Lego Batman is a riot from start to finish (Picture: Warner Bros) After being a comical standout in The Lego Movie, Will Arnett’s Batman returns for a solo outing with his bricked DC universe posse to deliver 2017’s animated movie to beat. Phillip Lord and Christopher Miller’s 2014 breakout movie defied the odds by turning a potentially cynical toy marketing exercise into a frenetic ride with a surprising, heartfelt message. Spin-off Lego Batman similarly shouldn’t work, with Batman’s overcompensating ‘bro’ jibes working perfectly as a funny sideshow, but his standalone venture has become perhaps the greatest exploration of the Caped Crusader yet.While Lego Batman rattles through a relentless amount of jokes to keep whole families entertained, there’s an unexpected amount of love poured into understanding exactly how the character ticks. Michael Cera’s Robin is an adorable standout (Picture: Warner Bros) Opening with a hilarious musical number as he foils another plot by the Joker, Batman’s arch nemesis is left heartbroken after he discovers the masked hero doesn’t actually hate him as much as he hopes.
Barbara Gordon meanwhile, who takes over as Gotham’s Police Commissioner, is threatening Batman’s lifestyle of tackling crime solo style by implementing a plan to restructure the police department to make his involvement void. Both of these strands intertwine as the Joker cooks his next dastardly plan, but it’s punctuated with surprising, quieter moments of Batman dealing with his denied loneliness. It’s either a testament to director Chris McKay or a detriment against past Batman outings, but you’ve probably never felt truly sorry for Bruce Wayne until you’ve seen him cooped up alone microwaving lobster and watching Jeremy Maguire in his home cinema. The jokes come relentlessly fast in Lego Batman (Picture: Warner Bros) Even through these moments the laughs arrive at an alarming rate. Michael Cera’s camped-up, puppy-eyed version of Robin is simply a delight, while Ralph Fiennes’ Alfred is even given a surprising amount of time to shine – most often as the butt of Batman’s follies and his abnormally fast reflexes.
The film however is definitely geared towards those familiar with Batman’s heritage. While there’s a wide onslaught of pop culture references to ensure everyone can expel a chuckle, Lego Batman mostly acts as a hilarious kicking at the hero’s past. Everything from Adam West’s ‘60s interpretation to the awful villains of DC (hello, Calendar Man) are given swipes – with a punch at 2016’s Suicide Squad guaranteed to bring the house down. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that Visually, Lego Batman’s thrilling action sequences are a stunning feat of animation, with the morphing vehicles and exploding bricks popping over Gotham’s murky skyline. With so much on-screen sugar though, the overall moral of ‘coming together as a team’ feels a bit sickly – and at odds with the joys of Will Arnett’s Batman being his brutishly self-centred self. But it’s never enough to detract from Lego Batman’s triumphs.
Chris McKay, against the odds, has created a superb love letter to DC fans which somehow manages to be the greatest exploration of Batman’s character yet. You might feel windswept by the kinetic rush, but Lego Batman is an essential loving ode which will certainly put a smile on that face. Lego Batman Movie is out in UK cinemas now. MORE: Manchester By The Sea is a heartbreaking study of individual suffering MORE: Let’s hope Resident Evil: The Final Chapter really is the final chapter Emmy nom'd host of BILLY ON THE STREET on ! All 5 seasons now on ! DIFFICULT PEOPLE S2 now on ! Add a location to your Tweets When you tweet with a location, Twitter stores that location. You can switch location on/off before each Tweet and always have the option to delete your location history. Turn location onNot nowAnyone can follow this listOnly you can access this list Here's the URL for this Tweet. Copy it to easily share with friends. Add this Tweet to your website by copying the code below.
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Never miss a Moment Catch up instantly on the best stories happening as they unfold. If ur excited about Lego Batman you'll love Lego Manchester By the Sea! Brought to you by #BillyOnTheStreet. Loading seems to be taking a while. Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.LEGO Batman 3 Beyond Gotham – Celebrities Trailer (2014) LEGO Batman 3 trailer shows new celebs in the game such as Conan O Brian and film director Kevin Smith. In stores November 14, 2014.(Slight spoilers, but not really!) The story of Batman is now as much an American fable as that of Paul Bunyan, John Henry or Tom Sawyer. His origin story—rich heir to murdered parents trains to fight crime, uses gadgets and wears a costume, etc.—is so ingrained in popular culture that the last few Batman movies have cut it down to a flashback scene. After seeing gritty Batman, detective Batman, real-world Batman and dozens of other Batman variations, from comics to cartoons to films, where do you go?
