full potential. Namely, the rest of Batman’s rogues gallery. It was so hyped up that the movie would feature a huge assortment of Batman’s enemies – from well-known ones like Scarecrow and Bane, to more obscure foes like Kite Man and Crazy Quilt – but most of them have barely any screen time, little to no individual personality, and spend most of the movie locked up in prison. I mean, come on, they brought back Billy Dee Williams from Batman 1989 to play Two-Face and he probably has – fittingly – two lines in the entire film! I think the freaking Condiment King had more of a presence in the movie!

Batman's greatest enemy: Stains.

(Also, the Bane in this movie is pretty much just the version of the character from The Dark Knight Rises, silly Sean Connery-esque voice and all. There’s nothing really much to say about it except that it’s there, it’s funny, and I’m glad this meme hasn’t completely died out.)

The Justice League are also there, barely. They’re there to show how lonely and distant Batman is from everyone, but then they disappear from the movie altogether. Wouldn’t it have been cooler if the entire Justice League helped out Batman and company in fighting the villain army at the end? That would have hammered home better the theme of “friends are family”, I think. Plus, we would have seen Superman fighting King Kong and the Wonder Twins fighting Agent Smith, thus making my drunken fanfictions canon.

But overall, for a kid-friendly Batman movie, this was pretty damn good. Funny, heartwarming, and with stuff for younger and older audiences. And every scene is filled with callbacks and references to previous iterations of the Dark Knight. You can really tell that the people behind this movie love Batman and care about the world and characters. It’s this kind of effort that I wish certain Warner Bros. execs would put into their DC movies, but I’m not going to name names *coughZACKSNYDERcough*.

Final verdict: 8/10.

Now I’m off to Wal-Mart because the subliminal messages implanted into my brain by this movie are compelling me to buy all of their play sets and toys. Hail Lego. May the brick overlords reign long.