The Lego Batman Movie Review
The Lego Batman Movie Review:
Every Saturday me and my family sit down and watch a film together. This Saturday my brother chose the recently released 'The Lego Batman Movie'. Considering I was promised 'easily the best Batman movie' and 'a surprisingly evil Joker' the movie did not deliver what I was expecting. Before I go on to any major criticism I should point out that context is very important for this film. I think this film would be great to show a group of children at the end of the school year, however, from the context of a critical standpoint this film was disappointing. With its overused jokes and cliché story, this movie struggled to get even a giggle out of me. Of course, beware of spoilers for 'The Lego Batman Movie' ahead.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
The movie opens on Batman (Will Arnett) commenting that 'all good movies start with a black screen' along with other Meta commentaries with it. Although some of these jokes were funny, for example in the final fight scene when Batman says he's, 'going to punch those guys so hard words describing their impact is going to spontaneously materialise,” drawing attention to the overused comic book art of using onomatopoeia. This, however, brings me to my first and major criticism with the film, that many of its jokes were simply overused. This film was filled with similar self-aware jokes. As well as this, other gags were repeated to the point where they lost any impact, for example, Batman's biggest fear is 'snake clowns', which are mentioned at least five times throughout the film. For a joke that wasn't that funny, to begin with, its overuse really dragged the film down. This cycle was just repeated to the point we were being told the same jokes at the end of the movie as we were at the beginning.
Other than this 'The Lego Batman Movie' used a lot of pop culture references in its 'in-jokes'. There were many jokes to previous live-action Batman which would go unnoticed by younger audiences, for example when Alfred (Ralph Fiennes) references Batman's breakdowns in other movies, followed by 'Legofied' versions of old movie posters. By including this the movie is isolating its audience even more to children in their pre/early teens. As well as this many of the jokes, I had already heard on Youtube Channels such as How It Should Have Ended, whose episodes all end with a comedic sketch involving Batman and Superman in a café.
As far as comedy goes, the film shines in its subtle jokes which often parody the Batman franchise such as when Batman is looking at a photograph of his family before they were murdered and the street name is 'Crime Street'. These jokes, however, were hard to find and quickly lost by the end of the film as the established jokes took centre stage.
The story then continues into the first scene, in which the Joker (Zach Galifianakis) and other DC villains are planning on destroying Gotham with a bomb which will split the city in half. This plot was one of the strong points of the movie as it expanded upon the concept established in 'The Lego Movie' in which the movies are being acted out by a child and underneath the sets/city is the real world. That being said, the overabundance of DC characters included in this movie honestly made the villains less impactful. The movie included, The Joker, Harley Quinn (Jenny Slate), King Shark, Bane (Doug Benson), Clay Face (Kate Micucci), Poison Ivy (Riki Lindhome), and even Condiment King to name a few. This huge cast brought down Galifianakis's character as you are trying to focus on what other characters are doing, like Harley. The film would have benefitted from just using the Joker as its villain and leaving the rest out. The film seemed too focused on having a big cast for a big battle than actually developing the characters. The movie actually provides a good example of what should be done here. In the final battle it is just the four main characters; Batman, Robin (Michael Cera), Batgirl (Rosario Dawson) and Alfred against this multitude of enemies. It would have been easy for the writers to bring in The Justice League but they didn't because they wanted us to focus on the protagonist, which is exactly what should have happened with the villains. Instead of the huge cast, if the writers just included four villains for the heroes to fight, they would have been a lot more intimidating.
The Joker's motivation in the story is an interesting one, if not well executed. It plays on the ideology established most notably in 'The Dark Night' in which he feels a kind of kinship with Batman, even going so far as saying 'You complete me.' His motif in this story is to get Batman to see that he is his archenemy. The film parodies the traditional Romantic comedy with the exception that the world love is switched for the verb hate. Batman can even be seen watching Jerry Maguire, a classic Romanic Comedy, two times in the movie. By parodying this, however, the film took any madness out of the Joker. By giving him motivation The Joker loses his originality. The Joker responds to his ‘insanity’ through life’s meaningless. Life and death, love and hate they are all the same to him because they are all a joke. He doesn’t have motivation he just ‘does’. Ultimately The Joker could not be as scary as, for example, Heath Ledger's adaptation because of the age classification of the film being PG, however, the filmmakers seemed to take away everything ‘Joker’ about him in order to make him an easier villain for the kids understand.
