Everyone loves Batman. He is one of the most well-known superheroes of all-time with arguably one of the popular rogues gallery. He’s the focus of plenty of well-known movies, and has a slew of popular TV series centered around him. His mythology runs so deep that it’s incredibly easy to draw inspiration for new material about him. The Batman lore is so extensive that a parody was a long time coming. And this finally comes to fruition with The Lego Batman Movie, which manages to effectively lampoon just about everything that’s so beloved about the World’s Greatest Detective.
A spin-off of The Lego Movie with Will Arnett returning to voice his wildly popular incarnation of Bruce Wayne, the film takes place right after Commissioner Gordon retires and his daughter Barbara (Rosario Dawson) takes over. The Joker (Zach Galifianakis), in the midst of an attack on Gotham City, is told by Batman that, contrary to popular belief, he does not consider him to be his arch-nemesis. Looking to prove Batman wrong, the Joker turns himself in as part of a larger scheme to get himself trapped in the Phantom Zone, so he can release some of the world’s most notorious villains, including Lord Voldemort, Sauron, and King Kong. This leads Batman to team up with Barbara and his new sidekick Robin (Michael Cera), as well as getting assistance from his loyal butler Alfred (Ralph Fiennes) to stop Gotham’s deadliest attack yet.
The film has the same quick-paced, manic energy as The Lego Movie. Almost every line of dialogue is a quirky exchange or hilarious one-liner. Like The Lego Movie, a character will make a statement, only for someone else to immediately question their logic or provide some sort of quick commentary as to what they’ve just said. And like The Lego Movie, it doesn’t really linger too much on one point and quickly moves on to the next scene.
Though if there’s one slight improvement Batman makes over The Lego Movie, it’s that the dialogue feels a little more “adult” and a little more quotable. Most of The Lego Movie’s dialogue is based around exchanges and many of the lines spoken in that movie are overly simplistic statements. While this was done for a reason and works exceptionally well, The Lego Batman Movie - despite being set in the same universe and still accessible to the entire family - feels a bit less like a children’s film and feels even more so like the product of a group of people with extensive comedy backgrounds, which is aided by the casting of Galifiankis and Cera, as well as the many cameos from many other comedians such as Eddie Izzard and Conan O’Brien.
However, the movie still manages to have plenty of heart, just like The Lego Movie. While Batman is incredibly popular, he does have his share of detractors. The main criticism those may have about the World’s Greatest Detective is the fact that he can almost seem too great. Essentially to the point that he’s perfect, despite the fact he’s supposed to be one of the darker, more complex heroes around. In other incarnations, Batman always has a plan for everything, manages to foresee many of his enemies’ moves, and is able to do so almost singlehandedly, despite not having any true super powers, other than just being highly intelligent and having access to a wide array of gadgets.
The Lego Batman Movie makes this criticism the focal point of the entire movie, with Batman’s claims of enjoying isolation being a huge driving factor for many of the film’s plot points. Like The Lego Movie, this spinoff focuses on themes such as the importance of friendship and family, and applies them to the normally grim, gritty hero. It’s a little less sweet in terms of how it handles these topics, but still manages to channel this energy into some really effective jokes that also have a message behind them.
The biggest aspect of Batman’s lore that’s focused on through the entire movie is Batman’s relationship with The Joker. In this film, the running joke is that Batman and Joker are so obsessed with one another that they’re almost like a couple. When you talk to a diehard Batman fan, many will gleefully go into long monologues as to how Batman and the Joker are so obsessed with one another that they need each other to make the World’s Greatest Superhero and World’s Greatest Supervillain. Lego Batman takes this concept one step further to include many relationship-based conversations, with the Joker’s dialogue echoing many of Batman’s fans. The analogies are far from subtle, though they are handled incredibly tastefully to make for some hilarious exchanges between Batman and the Joker.
Many other aspects of Batman’s mythology are lampooned here, with many blatant references made to almost all previous Batman movies, as well as getting in a few jabs at the campy Adam West TV series. We get to see many of Batman’s villains, including a few so obscure they only had life in the Adam West series and are “worth a Google search.” Even Batman’s relationship with the Justice League is touched upon here (with Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill as the only other Lego Movie voice actors returning as Superman and Green Lantern, respectively), with Batman viewed as so dark and gritty compared to the other members of the League that it’s implied they don’t always want him around. The film pulls no punches and manages to take as many shots at the character as it can, and address as much as possible.
The film is certainly ambitious though unfortunately, at times it tries to cram in so much that it does tend to feel a bit longer than The Lego Movie. Both movies run at exactly 100 minutes. Yet, while The Lego Batman Movie at first moves at the same incredibly quick pace that The Lego Movie moves, it does tend to drag on slightly heading into the third act. At the sixty-minute mark, it appears as if it’ll wrap up a little quicker than The Lego Movie. However, once we actually get into the Phantom Zone material, some of the scenes surrounding this period of time tend to go on a bit longer than they need to, with some of the family-based dialogue being a bit too schmaltzy, not feeling in line with the rest of the film’s overall tone, as well as the plans surrounding taking the Joker down feeling a bit too dragged out. It picks right back up once we actually get into the final act, but it could have easily compressed the last forty minutes into about twenty-five minutes or so.
However, this is more of a minor complaint, as there’s still plenty to enjoy in this film. The voice acting is still top notch, with Will Arnett once again doing a phenomenal job as the titular character, once again channeling the character’s dark, isolated nature into that of a self-centered egomaniac. He does such an effective lampoon of the character that you could easily watch ten movies centered around his parody. Michael Cera is easily the most fun addition to the cast, taking on the “overly cheery optimist” role occupied by Chris Pratt in The Lego Movie. He plays Robin so wide-eyed and innocent that he’s blissfully unaware when he’s getting insulted or mocked, and plows through the roasting with such a gleeful energy that he brings some of the film’s biggest laughs.
Zach Galifianakis is also a wonderful addition, taking the obsessive campiness of the Joker and turning him into someone who’s in a needy relationship. The film makes sure he’s not just a one-note character though, and manages to portray him with hints of redeeming, sympathetic qualities at times, making for a fun, engaging villain to watch. Ralph Fiennes also gets to have a little fun for once as Alfred, portraying him as someone with more tricks up his sleeve than meets the eye, sometimes to ridiculous lengths. Between this and his leading role in Grand Budapest Hotel a few years back, the normally serious Fiennes proves he has a natural talent for comedy. The only slightly underwhelming part of the cast is Rosario Dawson. While she’s a great actress and doesn’t do a bad job, she plays it the most straight of the main cast, and it would have been nice if they allowed her to have a little more fun with the role, as she’s sometimes portrayed as being a bit of a stick in the mud at times.
Overall, The Lego Batman Movie may drag a bit at times, but it’s still a wildly funny parody of the famous superhero. The film contains some hilarious voice-work with such manic delivery that makes for many quotable lines and hilarious exchanges. It manages to tackle many of the most famous aspects of Batman’s mythology while still maintaining almost just as big of a heart as The Lego Movie had. Just like the original film, everything is still awesome in the Lego world.
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