As gateway drugs go, “The Lego Batman Movie” is pretty irresistible. It’s silly without being truly strange or crossing over into absurdity. Along the way it pulls off a nifty balancing act: It gives the PG audience its own Batman movie (it’s a superhero starter kit) and takes swipes at the subgenre, mostly by gently mocking the seriousness that has become a deadening Warner Bros. default. “The Lego Batman Movie” can’t atone for a movie as grindingly bad as the studio’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” which stars Ben Affleck as the Gotham City brooder, but at least someone on that lot gets the joke. The cast and crew of “The Lego Batman Movie” sustain that joke admirably, filling in its 104-minute running time with loads of busy action, deadpan humor, visual comedy, reflexive bits and an overfamiliar story line. It features the usual cavalcade of marquee-ready talent (Rosario Dawson, Conan O’Brien, Mariah Carey), the comic and less so, but owes much of its pleasure and juice to Will Arnett, who voices Batman.
The movie puts a goofy spin on the Batman saga, but it squeezes its brightest, most sustained comedy from Mr. Arnett’s hypnotically sepulchral voice, which conveys the entire bat ethos — the Sturm und Drang, the darkness and aloneness, the resoluteness and echoiness — in vocal terms. It’s blissfully self-serious, near-Wagnerian and demented.Mr. Arnett anchors the movie, though he’s nicely book-ended by Michael Cera, as the excitable pip-squeaker Dick Grayson, and Ralph Fiennes, who voices Alfred, Bruce Wayne’s trusted butler and operational aide-de-camp. Some of the wittiest moments happen early, before the story machinery starts humming, and involve Batman-Bruce wandering his mansion in his fetishlike mask and a silky red bathrobe, nuking his lobster dinner and giggling solo at “Jerry Maguire.” If Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” cycle suggests that Batman teeters on actual madness, “The Lego Batman Movie” ups the ante by insinuating that he has fully settled into near-Howard Hughes eccentricity.
Not too much nuttiness, mind you, just enough to keep the jokes pinging and zinging, at least until the story amps up. Most of that involves the Joker (Zach Galifianakis), who’s not the transgressive opposition but a whining smiler desperately yearning for Batman’s attention. This isn’t as funny or engaging as the filmmakers seem to think, partly because a child-friendly Joker can’t have the scariness or anarchic threat that distinguishes this character’s better iterations. (He can’t compete partly because he’s nowhere near as loopy as this Batman.) Mostly, the Joker is the master of ceremonies for the rest of the villainous horde, a motley crew of creatures that includes Harley Quinn (Jenny Slate), who’s mostly a trauma trigger for “Suicide Squad,” another supersplat.As an object, “The Lego Batman Movie” looks as good as its predecessor, “The Lego Movie.” This one is similarly shiny and bright, though sometimes as teasingly dark as Batman. Even when the story drags, which it does as the action grows frenetic, the shiny and bright bits catch the eye.
As in the first movie, the character design does much of the most meaningful work because it conveys part of what’s enjoyable about Legos, including their smooth-to-the-touch plastic surfaces and knobby bits (studs in Lego lingo), which you can almost feel in your hands as you watch. One of the satisfactions of Legos is their touch sensation, a sense memory that’s imprinted on brains, too. Basing movies on kiddie playthings is ingenious: It turns every Lego brick into a Rosebud sled, a portal into childhood. That makes resistance fairly futile, or at least tough, especially when the crew ushering you into the past is up to the task, as is the case here. Chris McKay directed this one, working from a jammed script by Seth Grahame-Smith, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Jared Stern and John Whittington. (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who directed “The Lego Movie,” helped produce “The Lego Batman Movie.”) The whole vibe is, as the first “Lego” movie insisted with its deliriously catchy anthem, awesome, so, relax, enjoy the show, go with the flow.
