The Lego Batman Movie is a Winning Parody of the Fan-Favourite Vigilante

The Lego Batman Movie Review

It’s only two months into 2017 but already, The Lego Batman Movie stomps onto the scene as one of this years exceptional animated offerings. Director Chris McKay’s movie is chock full of DC easter eggs and the screenplay is full of nearly non-stop laughs. Poking fun at recent box office failures and the Superhero craze that shows no signs of waning, The Lego Batman Movie is a winning parody of superhero cliches and tropes with a hilarious script and a formidable cast of brilliant comedians and actors lending their voices to some more very famous faces from the DC universe and pop-culture.

The premise of the movie is that Batman, fed up with being hassled by the Joker (Zach Galifianakis, Keeping up With the Joneses) wants to blast his bothersome butt up into The Phantom Zone, to get him away from Gotham for good. The dynamic between Batman and the Joker is a “hate” story. The Joker constantly tries to get Batman to admit that he (the Joker) is the greatest arch-enemy Batman’s ever had. There’s a certain whine and desperation to Galifianakis’s Joker and there are moments when the maniacal clown is downright puppy dog sad when trying to ‘convince’ Batman that they despise one another. The Joker’s need for hate validation is ridiculous in the funniest way, and a new way to portray a very old clown. 

Is not so serious. Is also not Jared Leto.

Will Arnett stars as the gravely-voiced ever-brooding Batman. His impression of the caped crusader plays off previous performances such as Christian Bale in The Dark Knight trilogy. Here, Arnett plays Batman as a tormented but also deeply egotistical. His dry commentary start up the moment the opening credits come up on the screen. Arnett’s combination of what makes Batman strong and vulnerable is spot on in even the smallest of dialogue exchanges with the other characters.

We get to peer into the behind the scenes happenings of the moody vigilante’s life. This lone wolf, it turns out, has carved out for himself one lonely, sad, little existence. Watching his little brick-person self standing in the glow of his microwave staring at his plate of lobster revolving with the tell-tale hum, is both heartbreaking and hilarious. His isolation in his massive Wayne manor is poignant. It’s up to Alfred, ever the dutiful manservant and a happy-go-lucky orphan boy to bring Batman out of his funk and get him to start living. Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson) takes up the post as Police Commissioner and challenges Batman’s solo hero tactics--urging for him to instead, work alongside her and her officer as partners.

Bruce gives Gilderoy Lockhart a run for his money in THIS tux.

Before Batman can zap the Joker to the Phantom Zone he first needs to his hands on Superman’s Phantom Zone Ray Gun. Channing Tatum plays Superman as a hunky and chummy guy who’s entirely aware of how charismatic and likable he is. The Kryptonian is blissfully unaware of how much Batman resents him, and the little references in the script to 2016’s abysmal Batman Vs. Superman Dawn of Justice add another layer of hilarity to The Lego Batman Movie.

Not long after discovering he’s now a “dad” to a giddy preteen boy, Batman sets his sights on grabbing the Ray Gun from The Fortress of Solitude. It turns out that Supes is hosting a Justice League rave party, one that suckerpunches Batman’s pride enough to make the guy need to have a dozen more Tuxedo Dress Up Parties(!) to soothe his hurt feelings.  Batman is made even more aware of how he’s on the outs with his fellow supers, a fact that makes him even more driven to snatch The Phantom Zone Ray Gun straight out from under Superman’s nose. Errr or at least, coerce his very “expendable” newly adopted son, Dick Grayson into doing the deed. 

Robin masters the art of the glitzy getup!

The Lego Batman Movie is unquestionably a star-studded cast, with the likes of Conan O’Brien voicing The Riddler, Jenny Slate voicing Harley Quinn and Ralph Fiennes as everyone’s favorite British butler, Alfred. One of the most outstanding of the bunch is Robin. Voiced by Michael Cera and wearing enormous bottlecap eyeglasses (to turn his adorkable factor up to 11) Robin is the heart and soul of the Bat-Team. Taking a different route from the salty and cocky teen Robin in Teen Titans, in The Lego Batman Movie his character is in the tradition of the gleeful go-getter and gymnastically-gifted Boy Wonder from the Batman days of old. Nothing like those spandex-clad superheroes of the 1960s, baby! Riiiiip! Panty-shorts!    

What Batman doesn’t anticipate is that the Joker has a trick up his sleeve after all, and no intention of staying in his galactic prison. The Joker incites a jail break when he smashes the barrier that keeps him and the other pop-culture criminals trapped. After these Phantom Zone escapees such as Sauron from Lord of the Rings, Voldemort, and King Kong wreck havoc on the metropolis, Batman realizes that sometimes it takes a city to save a city! His one-man-show just isn’t gonna cut it when all these baddies are sabotaging Gotham all at once.

Bat Team + 1 seat = full house.

Just about everyone in the cast gets a moment to shine as their character, but because the roster of comedians and actors is so humongous they really make more a of a brief cameo than anything. Ellie Kemper as the chipper light-up Phantom Zone “warden” Phyllis is one of the most delightful characters of the bunch. Kemper works her Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt energy and enthusiasm into this very small role. These iconic superheros and supervillians have many little moments that make a big impression! In this rare case The Lego Batman Movie manages to handle a diverse and sprawling cast in a way that doesn’t distract or detract from the movie! If anything, it reinforces what a HUUUUUGE world it is, that Batman is a part of. Really, it reinforces that Lego master builder mentality that there are literally limitless possibilities. Woohoo!

Repeat after Barbara: Platonic. :-P

The animation in The Lego Batman Movie is superb! It’s not crude and blocky, and it doesn’t rely on overused 3-D gimmicks. It’s a movie that’s more substantial than Angry Birds, Spongebob, and Minions movies --and other like sugar-high fueled escapist kiddie fare-- and it manages to be effortless, bubbly, fun. It’s a true testament to the animators that they’re able to convey such a range of emotions in these little plastic bricks of people. The run time is perfect for those with short attention spans and for people out there who have felt superhero movies as of late have been rather ho-hum. The plot here is streamlined and not as bloated and convoluted as some of the other box office failures. The moral of the story that asking for help does not mean weakness, and that creating your own family is the way to have a real shot at happiness is simple enough, but a recurrent and enduring theme nonetheless. Even though the target audience is largely elementary schoolers, The Lego Batman Movie doesn't rely on cheap toilet jokes or gross out humor-- sure there's mentions of "butts" and "farts" but it’s in no way annoying or overdone. The satire is fun-spirited and bound to crack up the most die-hard of fans to the most apathetic (errr forced parental chaperones?)  viewers. 

all images from the IMDB