Under the direction of Robot Chicken’s Chris McKay, Arnett relentlessly prods at Batman with a welcome helping of BoJack Horseman-brand misery and narcissism.
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Batman is among the most oversaturated characters we have, but The Lego Batman Movie is one of the few films to really dig deep into him without getting distracted.
Still, if not everything is awesome this time around, much of it comes appreciably close – especially in the giddy first half-hour, which gleefully spoofs every live-action Batman movie ever made while briskly dispensing with some of the origin story’s familiar beats.
Despite underutilizing many characters and what I felt was an uneven second half, it’s still easy for me to recommend The LEGO Batman Movie to both LEGO fans and DC/Batman fans. Legos. This mini-Dark Knight might not be the Batman we deserve, but he’s certainly the one we need right now. Alone in his cavernous abode, he munches on his crustaceans, plays a little solo guitar, and watches one of his favorite chick flicks, er, movies – yup, “Jerry Maguire”. An issue that he has not come to terms with is the death of his parents when he was a child.
Batman is being challenged on several fronts.
Cast: Will Arnett, Ralph Fiennes, Rosario Dawson, Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera, Channing Tatum, Mariah Carey, Billy Dee Williams, Conan O’Brien and Eddie Izzard. The original songs, on the other hand, are less motivational and more humorous. Is it OK to feel sorry for a bad guy? Still, there are some who believe that since they all reflect various sides of Batman’s personality and twisted mind, it is still a film about him even without showing the actual Batman that much. “It’s just a different message than what I wanted to do”, McKay says. “I like to fight around”.
There’s something of a Deadpool flavor to the picture’s self-awareness, which it announces from the opening frames – I mean literally the opening frames, before the production company logos even, with our Batman (Will Arnett) growling, over a black screen, “Black”. A new police chief, Barbara Gordon (voiced by Rosario Dawson), causes trouble for Batman when she explains her desire for the police to lawfully work with Batman rather than have Batman patrol Gotham by himself. Maybe relying on a masked vigilante savior isn’t the best strategy; it’s gotta be a team effort.
The idea is simple – Batman is a loner, and he likes it.
Meanwhile, two key people are trying to soften Batman up, in a personal sense.
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While Ninjago might not necessarily have the same broad appeal as something like Batman does (it doesn’t), it still looks kind of cool, and highlights what is truly the forgotten great accomplishment of these Lego films: The animation.