Lego Batman has the answer. The sequel to the 2014 surprise hit The Lego Movie gives us the greatest Batman love story ever told. It just so happens to be a gay love affair. And it just so happens to be with the Joker. The Lego Batman Movie is fast-paced, easy to follow, full of Easter eggs and stuffed to capacity with Warner Bros. studio in-jokes. When (Disney’s) Avengers: Age of Ultron featured the titular villain muttering, “There are no strings on me,” a thematic nod to Pinocchio, yet another Disney property, the format was set for films like Lego Batman. Why battle over rights to various properties to make a movie like Wreck-It Ralph when you have access to every single Warner Bros. property and every single movie, cartoon and TV franchise that Lego has the rights to? There are so many guest appearances, movie references, sight gags and homages in this film that it feels forced at times. It’s saved by the great interplay between Batman and Robin (Will Arnett and Michael Cera reigniting their Gob and Michael act from Arrested Development), the neediness of Zach Galifianakis’ Joker and the plot-stabilizing, straight-woman hilarity of Rosario Dawson as Gotham Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon.
What really makes The Lego Batman Movie special, however, isn’t the plot; it’s the motivation behind the plot: the intense and unrequited love between Batman and the Joker. When Batman—who doesn’t care about anybody—refuses to acknowledge that the Joker is his archenemy, that their relationship is significant, the Crown Prince of Crime goes off the deep end. First he demands, then he pleads, then he out and out begs Batman to admit that deep, deep down, he hates the Joker as much as the Joker hates him. It’s funny, at first, using the bromance subtext common in movies like Superbad, The Wedding Ringer, Get Hard and on TV shows like The League, or just about anything from Lonely Island. The “humor” is supposed to come from the gay double entendre and witty banter between two presumptively “straight” men arguing with each other in a way that sounds suspiciously like a man and woman the audience knows deep, deep down, really just want to screw each other. Despite years of intense back-and-forth, Batman refused to acknowledge the Joker, which sent the villain off the deep end to destroy Gotham City, and thus launch the movie plot.
This is not a gay subtext mined for laughs; this is essentially Brokeback Batman. Amid the jokes, action, obsession with tight abs, rainbow color scheme and dance routines, this movie isn’t a nod to gay love between Batman and the Joker—this movie is head-banging to it. Film critic Wesley Morris pondered in 2015, in a review of Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell’s Get Hard (which is more than on the nose), that eventually Hollywood would acknowledge these “bromance” types of movies had as much romantic potential as straight films. Why can’t two ostensibly straight men fall for each other like any other unlikely odd couple in a rom-com? Lego Batman seems like the unlikely, but incredibly successful, evolution he was predicting. Even if it comes in the form of talking plastic blocks. It’s not as if Batman and the Joker’s sexual or homoerotic relations haven’t been mined in the past. Batman’s relationship with Dick Grayson (the original Robin and a gay icon in his own right) spawned the “Ambiguously Gay Duo” parody on Saturday Night Live.
Wildstorm-DC Comic’s Midnighter character is a gay Batman allegory (with a gay Superman allegory boyfriend). The Joker’s sexual obsession with Batman and Batman’s complex reactions to it have been touched upon in comics, too. The gayness of The Lego Batman Movie is made more apparent by the fact that Batman and Joker’s relationships with women seem perfunctory at best. Harley Quinn is truly Joker’s “girlfriend” inasmuch as she spends most of the film consoling a heartbroken Joker who can’t understand why Batman won’t acknowledge their “adversarial” (wink-wink) relationship. Batman’s crush on Barbara Gordon is worth a few funny montages, but it goes nowhere for seemingly no reason.At one point in the movie, Batman and the Joker are just staring at each other, painted-on Lego eyes intensely locked. A kid in the front of the theater screamed out, “Just tell him!!!” to the muffled laughter of the entire audience. This is a reaction usually reserved for a Bridget Jones movie, or whatever Seth Rogan-Jennifer Aniston rom-com got churned out in the last month.