Batman has become one of the most
overexposed characters in recent memory. Whether it be in comics, movies or
television, the Dark Knight has no shortage of stories written about him, but
ever since Frank Miller gave him the ultra gritty makeover in 1988, and The
Dark Knight permanently reshaped the cinematic landscape for better or
worse in 2008, the popular consensus seems to be that Batman should only be this
dark, brooding, overly serious character despite the fact that he's a
billionaire who fights crime while dressed as a flying rodent and whose arch
nemesis is a clown. While some of the grim elements of Batman have always kind
of been there, a lot of people tend to forget that the franchise wasn't always
so stuck up its own ass and had an element of self-awareness. Comparing the
silver age comics and the 60's Adam West show to Batman: The Animated Series
and the Nolan trilogy is almost a night and day difference. That self-conscious
lampooning is what made Batman one of the best parts of The Lego Movie,
a movie whose entire modus operandi was pure, unadulterated joy with meta humor
coming out the wazoo. But is this incarnation of the Caped Crusader enough to
carry his own movie?
Our story begins with a routine
battle between Batman (Will Arnett) and The Joker (Zach Galifianakis), who has
assembled an army of every single criminal in Gotham City, including D-listers
like Polka-Dot Man and The Condiment King. (I swear these are real Batman
villains. I checked.) Batman saves the day, but The Joker starts having a
personal crisis when he finds out that Batman doesn't consider him his greatest
enemy. (That honor goes to Superman.) Batman is really committed to the
lone wolf schtick here, to the point where he rejects the help of everyone from
his butler Alfred (Ralph Fiennes) to the newly adopted wide-eyed orphan Dick
Grayson (Michael Cera) to Gotham's new police commissioner Barbara Gordon
(Rosario Dawson). But when The Joker returns from the Phantom Zone with a new
gang of villains, including Lord Voldemort, Sauron, King Kong, Jaws, the Wicked
Witch of the West and a bunch of Daleks, Batman has to put his personal baggage
aside and finally learn to work with others.
The biggest obstacle this movie has
to overcome is, of course, living up to its predecessor. I've already went on
about the perils of comparing adaptations to their source material, but I have
a similar mentality when it comes to sequels and spin-offs, although it's a bit
more inevitable in some cases. In this particular case, The Lego Movie
was such a massive, unexpected success that was so much better than it had any
right to be. There's a very good reason why I included its poster in the
background of this blog: Not only was it really clever, funny and well
animated, but it had a lot of unexpected layers, from its plot being a satire
of the hero's journey formula and chosen one trope that storytellers have been
using for centuries, to its main conflict being centered around the different
philosophies of Lego construction (following the instructions vs. building
whatever you want) without saying that one is inherantly better than the other.
The world of this series consists of a bunch of different segregated worlds all
based on different Lego sets, so setting a movie exclusively in one of
those worlds runs the risk of making its
identity as a 90 minute toy commercial a lot more naked. But the goal of The
Lego Batman Movie doesn't seem to be so much to sell toys as it is to take
the piss out of this dark, morose, overly brooding lone avenger version of the
character that we've been saddled with for the past fifteen years or so.
The movie does keep up the spirit of
the original in that it feels like the writers got inspiration from watching a
bunch of kids play with Legos on the mother of all sugar highs, except this
felt like the result of repeating that experiment with just the Batman set. The
animation quirks are carried over from the previous film too, from the frame
rate being dropped to make it look like stop-motion, to every single piece of
the universe including water, smoke and even blur lines being built from Legos.
There are even moments that remind us that Batman is a Master Builder. But this
movie is overall a continuation of their one joke version of Batman, who was a
brooding, egocentric jerk who takes himself way too seriously, constantly
brings up past traumas, and refuses to work with others. If he weren't made of
plastic, it'd be pretty hard to tell him apart from Christian Bale or Ben
Affeleck. This is highlighted when Barbara Gordon literally spells out
everything wrong with this character with a PowerPoint presentation.
The best way they dress down this
character is by presenting him with things that used to be staples of the
franchise. In keeping with loner get-up, Hollywood has wholly rejected the very
notion of sidekicks like Robin and Batgirl, when their role in the comics was
to keep Batman tethered to Earth. Robin in particular is a great comedic foil,
with Cera playing him up like an overly enthusiastic geek attending Comic Con
for the first time, much to his adopted dad's annoyance, and is overjoyed by
the idea of starting a new family as opposed to Batman's pathological avoidance
of the notion. Barbara serves a similar purpose, except she's the straight
woman who insists that Batman cooperate with the Gotham police force instead of
just running around and “karate chopping poor people in a Halloween costume.”
He eveen refuses to acknowledge the rivalry between him and The Joker. Of
course the whole facade is just a defense mechanism. His biggest fear is
forming relationships because he knows what it's like to lose someone you love
and doesn't want to go through that pain again. He may cover it up by basking
in the praise and adoration of Gotham's citizens and partying hard as Bruce
Wayne, but that loneliness is what eats away at him, not his thirst for justice
or his desire to stop evil. He even looked genuinely stung when he found out
that the Justice League threw a party and didn't invite him.
While the humor may be skewering a
bit young for some people (this is a kid's movie after all), the writers still
manage to pack the script to bursting with references to satisfy Batman fans of
all stripes. Remember how I said that nearly every Batman villain ever makes a
cameo, even the really lame ones? That only scratches the surface. The script
is a veritable gatling gun of jokes coming at you at a frenetic pace and
callbacks to every incarnation of the Dark Knight imaginable, from the
incredibly obscure, to stuff that fans have been poking fun at for years. It
should come as no surprise that the director, Chris McKay, is the co-creator of
Robot Chicken.
The voice cast also does a fantastic
job. Will Arnett absolutely kills it. Not only does he have the perfect comedic
timing and delivery for this role, but much like his gratest role, Bojack
Horseman, he also understands the more tragic side of his character and knows
just the right amount of humor to inject into those vulnerable moments. Zach
Galifianakis makes a much better Joker than I expected, with his performance
being reminiscent of the eccentricities of Mark Hamill and Caesar Romero.
Michael Cera, like I said before, brings a lot of innocent, wide-eyed
wonderment to Robin, but I can understand if he starts to get on people's
nerves. There's also a truckload of cameos way to numerous to list here, but
let's just say that Batman geeks will have a hoot over who they picked to play
Two-Face.
Overall, The Lego Batman Movie
is an absolute triumph. I always thought a good sense of humor was something
that the superhero blockbusters have been lacking lately, and it's great to see
that Deadpool isn't the only movie that agrees. Definitely bring the
kids for this one. Honestly, if The Lego Ninjago Movie is anywhere near as good
as this, and if I were in charge of franchise management for Marvel or Star
Wars, I'd start getting a little worried.
8/10
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