We're sorry, you've either entered an invalid address, or followed a broken link. If you find a broken URL on an IMDb page, please report it to us To continue your visit to IMDb, please visit the homepage.Geraldo Rivera now actively begging for death Snapchat threatened to sell ads to NRA if gun safety group didn’t buy them first Why are there so many TV shows about time travel right now? Adam Pally still talks to his Happy Endings costars every dayLot SupermanOwns SupermanSuperman FunnyThe BatmanProves BatmanBatman BasicallyBatman DefinitelyBatman TakesSuperhero WilliamForwardOh my Word mind blown! This proves batman is awesome. The rest of the movie, though, is pretty forgettable.I reluctantly joined my friends to see The Lego Movie in New York City a few days ago, assuming it would be the equivalent of watching the Lego battles my little brother used to have with his friends. By the time it ended, I not only wanted to see it again to examine any subtle nuances I missed, but I was also grappling with several central questions of human existence -- mainly, how I, one human being in this world of millions, can contribute something important.
This is not just a movie for children who want to watch a bunch of plastic toys battle for their universe. Of course, it contains all of the great components of a children's film: adventure, catchy music and amazing visual effects -- every single inch of the Lego world, down to the roaring ocean, has been manipulated to appear Lego-fied. Everything about this new world makes us feel like we have been skyrocketed into a child's imagination. But beyond all of that, this movie contains intelligent intrigue and sophisticated humor, the kind that will leave you laughing out loud because it so wittily points out universal truths. The story becomes a quest for individuality in a world of conformity, and I would go so far as to say it becomes an allegory for communism versus democracy. It opens on a world full of ignorant Lego people who wake up every day with a rulebook on how to live their lives. Most of them are ignorant to the point where they don't realize they are being oppressed and have been manipulated into believing they are happy.
Each Lego person has the same favorite song and television show and are convinced by their evil ruler, President Business, that order, uniformity and repetitiveness is the key to success. Innovation is against nature in the world of President Business. The citizens live blissfully unaware of other Lego worlds beyond their own city limits, and they do not realize that, beneath their propagandized desire to sing "everything is awesome" for five hours while they work, they each possess repressed individual qualities. The main character, Emmet, has the least individuality of anyone. His co-workers express that each of them has something specific about themselves, such as liking chicken, whereas Emmet has never once expressed something about himself that makes him unique. When he discovers that he is "The Special," and is destined to fulfill a prophecy that we learn is ultimately made-up, the story becomes about Emmet's discovery that he truly does have unique qualities. The fact that the prophecy is fake serves to show Emmet that he had this "specialness" inside him all along, that everybody has specialness inside them and that each person's unique ideas bring greater contributions to society as a whole than does the standardization of human existence purported by a communist society.
Only when each Lego brings his own creations to the table are the people able to rise up against their oppressive regime and find true happiness. From a child's perspective, this movie is about creativity. It is about allowing your imagination to run free and allowing order to sometimes descend into chaos because that is how great discoveries are made. But from a broader perspective, this is an Orwellian movie about rising up against big brother. This movie has a remarkable amount of layers and sophistication, and it presents these layers to its audiences in an exceedingly entertaining way -- through a hilarious cast of characters that include Lego Batman, Dumbledore, Gandalf and a heroine named Wyldstyle. No matter how you feel about Legos, this movie will not only leave you laughing over and over again, but it will take you on a journey with exciting twists and turns along the way. Even more, it will make you think.With Batman #16, writer Tom King and artist David Finch kicked off the "I Am Bane" storyline on a surprisingly lighthearted note.
Most of the issue unfolded in a Batman-themed fast food restaurant, where a bemused Bruce Wayne looked on as his various sidekicks wolfed down Bat-burgers and French fries with a healthy dose of Jokerized seasoning. It wasn't how many would have predicted the latest violent showdown between Bane and Batman to begin. And that's exactly why that issue worked so well. If Batman #16 and The LEGO Batman Movie have proven anything this month, it's that the franchise really needs an element of humor to counteract all the darkness and violence and brooding. There's a common misconception that Batman has to be a grounded, serious character to truly work. The movies seem to have played a huge part in this. Batman Forever and Batman & Robin did a real number on the Caped Crusader's Hollywood reputation, and it wasn't until Christopher Nolan's gritty, ultra-serious reboot came along that the damage was undone. But Batman & Robin wasn't a bad movie specifically because it was campier than 1989's Batman, and Batman Begins wasn't a success solely because it was dark and serious.
