The movie is a wonderful surprise, cleverly written and executed brick by brick with a visual panache. January 3, 2015 | Lord and Miller's sensibilities are continually clever, and The Lego Movie works hard to gradually deliver surprising payoffs to what seem to be throwaway bits. 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. As a rule, movies about toys need to be approached with extreme caution; some of them have been bad enough to count as health hazards. This one is the exception. March 3, 2014 | This is truly a movie that children and their parents can both enjoy for different reasons. February 10, 2014 | The Lego Movie: Merely a great film, or the greatest film ever in the history of cinema? February 9, 2014 | Bruce Wayne has always struggled with the idea of family ever since his parents were taken away at an early age. That internal struggle will be the focus of the upcoming LEGO Batman Movie, but with a healthy amount of self-referential humor of course.
In the newest "Family" TV spot, Batman and Alfred watch a young Robin as he attempts to deal with the loss of his family, all the while spotting "secret cameras". Alfred plants the seed for Bruce to start mentoring the young man, which prompts Bruce to say "You've been watching way too many Lifetime movies and drinking Chardonnay." Alfred takes umbrage at that comment, but only because "it's Pinot Grigio sir", eliciting a "whatever" from Bruce. You can view the new "Family" TV spot in the video above. In the irreverent spirit of fun that made The LEGO Movie a worldwide phenomenon, the self-described leading man of that ensemble – LEGO Batman – stars in his own big-screen adventure. But there are big changes brewing in Gotham, and if he wants to save the city from The Joker’s hostile takeover, Batman may have to drop the lone vigilante thing, try to work with others and maybe, just maybe, learn to lighten up. The LEGO Batman Movie is directed by Chris McKay and is written by Seth Grahame-Smith, Chris McKenna, and Erik Sommers, with additional screenplay help from Jared Stern and John Whittington.
The LEGO Batman Movie stars Will Arnett (Batman/Bruce Wayne), Michael Cera (Robin/Dick Grayson), Ralph Fiennes (Alfred Pennyworth), Zach Galifianakis (The Joker), Jenny Slate (Harley Quinn), Rosario Dawson (Batgirl/Barbara Gordon), Billy Dee Williams (Two-Face), and Mariah Carey (Mayor McCaskill). Will Alegra, Ryan Harris, Brad Lewis, John Powers Middleton, and Zareh Nalbandian are executive producing, while Ryan Halprin, Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Andrea McCarthy Paul are serving as producers. The LEGO Batman Movie hits theaters on February 10, 2017. MORE LEGO BATMAN: Character Posters Released / Two New Lego Batman Clips Released / Comic Book Movies To Look Forward To In 2017 / LEGO Batman Wishes Happy New Year To All / New LEGO Batman Movie TV Spots Released / New LEGO Batman Movie Posters Revealed The LEGO Batman Movie Buy Tickets powered by FandangoThey say that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.But if you're Village Roadshow, the studio behind the wildly popular Lego Movie franchise and one of the most vocal critics of film piracy, you're quite happy to make "one hell of a mistake" all over again.
On March 30 next year, Australians will be able to see "The Lego Batman Movie" in cinemas for the first time. That is, if they didn't pirate it after the US release seven weeks earlier. Village Roadshow's film distribution arm, Roadshow Films, took to Twitter to confirm the Batman spinoff of the original "The Lego Movie" will be launched at the end of March. But the US and UK (along with a number of other countries across North and South America and Europe) will get the film by February 10 -- a staggering 48 days earlier. But most surprising of all, this kind of delay has happened before -- and Village Roadshow admitted it was a massive screw up the first time. Roadshow released the original "Lego Movie" in February 2014 in the United States, but Australia, which had played host to much of the production on the film thanks to local animation house Animal Logic, had to wait until April 2014. Back then, the company's outspoken CEO Graham Burke admitted the massive error that led to pirates to run rampant in downloading the film.
"We made one hell of a mistake with Lego," Burke told an audience at the Online Copyright Infringement Forum, an industry event chaired by then Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, in September 2014. "We held it for a holiday period, it was a disaster. It caused it to be pirated very widely. And as a consequence: No more. Our policy going forward is that all of our movies will release day and date with the United States."And it was no small mistake -- while Australians waited, piracy of the film was rampant, costing Village Roadshow a reported "$3.5 million to $5 million."Burke has long been a vocal advocate for making content "cheaper, affordable and available as early as practical." But his company has matched words with litigious action. Village Roadshow took iiNet to Federal Court in 2008, claiming the internet service provider was complicit in the piracy of its customers, and this year the movie studio has been back in court in a bid to get suspected piracy sites blocked by local ISPs.
This case is still in court awaiting judgement. So well may Burke and other rights holders praise the industry's move to day-and-date releases, while also decrying the scourge of piracy, slamming pirate websites as "sleazy neighbourhoods" that sell "hardcore pornography and scams such as party pills and steroids", and also taking legal action against ISPs.But if you release one of the biggest films of 2017 two months late in Australia, what is your tough talk on piracy actually worth? And if you recognise just how monumentally you failed your customers the first time, only to do exactly the same thing two years later, just how serious are you about beating the root causes of piracy?CNET has contacted Village Roadshow and Graham Burke for comment. has shifted release dates for four of its upcoming films, including The Lego Movie 2, which moves almost a year back from 05/18/18 to 02/08/19. No word on why the sequel to 2014’s huge hit has been moved, but it now is slated to come out nearly five years to the day after The Lego Movie, and just under two years after The Lego Batman Movie, which bows February 10, 2017.
Not bad symmetry for a franchise that so far has done very well for WB. In addition, Dean Devlin’s disaster flick Geostorm is getting shuffled around the schedule for the second time, moving from 1/13/17 to 10/20/17 – it was originally set to bow on October 21, 2016. Meanwhile, the Owen Wilson/Ed Helms comedy Bastards, about two brothers who set out in adulthood to learn who their real father is, has been moved from 11/04/16 to 01/27/17. That takes Bastards out of a very competitive weekend, as its original release date would have pitted it against Marvel’s Benedict Cumberbatch-starring Doctor Strange that, judging from previous Marvel successes, is likely to trounce all comers in its opening window. Bastards‘ move to January doesn’t denote lack of confidence however, as the new slot sees it up against a new outing from the reliable Resident Evil franchise, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, and Trainspotting 2. Finally, Ben Affleck’s next directorial effort Live By Night, a period crime film he wrote and stars in alongside Chris Messina, Zoe Saldana, Sienna Miller, and Brendan Gleeson, has been moved up the schedule, hitting theaters 01/13/17 instead of 10/20/17.