Will Arnett and Michael Cera Warner Bros. Pictures and Warner Animation Group, in association with LEGO System A/S, a Warner Bros. Pictures release.BATMAN and all related characters and elements TM & © DC Comics
The break out character in 2014’s surprise hit The Lego Movie, Will Arnett’s caped crusader is back with his own spin-off. For Dark Knight enthusiasts, The Lego Batman Movie is an embarrassment of riches, skewering every element of the hero’s 80-year history into a 92-minute kebab. And for casual fans and neophytes, it’s only the most fun you’re likely to have at the multiplex all year.
Rapid fire gags begin even before the studio logo appears, lampooning the grim and gritty tenor of the last few live action Bat outings and then diving headfirst into the sugar rush pop art of Lego Gotham. There’s an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to this absurdist extrapolation of Bat mythology, stacking a who’s who of super-villains and more cameos than you can count. But anchoring this three-ring-circus of superheroics is an oddly touching narrative as simple as the film’s colorful set pieces are complex.
Batman is essentially a rock star deity whom everyone in Gotham assumes is happy. But he’s in fact cold and distant, afraid of losing anyone the way he lost his parents. He’s incapable of forging real relationships, either with his surrogate father Alfred (Ralph Fiennes), new ward Dick Grayson (Michael Cera), or his archrival The Joker (Zach Galifinakis), an antagonistic courtship Bats refuses to consummate. The villain goes to insane lengths to prove to Batman that he’s the true yin to his yang, and his machinations make for some of the film’s best sequences and set up the necessary beats for Batman to develop into a real character.
The Lego Batman is a parody not of Batman the comic book character but of the very concept of Batman. Much like Chuck Norris jokes were once de rigeur, the idea of Batman as an unstoppable ninja god who can overcome any obstacle with little prep time has pervaded pop culture. Arnett’s hilarious take makes all the memes and punchlines literal, leveraging this delusional orphan manchild into a cloying but entertaining figure. Anyone who saw The Lego Movie will not be surprised that Arnett is a riot, but he’s also believable as a three dimensional person. If his first ride in the Batmobile was very Gob Bluth, this is surely more Bojack Horseman.
The Lego Batman Movie may not be as transcendent as its predecessor, whose exploration of Hollywood’s reliance on Joseph Campbell mythmaking commands a pop culture gravitas. But this sequel tops it for sheer invention. Everyone who’s ever worked on the property has tried to create the most perfect Batman story ever. Who knew that all they had to do was use Legos to cut to the character’s very core? If Ben Affleck got an early peek at the final cut, we now know why he dropped out of the director’s chair for The Batman. There’s no chance he could possibly top this.
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The Lego Batman Movie
Directed by Chris McKay
Written by Seth Grahame-Smith, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Jared Stern, John Whittington
With voice work by Will Arnett, Rosario Dawson, Michael Cera and Ralph Fiennes
Rated PG for rude humor and some action
104 minutes
Opens in wide release today