One was a great movie by a filmmaker who respected the source material, and the other was a neon-drenched toy commercial. If anything, the relative lack of humor was the one thing weighing down the Nolan trilogy at times. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Rises are almost relentlessly serious movies. Rises especially, as that sequel didn't even have Alfred's dry wit to rely on for most of its run time. I don't think it's mere coincidence that The Dark Knight was both the best of the trilogy and the most humorous. If you're going to watch Christian Bale brood for three hours straight, it really helps having Heath Ledger's Joker around to perform "magic tricks" on gangsters and dress in drag while blowing up hospitals. Batman has featured in some of the weirdest, goofiest stories ever to hit the comic book stands. Writers like King and Grant Morrison before him have struck gold by celebrating that fact rather than shy away from it. Heck, Morrison's whole mission statement with his long Batman run was showing that every Batman story ever told fits into one, giant tapestry, even wacky Golden Age characters like Bat-Mite, the original Batwoman and the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh.
You can acknowledge these goofy elements and still tell serious, hard-hitting stories. The fact that Morrison constantly dabbled in psychedelic weirdness never stopped his stories from connecting on a deep, emotional level. Damian Wayne's death didn't hurt any less because his killer happened to be his own super-sized clone. And King and Finch's Batman #5 was no less dramatic because the tragic fall of Gotham and Gotham Girl was preceded by a few scenes of Alfred running around in an ill-fitting Batman costume. If anything, goofy trappings like that only serve to enhance the flavor. But humor in Batman stories can serve as more than just a flavor enhancer. When utilized properly, it can also speak to deeper truths about Batman and his supporting cast. Consider The LEGO Batman Movie. We've all chuckled at the trailers and the scene of Batman munching on a microwave Lobster Thermidor dinner after a hard night of fighting crime. But while that scene offers a humorous glimpse of a more mundane moment in Batman's life, it also speaks to his crushing loneliness and isolation.
This is a guy with all the money and toys a person could ever ask for, but at the end of the day he's still just a loner eating a crappy meal inside his empty, cavernous mansion. The power of the Batman/Robin dynamic is that two lonely orphans finally find a family in each other, even if they do most of their bonding while wearing spandex and punching evil clowns. The LEGO Movie version of Batman works so well because the rampant humor does such a great job of channeling the more tragic elements of the character. In a lot of ways, LEGO Batman is more faithful to the source material than any of the live-action Batmen. At least he's never murdered anybody. Similarly, the Batburger scene in Batman #16 is more than just a silly way to make readers laugh and let down their guard before Bane's big debut. There's something terribly sad about seeing Bruce faced with the commercialization of the Batman symbol. He's devoted most of his life to fighting crime and trying to make his city a better place.
He started out hoping that Batman would be a thing to strike fear into the hearts of criminals. He grew to understand that Batman could also be a symbol to inspire hope in the downtrodden citizens of Gotham. But now he sees that symbol becoming a brand used to peddle greasy junk food. The comic never makes it explicit, but it's clear that Bruce is unnerved at seeing his life's work co-opted and the deaths (albeit temporary ones) of characters like Jason Todd and Damian Wayne so trivialized. So while that entire scene works as a comedic palate cleanser, there's also something profoundly dark there if you choose to read into it that way. Batman needs humor to thrive. Not every incarnation of the character needs to be as overtly silly as LEGO Batman. Not every Batman adventure has to feature slapstick humor. But humor helps give these stories variety and flavor, and it often allows creators an opportunity to explore Batman's psychology in a way they couldn't otherwise. To paraphrase Jack Nicholson's Joker, Batman is only laughing on the outside.