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2. Slip of the tongue, Chico Vice Mayor Reanette Fillmer is mute on why she made a face at constituents during recent meeting. 3. Party time at the legislature, Reno Political parties navigate their way.Warner Brothers should just stop making DC Universe movies right now and put all their eggs in the Lego basket. I liked Man of Steel, but then last year’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad seemed like a desperate attempt to establish a cinematic comic-book universe in one fell swoop. They’ve been watching Marvel draw huge audiences and dollars with their elaborate, interconnected stories, and they tried to shortcut to the same depth. But the shortcut led them astray. Batman v. Superman took itself too seriously, and Suicide Squad squandered its potential in the evil of its characters. Now, like the Caped Crusader swooping into the fray, The Lego Batman Movie saves the day. This is much more fun and much more creative than the live action movies have been.
In the terms of the original Lego Movie, Lord Business rules the official DC film universe, while the child’s imagination runs wild in this offshoot. Yet, The Lego Batman Movie is not without meaning. Batman demands to work alone, resisting every possibility of friendship and family. He even refuses to say that he hates the Joker, because that would mean that he was emotionally committed to something. He is an island, like Wayne Manor in this version. The Joker refuses to believe that he means so little to his nemesis, which launches him on the nefarious quest which drives the plot. Joker pulls in a wonderful hodge-podge of allies – I won’t spoil the joy of these pop-culture references – and Batman has to learn to trust his team to save Gotham. He has to admit his fear to defeat it. So far, I have not even mentioned that this is a Lego movie. The sets and visual elements are made of the bumpy bricks, and all the characters are stocky little yellow people. But the film itself hardly even acknowledges this.
Three years ago, The Lego Movie pointed out its construction frequently as a way to foreground its constructed-ness, but this Batman movie just tells its story in Legos. Does that choice cost the film anything? Could this have been just a conventionally-animated, satirical Batman movie? That film would have been just as hilarious, with all the same sly references. The director, Chris McKay, comes from the Robot Chicken show, and I can easily imagine a great version of this movie using action figures and stop-motion. But, the Lego visuals do make an interesting connection with the comic books these characters come from. Comics artists evoke three-dimensional reality, but they don’t try for photorealism. More real-looking art feels less dynamic because the details overwhelm the eye. (Read Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art to see how this works.) For this comic book world, the classic animation look would feel like the norm. Setting the story in the blocky Lego-world introduces an evocative break with expectation, just as line-heavy drawing breaks with the real world.
And it offers visual continuity to a film that references images from across eighty years. Warner Brothers probably won’t scrap its live-action DC universe plans, even though The Lego Batman Movie is so much more fun than those. In fact, some have called this Lego movie too fun, or too dedicated to fun rather than resonance. There’s probably some happy medium they could find. Of course, as has often been said, these are comic book movies, after all. You might also find these reviews of The LEGO Batman Movie helpful:A kids’ movie manages to convince people of all ages who have been around the block a few times that creativity and courage still matter. As a parent, it’s easy to be cynical about a film based on a toy. Will you be bombarded with a 90-minute infomercial that by the end of the sell will cost you more than the price of the movie ticket? Fortunately, The Lego Movie has enough wit and wisdom to send a recession-age message to families on the importance of thinking through problems with creativity.
The film begins with a dastardly villain, Lord Business (Will Ferrell), who has stolen the mystical “Kragle” from sage Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman). In the battle to protect the artifact, Vitruvius loses his sight but doesn’t go down lightly. He curses Lord Business with a prophecy of a master builder who will find the “piece of resistance” and save the world from the evils of the “Kragle.” Years later, we meet loner Emmet (Chris Pratt), a nondescript Lego construction guy who needs to follow step-by-step instructions just to get through his day: “Always return a compliment. Always root for the local sports team ” The government of Emmet’s hometown of Bricksburg is run by President Business, aka Lord Business channeling a Donald Trump ’do. Business has the whole town of Bricksburg under his control and distracts them with a catchy pop tune titled Everything Is Awesome, high-priced lattes and a reality TV show called Where’s My Pants? Emmet stumbles upon the famed “piece of resistance” while literally falling for hip chick WyldStyle (Elizabeth Banks), a ninja-like master builder who had been searching for the piece.
She mistakenly thinks Emmet is “The Special” — the one chosen to save the world. Meanwhile, Business is planning a total takeover of the townsfolk by unleashing the Kragle, a wadded up Krazy Glue, to stick everyone in place. He tests this out on his maniacal henchman Good Cop/Bad Cop (Liam Neeson) by forcing the Bad Cop to squirt his own parents into a sticky state of being. Simple-minded Emmet, with the help of a hodgepodge of master builders, from Batman (Will Arnett) to a 1980s astronaut guy, set off to rid the world of Kragle. The vivid computer animation mimics the look and feel of the beloved Lego blocks. During Emmet’s quest we wander through some familiar playsets — the Wild West, the Pirate Ship, the original Space Ship set. Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller ( Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs), who also wrote the screenplay, do a remarkable job of creating worlds and a storyline that could easily come from the imaginations of youngsters. Metalbeard the Pirate, for example, is an amalgamation of all the leftover toys pieced together.