From a distance, “The Lego Movie” looked like it could be the worst kind of modern studio filmmaking: literally an adaptation of Danish plastic bricks, sold on name recognition and not much else, and packed with corporate synergy for other Warner Bros. properties. But in the hands of Phil Lord and Chris Miller, it became a surprise joy: a playful, inventive, often hilarious, frequently surprising film that’s as good as any studio animated effort in recent years. READ MORE: 10 Films To See In February The film’s status as a smash hit created a new franchise for the studio: We won’t just see a sequel to the movie in the coming years, but also a martial-arts take with “The Lego Ninjago Movie” later in the year, and a “Cannonball Run” riff with Drew Pearce and Jason Segel’s “The Billion Brick Race.” But first up is a spin-off focused on one of the break-out characters of the first movie, Will Arnett’s douchey, bro-tastic version of Batman, with “The Lego Batman Movie.”
Lord knows the superhero genre could use some fun poked at it and we were psyched to see the film, but while there’s some fun to be had, it can’t help but feel like a missed opportunity. With almost no connection to the previous movie beyond its title character and everyone and everything being made of bricks, “The Lego Batman Movie” opens with The Joker (Zach Galifianakis), desperate to be acknowledged as the arch-nemesis of Batman, teaming with the entire rogue’s gallery of Batman villains (including obscure faces like Egghead and The Condiment King) to destroy Gotham City, which, in one of the film’s best jokes, is built on two planks above an infinite abyss. But once again, Batman saves the day, though the villains get away. He returns home to butler Alfred (Ralph Fiennes), but is otherwise a committed lone wolf, afraid to get close to anyone after losing his parents as a child. But soon, his world turns upside down: New police commissioner Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson) wants the costumed vigilante to team up with the cops, The Joker and the other villains turn themselves in, and our hero accidentally adopts a wide-eyed orphan boy, Dick Grayson (Michael Cera).
The film’s opening suggests that we’re going to get a worthy successor to “The Lego Movie,” with Arnett’s gruff voice delivering a sort of director’s commentary over the studio logos and scene-setting in the kind of self-centered, would-be-gritty manner that we fell in love with the iteration of the character before. Indeed, the opening is generally fun, a frantic action sequence showing the hero at the top of his powers against his entire rogues’ gallery, with lots of good jokes thrown in. A switch into showing the lonely personal life of the hero works well, too, with a long unbroken shot of Batman reheating some lobster thermidor pushing the film hilariously into almost-slow-cinema territory. At its best moments, like this one, the film serves as a truly interesting deconstruction of the iconography and persona of the character, with references and jokes about the character’s 70-odd year history dotted throughout. But unfortunately, while “The Lego Batman Movie” has elements of that, it is not that movie.
Indeed, it’s less a superhero parody than a plain old superhero movie for probably two-thirds of its running time, becoming increasingly conventional and rather less funny as it goes on. For instance, some might try and explain away the film’s reliance, yet-fucking-again, on a portal in the sky for its third-act climax as a joke at the trope in the genre, but for it to be a parody, it would have to, in some way, use it for the purpose of a joke, which it really doesn’t do. Attempts to turn Batman and Joker’s relationship into a sort of anti-rom-com mostly fall flat, in part because the version of the villain here is a rather uninspired one — say what you like about Jared Leto’s juggalo-school-shooter version (like, for instance, that it is very bad), but it was at least distinctive. And though there are a few fun surprises in store, with the villain’s main plan and some of the less-than-canonical characters that enter the proceedings as a result, the film generally lacks the subversiveness and giddy sense of invention of “The Lego Movie,” despite the five screenwriters who aided director Chris McKay (who co-directed the original with Lord & Miller).
In some cases, it even doubles down on the flaws of that film — if you found the action there to be frenetic, overly busy and hard to follow, it’s even more true this time out. And while obviously “The Lego Movie” was explicitly designed to sell toys, it felt less craven there than it does here, where Batman has a million vehicles and bad guys for you to collect. The cast has fun — Arnett’s as good as ever, and Cera is a real joy as the boy who will become Robin — but the talent on board feels a little wasted, with no supporting characters stealing the show in the way that, say, Unikitty did in “The Lego Movie.” And the jokes, which skew, on the whole, much younger than the last film did (no bad thing, given that this is a movie about a Batman made of Lego), sort of run out in the second half, replaced by some unearned sentiment and familiar action-movie beats. “The Lego Batman Movie” is still roughly four hundred million times more enjoyable than “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice,” and hardcore Bat-fans will probably find it an absolute joy.
But those of us who were hoping for the film to be something of an antidote to superhero formula will unfortunately find it adhering much too closely to the playbook. This article is about a list of Lego movies (released and upcoming). For stop motion films made using Lego bricks, see Brickfilm. For the 2014 movie, see The Lego Movie. This is a list of films and TV series made by The Lego Group and/or based on Lego proper. Brickfilms, videos using Lego, have existed since the 1970s. Starting in 2003, Lego officially made their first film partnership to make films based on their toy property. They chose Bionicle as the property and they made a deal with Miramax to make a trilogy of Bionicle films. Over the years, after the trilogy ended, a new trilogy based on Bionicle was planned with Universal Pictures after the Miramax film contract ended and the first film in the new trilogy would be titled Bionicle: The Legend Reborn. But plans broke between Lego and Universal so they cancelled the fifth film in the series.
But they continued on with a film titled Lego: The Adventures of Clutch Powers. The film received positive reviews from fans and critics and after the DVD release, a sequel was set to star Clutch as the hero again. A mini-sequel and a short film based on Clutch Powers were released and plans for a sequel are unknown. In the summer of 2009, Lego made a deal with Warner Bros. to make a film based on their property. It would feature many themes and characters and it would be released as the first Lego film in the theaters. In 2011, Lego released Lego series on TV titled Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu. Later, in 2012, the untitled Lego film was titled "Lego: The Piece of Resistance". Meanwhile, the Ninjago series received fame worldwide and was praised by many fans and critics for its storytelling and plot. The characters on the show had finally developed after the first season and a video game based on the show was released. The show would then be confirmed to exist in the same universe as "Lego Clutch Powers" as in one episode, Clutch Powers would be mentioned by Cole as one of the adventurers who discovered a mystical Snake tooth.
He would then turn it into a trophy. This small easter egg would later be used by fans to speculate that the show and the movie take place in the same world. Later in the year, Ninjago ended its second season still having positive feedback. A new show titled Legends of Chima would air in January 2013. The show was faster and more productive than Ninjago and it received mixed reviews. In the same year, the "Piece of Resistance" film would be renamed "The Lego Movie" by Warner Bros. and it was released in February 2014. The Lego Movie received universal acclaim from Lego fans and critics for its characters, plot, special effects and humor. Many actors from the Lego universe came to reprise their roles in the film. Due to the success of the film, a Ninjago film was announced to be released in 2017, and a "Lego Movie" sequel was announced to be released in 2018. In 2014, Mixels also debuted. In late 2015, Lego Nexo Knights was introduced, replacing Legends of Chima. On February 10, 2017, a spin-off film of The Lego Movie known as The Lego Batman Movie was released in theaters, only this time, the film's story centers around The Lego Movie character and DC Comics superhero, Batman, and his "adopted orphan son" and apprentice sidekick, Robin.