I mean, who hates Legos? Isn’t that like hating childhood? Well, of course not, though that gets to what’s frustrating about these movies, which are so insistently good-natured and relentlessly hyped that it feels almost churlishly old-school raising even modest objections to the fact that — in addition to being, you know, fun — they’re also commercials. It’s not new or news that movies have long sold stuff, including studio tie-ins and toys, as Walt Disney explained by example decades ago, though, like Pixar, he was also in the business of storytelling and not merely corporate-brand storytelling and building. Certainly there are worse things in life and definitely worse movies, including the “Transformers” blockbusters, which sell both toys and war.So, as far as commercials go, “The Lego Batman Movie” is just swell. But because its primary function, outside of making bank, is to extend two brands — Lego and Batman — it can’t help but disappoint. One reason that the first “Lego” movie worked as well as it did is that its novelty and trippier moments conveyed a sense of play and unboundedness, which is part of the appeal of Legos themselves.
(It’s the better movie and ad.) The Batman story, by contrast, proves to be a prison, one its creators never escape. They toss around the superstuff and giggle at the legend, but they’re finally confined by the superhero story and its corporate sanctity. It’s a bottom-line bummer.NYCC 2016: 17 Pictures of The LEGO Batman Movie Toys The LEGO Batman Movie isn't out until next year, but it's never too early for collectors to start scoping out new sets. Lucky for you collectors at home, we got a look at the LEGOs of the movie about Batman, who is himself a LEGO, which isn't actually as confusing as it sounds. Here's a handy-dandy slideshow of what we saw out on the show floor in New York: For more on NYCC, bookmark our New York Comic-Con 2016 hub page. Vincent Ingenito is IGN's foremost fighting game nerd. Follow him on Twitter and help him sort out his Street Fighter 5 character crisis.The monster success of "The Lego Movie," which took in $69.1 million over its opening weekend, has Hollywood scanning the aisles of toy stores, looking for the next hit.
In recent years, several film series based on action figures and other children's products have found major box-office success. Among those have been pictures based on the Transformers and G.I. Joe toy lines. Despite recent high-profile toy-based film missteps like the 2012 flop "Battleship," Warner Bros.' Lego hit could lead to a toy movie resurgence.PHOTOS: Box office top 10 of 2013Among the projects in varying stages of development or production are films based on Hasbro's Ouija board, Mattel's Hot Wheels and Pretty Ugly's Uglydolls. And Warner Bros., of course, already is developing a sequel based on Lego Group's iconic plastic bricks.Also on deck could be movies based on the board games Candyland and Monopoly as well as the Tonka toy car and truck line.Though there have been disappointments, toy-based films are proven commodities at the box office. For example, each of the three "Transformers" films has grossed at least $700 million worldwide, and the two "G.I. Joe" pictures both crossed the $300-million mark.
Paramount's next "Transformers" picture, "Transformers: Age of Extinction," stars Mark Wahlberg and comes out June 27. That studio, which also is behind the "G.I. Joe" movies, is developing another film in that series, too. Paramount also is releasing "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" in August, though that project -- unlike other aforementioned films -- is based on a comic book that later spawned a line of toys.PHOTOS: Scenes from 'The Lego Movie'Universal Pictures is releasing the Ouija project, which Platinum Dunes and Blumhouse Pictures are producing. The film, slated for release Oct. 24, centers on a group of friends who use a Ouija board to try to contact a dead friend but instead cross paths with a dark spirit. Universal also is behind a movie based on Uglydolls, a line of quirky plush toys. The project is being developed by production company Illumination Entertainment, the main supplier of family movies to Universal.A film based on the Hot Wheels die-cast toy cars is being developed by Legendary Pictures, the company behind recent movies "Man of Steel" and "Pacific Rim."
The film would be directed by Simon Crane, a veteran second unit director whose credits include "World War Z" and the forthcoming Tom Cruise-starring "Edge of Tomorrow." Writer Paul Attanasio, whose credits include "Quiz Show" and "Donnie Brasco," is rewriting the script from a draft by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. Though several toy-based projects are in development or production, some appear dead -- or at least mothballed. A long-in-the-works movie based on Hasbro's Stretch Armstrong toy was dropped by film company Relativity Media last year. Prior to Relativity, a project based on the gel-filled action figure was being developed at Universal. "Stretch Armstrong is an incredible character who will make an amazing movie, and we know that Hasbro has some new ideas they are looking at," Relativity said in a statement Oct. 12. "Relativity and Hasbro have a tremendous relationship, and we decided to focus on other projects. We look forward to continuing to work together."Hasbro, which found success with the "Transformers" and "G.I. Joe" movies, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.