The opening five minutes of “The Lego Batman Movie” are funnier and more original than most entire comedies I’ve seen over the last few months — and the superhero/supervillain dynamic explored in this film is more involving and insightful than many a comic-book movie plot of the past several years. Not to mention the constant explosion of candy-colored visual treats; the cheerfully subversive “Simpsons” meets Mad magazine meets “Airplane!” vibe of the film; and the classic “works on two levels” dialogue that’ll keep the parents entertained while the kids marvel at all the cool action and funny stuff onscreen. Three years after the wonderfully, surprisingly entertaining “The Lego Movie” (who saw that coming?), we get a spinoff with Batman front and center, doing his Batman/Bruce Wayne thing, rattling about the cavernous Wayne Manor with only the loyal and paternalistic Alfred (Ralph Fiennes) to keep him company, brooding over the murder of his parents when he was just a boy
, and caught up in a continuous loop in which he captures the Joker (Zach Galifianakis) after an exciting chase, the Joker escapes — and they do it all over again. On the outside, Batman is all bluster. He boasts of having the coolest toys, shows off his “nine-pack” abs and laughs off the notion he needs anyone. But in the dead of night, when the Caped Crusader cues up “Jerry Maguire” in his home theater and laughs uproariously at the “You had me at hello” scene, we can see he’s one Dark and Lonely Knight. The Joker understands the reciprocal nature of their relationship. What’s a crime fighter without the ultimate bad guy tormenting his beloved city — and what’s a maniacal supervillain without a worthy adversary? But when the Joker tries to get Batman to voice his hatred, he’s crushed to hear the Batman thinks of him as just another weirdo bad guy in bizarre makeup who deserves to be put away for life. So the Joker vows to get Batman to notice him and admit his true feelings.
Meanwhile, Alfred and the hilariously peppy Dick Grayson/Robin (Michael Cera) and the fierce and fabulous Barbara Gordon/Batgirl (Rosario Dawson) are also trying to get Bruce/Batman to see he can’t go through life alone and he needs to make some human connections. All of these psychological issues are dealt with in a clever, funny and sweet manner. Director Chris McKay keeps things zipping along, alternating between smart and often hilarious rapid-fire exchanges of dialogue, and big, big, BIG action sequences that fill every inch of the screen with brightly colored, fantastically kinetic action. (Not to mention a number of strange and crazy touches, e.g., the appearance of Lego versions of King Kong and Lord Voldemort, among other characters that you don’t usually see bouncing around the DC Universe. Also, Doug Benson’s imitation of Tom Hardy’s Bane is priceless.) “The Lego Batman Movie” is so self-referential it practically serves as a tribute to previous “Batman” movies (and a certain and quite terrible TV show from the 1960s).
The animation is deceptively sophisticated, in that the characters are of course block-shaped toys and their facial expressions aren’t exactly on the level of the latest Rotoscopian-live-performance-capture, Zemeckis-Spielbergian-whiz-bang, state-of-the-art technology — but the animated sets are vibrant and gorgeous, the direction worthy of a top-flight action-adventure and the performances …Let’s just say I’ll take Lively Plastic Animation over Wooden Live Action any day.Sign In to Architizer Or use your email. The new Architizer recognizes addresses and passwords from the original platform. Don't have an account yet? Join with a Social Network Join with an Email Address By creating an account on Architizer, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy Already have an Architizer account? Sign In to Architizer Thanks for verifying your email address. Need to verify your email? Enter your email and hit submit to have a new verification message sent.
You should receive an email shortly to verify your email address! Enter your email address and we will send you a link to reset your password. We just sent a password reset link toCheck your spam folder, or we can resend the email. If you created your account with Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn, try signing in with that.(3D) THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE (U/A) Release Date: Feb 17 Cast: Jenny Slate, Rosario Dawson, Zach Galifianakis On the heels of its global hit The LEGO Movie, the much-anticipated new animated feature The LEGO Batman Movie. Please check suitability for your movieReview: The Lego Batman Movie (U) "a fantastic plastic reworking of The Dark Knight" The Dark Knight finally lightens up in a riotous spin-off from The Lego Movie, says Andy Lea. BEN Affleck must be bricking it.Will Arnett’s plastic vigilante delivers more entertainment in the first ten seconds of this Lego spoof than Affleck managed in the entirety of the dour Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.If you saw 2014 hit The Lego Movie, you’ll know what to expect from this first spin-off.
It’s another feature length advert for the decades old Danish bricks that have become unlikely hits with 21st century children and geeky grown-ups.Once again, the film hits both audiences at once. For small kids there’s action, songs and goofy gags. For big kids there are some well-honed parodies of old movies.Most likely, you’ll also remember Arnett’s scene-stealing turn as Batman – a moody gravel-voiced vigilante who would only use black bricks “or very, very dark grey ones”. Since Affleck added extra scowl to the famous cowl, that joke has an even sharper edge.Now Batman really is in a funk. Superman has stolen his crime-fighting thunder and Gotham’s liberal new crime commissioner Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson) wants to decommission the Bat-Signal.Affleck’s movie has even wiped the grin off the face off his old arch-nemesis.The Joker (Zach Galifianakis) is reduced to tears when Batman calls Superman his “greatest enemy”.“OK, I’m fighting a few different people”, he adds, rubbing salt in the wound.
Hell hath no fury like a supervillain scorned, and soon The Joker is hatching a dastardly plan to take him back to the top.Cleverly, the writers have realised that while spoofs make great sketches they often feel stretched in a feature film.So they have padded it with an action movie plot, and injected what writers’ call “heart”.This is all about the lone vigilante overcoming his fear of commitment to team up with Robin. We meet The Boy Wonder in his previous guise – as hyper-enthusiastic orphan Dick Grayson (a hilarious Michael Cera). “This “block” buster definitely won’t disappoint.” After Wayne accidentally adopts him at a charity bash, butler Alfred (Ralph Fiennes) hands him the keys to the Batcave. He hopes his boss will also hand over the keys to his lonely heart.The odd-couple partnership provides a stream of laughs, but it’s Wayne’s soul-searching that provides some of the most surreal moments.There’s a very funny scene early in the movie where he foils The Joker’s “unnecessarily complicated bomb”.
As a news reporter imagines the superhero celebrating saving the city with a raucous night out with “lady tennis players”, we see him slowly shed his costume as walks up the long path in his vast subterreanean home.The night ends with him on an underground lake, silently eating microwaved lobster on a jetski.Miserable billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne has never seemed so ridiculous.There are also some explosive sight gags, many of which are so fleeting they’ll only detonate on a second viewing. I think I saw a very funny double entendre on the registration plate of Wayne’s car, although I’d have to wait for the DVD for confirmation.I am confident some of the geeky in-jokes passed me by. There are brief cameos for virtually every supervillain in DC Comics and Warner Brothers history. Some I recognised, others I mistakenly thought were spoofs.Apparently, a villain called Condiment Man really has appeared in the comics. I needed Google to ketchup.There is perhaps a little too much of this nerdy stuff for it’s own good.