Film Review: ‘The Lego Batman Movie’ The plastic universe of Lego once again becomes a stylized satire of the real world in a witty and bedazzling animated superhero caper that dares to mock its own hero's raging ego. The first thing to say about “” is that it’s kicky, bedazzling, and super-fun. The second thing to say about it is that, like “The Lego Movie” (2014), it’s a kiddie flick that’s been made in a sophisticated spirit of lightning-fast, brain-bursting paradox. The movie uses digital animation to create the illusion that it’s set in a herky-jerky universe of plastic Lego bricks — but it has such a kaleidoscopic, anything-goes flow that it trumps the imagination of just about any animated feature you could name. The characters are Lego minifigures with pegs for heads and crudely etched faces that barely move, yet they have more personality than the majority of human actors. Most delicious of all: “The Lego Batman Movie” comes on like a kid-friendly sendup of the adult world, yet there’s a dizzying depth to its satirical observations that grows right out of the spectacularly fake settings, which are hypnotic to look at but have the effect of putting postmodern quotation marks around…everything.
The main satirical target of “The Lego Batman Movie” is Batman himself, voiced (once again) by Will Arnett in a deep low husky rasp, and with a narcissistic personality disorder that’s fantastically out of control. He somehow combines the voice of Clint Eastwood, the conceitedness of Derek Zoolander, and the fast-break observational avidity of Stephen Colbert. “We’re going to punch those guys so hard,” he growls, “words describing their impact are going to spontaneously materialize.” The movie opens with Batman offering the play-by-play of his own film (“All important movies start with a black screen”), followed by a sequence as madly choreographed as anything in an “Indiana Jones” film, as he takes on a screenful of famous and obscure villains led by the rascally but secretly sensitive Joker (voiced by Zach Galifianakis). This Batman, still scarred by the loss of his parents, roots his competitive identity in being a lone avenger, valiant and guarded, with no feelings, no vulnerability, no need for anyone else.
In his bat lair, feasting on microwaved lobster thermidor, watching “Jerry Maguire” as if it were a comedy, he’s the ultimate male who won’t commit, a cowled mask of solo cool whose only loyalty is to Gotham City — but deep down, he’s doing it for his own glory. Ever since Tim Burton’s “Batman,” the movies have acknowledged that the Caped Crusader is a dark freak, but “The Lego Batman Movie” doesn’t just freakify Batman. It subjects him to nothing less than a playfully merciless psychoanalysis. The Joker wants Batman to acknowledge that the two need each other — that they’re the greatest of foes — but Batman won’t even concede that. Instead, he projects the Joker into the Phantom Zone, a metaphysical penal colony in the clouds where only the most epic villains (Sauron, King Kong, the Wicked Witch) are kept. The stage is set for a battle royale, but the real fight is between Batman and his own armored ego. To get over it, he’ll have to agree to form a team — a family — with his tough-love butler, Alfred (Ralph Fiennes);
the eager-geek son, Dick Grayson (Michael Cera), he inadvertently adopted, who soon dons a Robin costume; and the new police commissioner, Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson), a flame-haired enforcer who causes Batman to stare, hypnotized, as choruses of “Died in Your Arms Tonight” flood the soundtrack. The feeling isn’t quite reciprocal. Says Barbara: “We don’t need an unsupervised man karate-chopping poor people in a Halloween costume.” The director, Chris McKay (taking over from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller), is an imagistic wizard who stages this put-on epic with a nearly psychedelic toy grandeur. More than that, though, he gives it a vision. Three years ago, “The Lego Movie” used the building-block uniformity of Lego to tweak the consumerist mania of a society (namely, ours) in which people have become worker-bee drones and nothing ever changes because “everything is awesome.” “The Lego Batman Movie” uses the towering plasticity of Lego to tweak a superhero culture (namely, ours) that pretends to be about nobility but is really about the vain delusion of full-time fantasy.
Your average Pixar comedy thumbs its nose at a great many things, but “The Lego Batman Movie” is a helter-skelter lampoon in the daftly exhilarating spirit of Mad magazine and the “Naked Gun” films. It’s that quick and cutthroat clever and self-knowing. There’s every chance it will soar at the box office, and make no mistake: It deserves to. Film Review: 'The Lego Batman Movie'106 MIN. Account/Project Coordinator (Ad Agency) Executive Director, Aspen Film Associate Director, YouTuber & Gamer Partnerships More Film News from VarietyIn a recent interview with Empire Magazine, half of the directing pair of such movies as The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street and 22 Jump Street and the upcoming spinoff of surprisingly successful Lego Movie, Chris Miller, got to talking about which iterations of the Caped Crusader fans can expect from the Batman-centric movie.So it looks as if we're going to get a full cast of Batman-y fun. With Will Arnett set to reprise his show-stealing role as the voice of Lego Batman, it makes me wonder which other actors will play the other versions and if Batfleck will make an appearance.
So who can we hope to expect? Well, as Miller said he will include all of the film versions, but there are still a bunch of other options from the text. Here are just a few that we think should be included.If we're talking Batman, of course the original Batman must be included! Where would we be if not for Bob Kane? I imagine he'll be an older, wiser Lego with some bumps and bruises, but also with a lot of elderly insight to share.This one is a no-brainer. If Adam West doesn't end up doing the iconic voice of his Batman, well then...I just don't know anymore.This was an absolutely brilliant time for all Batman fans. The darkness and madness that Moore and Miller both brought to the character need to be paid homage in this movie.How great would it be to have Michael Keaton actually voice his Lego Batman? While talking to Entertainment Weekly recently Keaton said that he would be down to play the character again if Tim Burton was directing. Tim might not be behind the camera, but perhaps he'd be willing to make an exception if they're just using his voice!
Kevin Conroy would have to show up, right? I mean, his voice in the animated series is already so recognizable! And then, who knows? Maybe Mark Hamill's Joker isn't totally out of the question.I think that there will have to be some Bat Nipples. How could they not? Especially considering he recently acknowledged and apologized for how strange his run was was at the [Tomorrowland](movie:731011) panel at New York Comic-Con. Maybe a little Lego Clooney that the rest poke a little fun at will be enough to atone for the nips. And what about Val Kilmer? Where would he fit in all of this?This gruff, hoarse voice has got to be involved. That's sort of what Will Arnett sounds like to begin with. I would absolutely love to hear Arnett and Bale's Legos try to out-rasp each other. Two of the greats going head-to-head.So what do you guys think? I know that there are a lot more Batmans (Batmen?) out there so I would love to hear about which ones you hope will be included in this big-budget [The LEGO Movie](movie:376368) spinoff.