The story continues and the movie paints the idea of Batman being a lone wolf, He prefers working alone, although secretly wishes he has a family, as shown in a montage of him cooking, watching movies and generally being alone. This is an okay character arc, but it is identical to the one told in ‘The Lego Movie’ in two ways. Firstly, In ‘The Lego Movie’ Emmet (Chris Pratt) is left without a family but desperately wants one. Much of his development in the story comes from him forming bonds with the other characters and finding a group he can call his family. Secondly, Batman’s arc in ‘The Lego Movie’ also revolved around him not working well with others, as symbolised with his failed relationship with Wildstyle (Elizabeth Banks), but ultimately finished with us knowing he could work together. ‘The Lego Batman Movie’ all but negates any development in the last movie, giving us the same package of the lone wolf character arc.
Other than Batman, there are no other character arcs in the story. Arguably Barbara goes through some change but she seems to instantly go from one extreme, of hating vigilantes, to another, becoming one. All of the other characters are just there for Batman’s needs and have no personality of their own beyond their stereotypical traits, for example, Robin is an orphan. His bullying is mentioned once and never expanded on, let alone his obsession with Batman or desperate need for a family. Robin was pretty much just in the story to drive the plot forward and it would have made no difference if he wasn’t in it.
As far as animation goes, the film was visually pretty good. It was a little inconsistent at times with the water not being Lego. This is because, unlike ‘The Lego Movie’, this film was not animated using stop motion. I went into it expecting this style so it was a nice surprise seeing done in a different style. One of the best points of this series is how they can mix styles, for example, the original movie is a mixture of stop- motion and live-action and it was interesting seeing something completely new in this movie too. I also think it would be a film that I would like to see in 3.D one day.
There is not much to add about the music, as it is one of the running gags in the film. The music continues the joke of Batman being a rapper/ emo singer. The songs also parody the Batman theme songs, however, like much of the comedy in the film, it is over-used.
To conclude, although ‘The Lego Batman Movie’ had promise, it ultimately paled in comparison to its predecessor. With little character development and overused un-comedic jokes, the film only really shines in what it borrowed from unrelated films or expanded upon from ‘The Lego Movie Also one final criticism, the filmmakers had Ralph Fiennes in it and the character Voldemort but didn’t. I don’t know maybe there was a legal reason or something?
Thank you so much for reading this far. If you liked my review then feel free to share it using the buttons above or below and let me know what you thought of the movie as well as any ideas on what you think I should review next down below.
Every Saturday me and my family sit down and watch a film together. This Saturday my brother chose the recently released 'The Lego Batman Movie'. Considering I was promised 'easily the best Batman movie' and 'a surprisingly evil Joker' the movie did not deliver what I was expecting. Before I go on to any major criticism I should point out that context is very important for this film. I think this film would be great to show a group of children at the end of the school year, however, from the context of a critical standpoint this film was disappointing. With its overused jokes and cliché story, this movie struggled to get even a giggle out of me. Of course, beware of spoilers for 'The Lego Batman Movie' ahead.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
The movie opens on Batman (Will Arnett) commenting that 'all good movies start with a black screen' along with other Meta commentaries with it. Although some of these jokes were funny, for example in the final fight scene when Batman says he's, 'going to punch those guys so hard words describing their impact is going to spontaneously materialise,” drawing attention to the overused comic book art of using onomatopoeia. This, however, brings me to my first and major criticism with the film, that many of its jokes were simply overused. This film was filled with similar self-aware jokes. As well as this, other gags were repeated to the point where they lost any impact, for example, Batman's biggest fear is 'snake clowns', which are mentioned at least five times throughout the film. For a joke that wasn't that funny, to begin with, its overuse really dragged the film down. This cycle was just repeated to the point we were being told the same jokes at the end of the movie as we were at the beginning.
Other than this 'The Lego Batman Movie' used a lot of pop culture references in its 'in-jokes'. There were many jokes to previous live-action Batman which would go unnoticed by younger audiences, for example when Alfred (Ralph Fiennes) references Batman's breakdowns in other movies, followed by 'Legofied' versions of old movie posters. By including this the movie is isolating its audience even more to children in their pre/early teens. As well as this many of the jokes, I had already heard on Youtube Channels such as How It Should Have Ended, whose episodes all end with a comedic sketch involving Batman and Superman in a café.
As far as comedy goes, the film shines in its subtle jokes which often parody the Batman franchise such as when Batman is looking at a photograph of his family before they were murdered and the street name is 'Crime Street'. These jokes, however, were hard to find and quickly lost by the end of the film as the established jokes took centre stage.
