To understand what a feat The Lego Batman Movie is, first consider the concept: a spin-off of an animated movie based on a toy line based on licensed characters that originated in comics. How could something so far removed from the source material understand the characters and their history better than any recent movie starring them?
The pure joy I felt when watching was unmatched by any other superhero movie. From Batman’s first lines before we even get past the studio logos, I had a smile on my face. That smile did not leave until the end credits concluded. There’s a wide range of humor targeting people of all ages — and by that, I really do mean people of any age, whether they’re ten or twenty or forty or eighty. Too often, especially in animation, the term “all ages” means “aimed towards kids.” Thankfully, here it means “anyone with the slightest interest in Batman.”
The pacing switches between quick moving, well directed action sequences and dry, deliberately slow humorous scenes. All of it works. The action sequences themselves are peppered with tiny jokes and fun touches as each of the Lego characters jumps around in its own unique way. Those slow scenes break up the action while also giving a masterclass in comedic timing. Again, it’s great to see an all ages movie branching out and exploring forms of comedy that aren’t just silly and energetic. There is some of that here too, especially in the form of Robin, but even then there’s a certain nuance, and his role serves the dual purpose of contrasting against Batman.
Long-time fans will have a great experience with the cinematography and music, which take cues from other Batman movies. Some scenes look decidedly like Batman Begins with a heavily orange and black Gotham. In some scenes, the movie takes on an even darker look with the occasional dark blue lens flare, evoking last year’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. As these visuals replicate those of past movies, so too is the music from the specific movies repurposed. Beyond being a neat tribute, it all works together to heighten the comedy when Batman goes into purposely contrived diatribes about crime or his hypocritical feelings against Superman.
Beyond all the humor and homages is a remarkably easy-to-follow story, given how much of the Batman mythos are worked in. Over the course of an hour and forty-five minutes, we get scenes featuring solo Batman, some spotlights on Alfred, an origin for Robin, an origin for Batgirl, no less than twenty major Batman villains, a slew of D- and F-list Batman villains, and a few major villains from other Warner Bros franchises. And somehow, it all makes sense together for even the younger viewers who have little exposure to these characters. This movie understands the source material so well that it’s able to rework and combine all these separate elements in a way that maintains the heart of it all. Rarely does this work out so well in any medium, but I do suspect it has something to do with the fact that this is animation.
Let’s be real here: Batman and most other superheroes were created for comics. When adapting them into live action, you force these concepts into the real world where suddenly everything needs a real world explanation. The physics has to make sense, the worlds have to look realistic, and the tone has to skew dark, lest the audience realize how ridiculous everything is. Here, a significant portion of the humor is derived from parodying how stale the character has become through decades of increasingly dark movies. Further, the story itself is built around the idea that the Batman we’ve gotten in those movies must be incredible lonely, which puts it on a path to adapt his supporting cast. It’s wonderful to finally get a movie that satirizes all of this and, as a result, builds a better Batman.
In a culture where our entertainment consists of endless variations of the same things, it makes perfect sense that Legos, the small building blocks which can be broken apart and put back together, understand how to put these pieces together in a creative, self-aware, and all-around entertaining way.
Final verdict: 9.0 – This is the Batman movie we both need and deserve right now.
