By Shelby Fielding (Lubbock, Texas, US) The LEGO Movie was a surprise that displayed not only skillful animation, but it also provided an instance of filmatic centered spoofed comedy where the comedy style of satire does not reflect the tone of the film in its entirety. Rather it serves as a collaborator to the tone and the comedic style of the film. The LEGO Batman Movie follows that frame style, but at the same time over floods it with constant comedic dialogue. Nonetheless, the film focuses on the character narrative of Batman, who is struggling with learning what to do when there is no more crime in Gotham City. This conflict introduces the audience to Richard or Dick Grayson, and Barbara Gordon. These characters come along to help Batman find the answer to this central question to create a fun-filled, fan serviced, and family friendly film. Batman is an important and treasured character among moviegoers, cartoon lovers, and of course comic book readers. He has been seen in hilariously atrocious filmography along with amazing and jaw-droppingly awesome movies.
He’s been fulfilled on TV shows from Batman the TV show from the 60’s to the dynamic and gripping animated series. And, of course, he’s been thoroughly flushed out through the lure of comic books and graphic novels. From Detective Comics #27 to Batman & Robin Adventures #1. Least to say, Batman is easily one of the most beloved comic book characters of all-time, and this film recognizes it as well as embraces it with its comedic tone. The LEGO Batman Movie provides brilliant and energetic comedic dialogue that understands the lure and stigma of the character. The film continuously provides a joyful exchange that leaves no stone of Batman’s history unturned. Director Chris Mckay and the production companies involved in the creation of this movie did a fantastic job of creating an awesome environment with the LEGO’s. The production style and animation are incredibly artistically used, by how the movie uses its environment of LEGO’s to help create things, just its predecessors did.
The animation continues to surprise in this film with it almost coming off as stop motion even though it is entirely CGI. As far as the screenplay goes, the script does an excellent job of truly exposing Batman’s character for all of the non-linear plot holes that he can contain sometimes. Example A, shark repellent why the hell is that a thing? The dialogue at the same maintains the character traits of Batman in a humorous way. Will Arnett did an amazing job as Batman in this film, as did Michael Cera who gave the best performance in my opinion as Robin. For what this movie was trying to depict as far as the characters Robin’s weird character traits. It was actually hilarious to watch him bring this amusing character to life. Zach Galifianakis also did an excellent job as the Joker. The relationship shared between Joker and Batman was witty and entertaining as far as how they interacted with each other and their motivations for their actions in The LEGO Batman Movie. The flaws of the film come out when you reach the third act.
In my opinion, the third act drew on for a bit too long, and it could also be seen as over the top. The first act and second act stay grounded within the Batman universe making the film feel intimate and relatable as if the character just decided to take the turn for the humorous tone in an organic way. The final act takes that tone and exploits it tremendously with over the top action that can not only harm the film but also cause the sound to become trampled and confusing. The only other flaw I found was in the rapid fire of the jokes. The jokes are creative and witty in The LEGO Batman Movie, but they can become over flooded due to the early speed that they are being said. There is no time for the audience to sit back and breathe and fully comprehend the joke to get ready for the next one. I even felt like I missed some jokes because my brain was so focused on the past fun, and it wasn’t willing to grasp the new one. The LEGO Batman Movie is a very smart, humorous, and satirical view on the dark caped crusader.
Filled with amazing animation and great character portrayals that express such grave and brooding characters as witty and laughable. Though the third act and the jokes can come off as excessive and as whirlwind at times, this screenplay continuously surprised me with its incredibly refreshing use of sarcasm filled dialogue and animation. It may be a fan service film for all the Batman lovers due to its Easter eggs and humorous attacks on the characters tropes. However, is that such a bad thing? Or, should studios continue to recognize their strongest fan bases and make movies for their biggest and best fans. LEGO studios continue to do that and continue to hit some solid base runs.Earlier this year when the Disney LEGO Minifigures came out we put together a quick helpful guide to help collectors find their favorite characters inside the blind bags. That post was super popular so we thought we’d do it again but this time for the new LEGO Batman Movie minifigure bags! With the movie releasing this weekend we’re sure you’re going to have one or two of these hilarious characters you’re going to want to add to your LEGO lineup.
Disclaimer: These Blind Bag codes may not match yours exactly, bubbles and bumps in the packaging might be confusing and there is a chance they bumps on the bag weren’t properly stamped. We tested these codes at three different stores and had tons of success. With every character we’ll also include our top tip for feeling the character inside the bag! On the bottom of the bag, in the sealed strip, when looked at in just the right light you can make out tiny little dimples or bumps pressed into the bag. These bumps help you decipher which figure is which inside the bag. It can be tricky to make out in photos or video those tiny dots, so what we did was lay a post it note under the bag, mark the center flap and then copied the dot locations in an easier to read format! Check out our unboxing video (its a bit long as we build every one of the 20 figures) where we show off the codes for each bag! Scroll down for a full gallery & feeling tips for each character if you don’t want to watch the video!
Here is a quick reference guide for all 20 LEGO Batman Movie Minifigures! We transcribed the bag code onto a bright and easy to read post it note. We’ll also include a tip for feeling the character in the bag if you want to double down on confirmation. Reminder: These bump codes might not be perfect. Your mileage may vary… so please be cautious when hunting. Make sure you check our tip for identifying the small accessories in each bag. Remember to shake the bag up a bit to get the smaller easier to ID pieces to settle to one corner. The most telling piece when feeling this bag is the dinner plate, its the only pack with a large round bowl / plate like piece! As with any Batman figures, the other easy to ID piece is his helmet with it’s two pointy ear pieces! The only minifigure in this collection to feature a guitar, a very easy piece to ID when you are feeling the bag! As noted above, you can also check that it’s Batman in the bag just by looking for the pointy ear helmet!
This is one of our favorite Batman figures from this series! When hunting for this pack the easiest tell is the smooth pliable fairy wings! You can also feel for the ruffled tutu piece which is thicker textured piece. This pack is going to be one of the thinner lighter ones as there aren’t many pieces to it, just take your time to find and feel the huge club piece to easily ID this bag. This is the only pack with a large doughnut like piece which sticks out very quickly when you start to feel around this bag. The inner tube piece has two pointy parts (duck head & tail) so finding him should be a breeze. Barbara’s combo hat / hair piece is very easy to feel in this bag, it’s essentially a police hat with a large pony tail. She is also only one of two characters to feature the small round lego piece, paired with the single square stud that isn’t a smooth top, Barbara is easy to find! The rather smooth and rounded hair piece for Gordon combined with the walkie talkie one piece brick with the long antenna topped with a ball gives anyone searching for this pack two very easy to ID pieces.
A very simple build with few pieces, keep an eye out for the rough and pointy hair piece which should make finding the Joker pretty easy. Dick is the only character to have the horn / gun topper piece for his Shark Repellent. There are other packs with guns but this piece has the rounded end so it easily stands out when feeling around for the smaller pieces. While there are multiple Bat hero figures in this series, there is only one with a batarang. Batgirl’s hair piece is also pretty large in this bag and the top pony tail hair style isn’t hard to find when feeling the bag. The most obvious tip we can give you with minifigure is the giant dome piece, it’s incredibly easy to feel in the bag. He also has two tiny pistols which settle into the corner of the bags and are easy to feel out. This is one of the easiest bags to ID in my opinion, Eraser has a the small round flat stud, the cylinder head piece and the large flat square piece of paper. Finding this minifigure should be simple!