The story then continues into the first scene, in which the Joker (Zach Galifianakis) and other DC villains are planning on destroying Gotham with a bomb which will split the city in half. This plot was one of the strong points of the movie as it expanded upon the concept established in 'The Lego Movie' in which the movies are being acted out by a child and underneath the sets/city is the real world. That being said, the overabundance of DC characters included in this movie honestly made the villains less impactful. The movie included, The Joker, Harley Quinn (Jenny Slate), King Shark, Bane (Doug Benson), Clay Face (Kate Micucci), Poison Ivy (Riki Lindhome), and even Condiment King to name a few. This huge cast brought down Galifianakis's character as you are trying to focus on what other characters are doing, like Harley. The film would have benefitted from just using the Joker as its villain and leaving the rest out. The film seemed too focused on having a big cast for a big battle than actually developing the characters. The movie actually provides a good example of what should be done here. In the final battle it is just the four main characters; Batman, Robin (Michael Cera), Batgirl (Rosario Dawson) and Alfred against this multitude of enemies. It would have been easy for the writers to bring in The Justice League but they didn't because they wanted us to focus on the protagonist, which is exactly what should have happened with the villains. Instead of the huge cast, if the writers just included four villains for the heroes to fight, they would have been a lot more intimidating.
The Joker's motivation in the story is an interesting one, if not well executed. It plays on the ideology established most notably in 'The Dark Night' in which he feels a kind of kinship with Batman, even going so far as saying 'You complete me.' His motif in this story is to get Batman to see that he is his archenemy. The film parodies the traditional Romantic comedy with the exception that the world love is switched for the verb hate. Batman can even be seen watching Jerry Maguire, a classic Romanic Comedy, two times in the movie. By parodying this, however, the film took any madness out of the Joker. By giving him motivation The Joker loses his originality. The Joker responds to his ‘insanity’ through life’s meaningless. Life and death, love and hate they are all the same to him because they are all a joke. He doesn’t have motivation he just ‘does’. Ultimately The Joker could not be as scary as, for example, Heath Ledger's adaptation because of the age classification of the film being PG, however, the filmmakers seemed to take away everything ‘Joker’ about him in order to make him an easier villain for the kids understand.
The story continues and the movie paints the idea of Batman being a lone wolf, He prefers working alone, although secretly wishes he has a family, as shown in a montage of him cooking, watching movies and generally being alone. This is an okay character arc, but it is identical to the one told in ‘The Lego Movie’ in two ways. Firstly, In ‘The Lego Movie’ Emmet (Chris Pratt) is left without a family but desperately wants one. Much of his development in the story comes from him forming bonds with the other characters and finding a group he can call his family. Secondly, Batman’s arc in ‘The Lego Movie’ also revolved around him not working well with others, as symbolised with his failed relationship with Wildstyle (Elizabeth Banks), but ultimately finished with us knowing he could work together. ‘The Lego Batman Movie’ all but negates any development in the last movie, giving us the same package of the lone wolf character arc.
Other than Batman, there are no other character arcs in the story. Arguably Barbara goes through some change but she seems to instantly go from one extreme, of hating vigilantes, to another, becoming one. All of the other characters are just there for Batman’s needs and have no personality of their own beyond their stereotypical traits, for example, Robin is an orphan. His bullying is mentioned once and never expanded on, let alone his obsession with Batman or desperate need for a family. Robin was pretty much just in the story to drive the plot forward and it would have made no difference if he wasn’t in it.
As far as animation goes, the film was visually pretty good. It was a little inconsistent at times with the water not being Lego. This is because, unlike ‘The Lego Movie’, this film was not animated using stop motion. I went into it expecting this style so it was a nice surprise seeing done in a different style. One of the best points of this series is how they can mix styles, for example, the original movie is a mixture of stop- motion and live-action and it was interesting seeing something completely new in this movie too. I also think it would be a film that I would like to see in 3.D one day.
There is not much to add about the music, as it is one of the running gags in the film. The music continues the joke of Batman being a rapper/ emo singer. The songs also parody the Batman theme songs, however, like much of the comedy in the film, it is over-used.
To conclude, although ‘The Lego Batman Movie’ had promise, it ultimately paled in comparison to its predecessor. With little character development and overused un-comedic jokes, the film only really shines in what it borrowed from unrelated films or expanded upon from ‘The Lego Movie Also one final criticism, the filmmakers had Ralph Fiennes in it and the character Voldemort but didn’t. I don’t know maybe there was a legal reason or something?
Thank you so much for reading this far. If you liked my review then feel free to share it using the buttons above or below and let me know what you thought of the movie as well as any ideas on what you think I should review next down below.
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