“All important movies begin with a black screen.”
“I can only imagine he’s going home right now to party the night away.” as the theme of awesome in the Lego World sets you up for what looks like an action packed Batman movie. However as The Lego Batman Movie starts off on such a high note, it quickly corrects itself to attune to the The Brick Dark Knight’s color and tone of choice. Black. Bruce Wayne, is very much alone in his manor on an island laughing at “You had at me hello” It’s also a fun note to say that this movie is pleasantly self aware which brings us to the best beginning narrative in any comedic film. “All important movies begin with a black screen.”
It’s in The Lego Batman Movie that we see our comic book heroes suddenly become relatable with the power of silly comedy. Not following the DC universe to the letter, we see Batman (Will Arnett) whose narcissism is as deep as his vocal chords; The Joker (Zach Galifianakis) without Mark Hamill’s devilish charm but substituted with a incessant need of Batman’s approval ; an orphaned Dick Grayson (Michael Cera) who, true to Robin’s legacy, desperately wants Batman to adopt him and be the source of his hopes and dreams; accompanied by Barbara Gordon ( Rosario Dawson ) a massive Batman fangirl and of course Alfred ( Ralph Fiennes ) who seems to be the only sane character trying to be normalcy but often taken for granted. We see a motley crew of villains and villainesses from weird to nostalgic Batman times.
There’s an impeccable stellar cast even for tiny roles. You’ll hear the voices of Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Billy Dee Williams and more talents from comedy shows you love. And they are filled with a lot of verbal puns, visual gags and a great recycling of the classic Batman from the 1960’s. The Lego Batman really does pay homage to the series in a remarkable way.
“It’s a work of blatant commercialism that we’re okay with seeing plainly because it pokes fun at what Batman represents ( Nipple suit Batman included.) “
Partly why the Lego Batman Movie is quite possibly the funniest superhero movie after Deadpool comes down to one thing. It takes a film riddled with brands, pop culture references not limited to Warner Bros. other IP’s and puts it all together deconstructing the brooding bat yet reconnecting everything else in the process. In a span of an hour and 45 minutes, we see Batman having to learn to let people in his life even if those people can’t help but put Gotham City in jeopardy. It’s a work of blatant commercialism that we’re okay with seeing plainly because it pokes fun at what Batman represents ( Nipple suit Batman included.) The film’s writers, notably Chris McKenna from Community have done a great job on this. The same tonality from The Lego Movie is retained.
Without its larger meta twist from the first Lego Movie, there are parts in brick Batman that could wear thin. However, the Lego Batman movie still retains a childlike wonder that you’ll appreciate when you realize that this is the only Batman film that has given Robin/Dick Grayson the most amount of love and screen time while incorporating everything about Robin you know from the 60’s, slim shorts included.
It’s a childlike wonder that even the harshest of adults could come to love, which is saying that’s a lot more than what Batman has for Superman. The Lego Batman movie seems to be a clicking success of a superhero film from the DC and Warner Bros. Camp. Hopefully it won’t be the only one, this year.
