Since the events in "The Lego Movie" Lego Batman voiced by Will Arnett is back as the caped crusader to battle yet another force of evil in the Lego realm. This time around, he is joined by Lego Robin, Lego Batgirl and more in Gotham city as a new villain in the form of Lego Joker makes his cunning entry.In comedy, there’s a fine line between hilarious and annoying. It’s a line The Lego Batman Movie tiptoes on from its very first minute as the jokes begin to fly over the studio logos. It’s a surprising way to start, doesn’t entirely work, and sets the standard for everything to follow. Directed by Chris McKay, The Lego Batman Movie is the first spinoff of 2014's brilliant The Lego Movie. It follows one of that film’s breakout side characters, Batman (voiced by Will Arnett) on his own adventures in a Lego-based world. He’s the savior and toast of Gotham City but when the Joker comes up with a wild new plan, Batman has to do something he never thought he’d do—work with others.
Part of the reason why The Lego Movie was so good was its infinite possibility. Any character, any joke, any world could pop up at any time. With Lego Batman, those possibilities are automatically limited because we’re following one character in one world. That means lots of the crazy “Lego-ness” (for lack of a better word) of the original movie is diminished. The cross-pollination of brands is present but significantly dialed back. Characters using their imaginations to create unique creations happens, but it’s mostly an afterthought. What The Lego Batman Movie does have is a non-stop barrage of jokes, ranging from low-brow to subtle genius. And they never, ever stop. You’d think an abundance of jokes in a comedy would be a good thing. But when nearly every single line of a film is a joke, it’s inevitable that the majority aren’t going to work, and that’s certainly the case with The Lego Batman Movie. As the jokes keep coming and coming there are certainly laughs (one Suicide Squad joke stands out in particular), but they’re interspersed with cringe-worthy misses (count the jokes about Batman’s abs), creating a very awkward tone.
Another thing The Lego Batman Movie has too much of is characters. The original Lego Movie had its share, but they each played a role in the story. This constantly floods the screen with every single DC character they can think of, but for no other reason that to get them on screen. It was fun to see them, but they draw focus away from the actual story. For instance: The reveal of Joker’s master plan to finally defeat Batman should be a huge moment, and one of the highlights of the whole movie. But between the cameos and the jokes, it’s significantly undercut.This is a shame because buried in all the chaos is one of the most interesting explorations of Batman as a character, ever. Even the best live-action Batman films have never portrayed the character like this: a mean, selfish, confident loner who rejects any and all connections. When the film really starts to dig into these aspects of the character, things begin to click. However, almost on cue, those moments are punctuated, and often overshadowed, by the irreverent comedy.
The quiet moments actually feel wrong because they’re so few and far between. And like everything else, the film pushes these negative aspects of Batman’s character way too far. Of course, him learning about his flaws and changing is the entire point of the movie but it doesn’t help that for a good chunk of the runtime, you’d rather spend time with the 15 random characters that just popped up on the screen than your hero. Most of those supporting characters are great, though. Michael Cera’s Robin is the ideal Lego character, voiced and animated with a vibrant enthusiasm. Rosario Dawson’s Barbara Gordon is a capable foil for Batman who feels more heroic in her limited screen time than Batman is for the entirety of the movie. Plus, the animation is outstanding—the three years since the release of The Lego Movie have seen these animation techniques improve in leaps and bounds.But all the good stuff The Lego Batman Movie has, which is a fair amount, still can’t make up for its lack of cohesion.
The movie is always trying way too hard to be cool and funny, and the result is that it’s not particularly either. It feels like McKay and his team simply couldn’t help themselves and threw the kitchen sink ar the screen. Some of that works, but a lot doesn’t. And the result is a fine but mostly disappointing follow-up to The Lego Movie. All Cast & Crew 7 February 2014 | The Lego Movie is a unique and very refreshing animated film! The Lego Movie is a winner on several levels. There is a good amount of clever gags and I was constantly bursting with ... When in the Octan tower, Wyldstyle goes off and tells them to wait for her signal. When she gives it, it's the "Super Secret" signal from Team America: World Police. You see the magician mini figure being captured by bad cop, but then later on in the movie at least twice you see him once in Cloud Cuckoo land and then again in Metal beard's flashback. The main-on-end credits were animated in stop-motion, unlike the rest of the movie's CGI.
The sequence was created by the studio Alma Mater with Stoopid Buddy Stoodios and took almost a year to produce. Gravity Falls creator boards Sony’s animated Spider-Man movie Lego Movie 2 will apparently be a musical set in Spaaace! Dive deep into IMDb Picks, Amazon Originals, and more. IMDb Picks TV Amazon OriginalsThis morning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—an institution that in March of 1995 declared Forrest Gump to be a superior film to Pulp Fiction, Shawshank Redemption, and Quiz Show (Quiz Show!)—has decided that The Lego Movie is not one of the five best animated movies of last year. This is not a snub. This is a brickin' joke. It is possible to conceive of a world in which The Lego Movie was not one of the best movies (animated, live action, documentary, fever-dreamt) of 2014. It's hard to put gentle goofiness up against the first truly great MLK Jr. biopic and Bradley Cooper… murdering the shit out of people? That sounds good too.
No Lego Best Picture nom is fine.But to put The Lego Movie up against other pieces of gentle goofiness and decide that its gentle goofiness is of an inferior quality, to cast it aside in favor of a movie dedicated to a young man who apparently has still not sufficiently trained his dragon despite all evidence to the contrary (and not even to get into the issues surrounding dragon subjugation in the first place)How could this have happened? Let's start with the premise that there is anything objectively bad about The Lego Movie. Surely there must be? Of the 221 reviews listed on Rotten Tomatoes, 9 are negative, and the 4.1 percent are fairly consistent in their critiques. Ed Whitfield of something called The Ooh Tray deemed it "the greatest commercial ever made," which was meant as an insult but I'm not sure really is one, even if you accept the premise, which I don't, because the only thing The Lego Movie sold me is whimsy and Will Arnett's Batman viability. The New York Daily News and Reel Film Reviews both found it "exhausting," which I read as "too much fun, we want less fun next time."
And the others are a hodgepodge of that same misguided crankiness. I dismiss them all in full, and you should to. The Lego Movie is pure joy distilled and then infused into a billion bricks.Maybe, despite The Lego Movie's unquestionable excellence, there were five animated movies this year that were even more unquestionably excellent? Perhaps it's just The Lego Movie's rotten luck that the animated equivalents of Laurence of Arabia, Citizen Kane, and Ben Hur were all released in 2014? Or maybe they just nominated Frozen again five times? Let's take a look!A technologically innovative movie that has some heart. Which sounds a lot like The Lego Movie except with trolls that live in boxes (or wear them as... clothes?) instead of awesome Lego people.Remember the hijinks a boy and his dragon got into a couple of years ago? Here are more hijinks. Guessing it could have used more Lego.Not thaaaat interested in irate emails from Studio Ghibli fans so let's just say this looks magical, sure.Which sounds a lot like The Lego Movie except with obscure robots instead of awesome Lego people.