THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE is pure joy. Remember the blazing happiness you felt as you left THE LEGO MOVIE singing EVERYTHING IS AWESOME? This is like that… except instead of it being a hodge podge universe of all the LEGO brands… you’re pretty much within the DC Universe and more specifically the Batman-Centric side of the DC universe… BUT with embellishments you shouldn’t necessarily have spoiled for you.
The film begins with Will Arnett’s BATMAN voice… and instantly everyone in the theater began smiling. It was a black screen and suddenly you will realize that Batman is giving the film commentary through the entire opening credits - which just was every ounce of being invited to listen and watch the tale that is about to ensue.
Arnett’s BATMAN is pure greatness. He’s BATMAN, always has been BATMAN and BATMAN means being fucking awesome. I mean, he’s a super billionaire that actually rules… and he’s completely aware of it. As you get invited to discover who this BATMAN / BRUCE WAYNE is, you’ll just become enraptured. This is a BATMAN movie that knows BATMAN at Meta-Levels that will delight even the most hardened Batman lover.
None of these should be a surprise, as Chris McKay, the director of THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE - comes from the world of ROBOT CHICKEN, which is consistently one of the funniest shows ever. Meanwhile, the story and script for the film comes from Seth Grahame-Smith - who has absolutely found his calling and should write LEGO Superhero movies for all his life.
In many ways, this film is the origin of the BAT FAMILY… You know, Batman, Robin, Alfred and Batgirl…. This fab foursome are voiced by Will Arnett (again mega-genius), Michael Cera as young orphan Dick Grayson, Rosario Dawson as the fantabulous Barbara Gordon and Ralph Fiennes as a magnificent Alfred Pennyworth. I would watch a hundred of these adventures, then watch them all over again.
Look, I’m a comic geek, I live and breathe this stuff. Before the movie started, I was talking to a friend I’ve known in the Comic scene and Movie scene for over 20 years now and we were definitely very UP for this movie, but as often happens before DC films, we had a frustrated conversation about how the studio is so focused in the Live-Action world on the Snyderverse, that they’re missing out on the greater potential for these characters and these stories. MAN OF STEEL and BATMAN V SUPERMAN, I enjoy… and I knew I’d lose my head for this LEGO MOVIE, but in a day and age of technology like we have… We should have this LEGO BATMAN MOVIE, but then KINGDOM COME animated in a wondrous Alex Ross fine art watercolor come to life. Same with Disney and Marvel. I know we’re going to be getting a feature animated SPIDER-MAN film - and I’m wildly curious to see how that gets done. But these heroes - they’re pliable… even in Brick form.
There’s more genuine heart, emotion and fucking badassness in this BATMAN movie than the entire history of BATMAN in cinema, unless you count BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM - as you MUST - in which case - you’re aware of the greatest thing ever.
OK - so us DC Fans - we dream. We read and dream. You hear some fans talk about how if you put 3 villains in a film, you’ve over-crowded the movie and it’ll suck. Then you watch THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE - and like… every villain in every era… except I have to see BAT-MITE didn’t appear in this film - which is obviously a huge mistake, Cuz BAT-MITE is the best character in the DC universe, this side of HERBIE THE FAT FURY and THE GEEK and CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN and THE PHANTOM STRANGER and THE METAL MEN and KAMANDI and NEW GODS. But c’mon… even in this attention deficit disorder film, where every second you have 7 more bits of awesome to process… This movie shoots across the scene like you got ever DC Mini-Fig and a few other Warner Property sets and figs and you sat down on the floor with kids and had THE BEST FUCKING AFTERNOON EVER…. when you just figure out how to make all these different toys make sense.
AND IT WORKS. WORKS MAGNIFICENTLY.
There’s shit here, I guarantee you’ve never thought of. You’ll see shit going on in Gotham City that defies everything you know about it. Wayne Manor on an island? Fuck Yeah! Explore the Legoverse version of the PHANTOM ZONE, FUCK YEAH! When you meet BRICK. Wondrous.
The voices in the LEGO BATMAN MOVIE are… epic - and I highly recommend not running over to IMDB to look up who all is who, cuz… as you watch this film, there’s stuff that shows up that will fry your fucking mind with a glaze of chocolate covered pussy juice. Just all the happy all the time. LIKE… BANE. I’m on the record as fucking hating Tom Hardy’s BANE… it drives me fucking insane it is so NOT BANE to me. It’s like you got Vin Diesel’s XXX and put a ball gag in his mouth and said… BE INTIMIDATED. Fucking loathe it. Here though, they have a BANE Lego toy that looks like the BANE from the Animated Series… and then they got BNATTER Doug Benson to voice BANE and it made me cry laughing, it was so on target. Hector Elizondo as Jim Gordon… if I could HUG THE SCREEN I WOULD!
I love that a redheaded geek named Seth Green voices one of my very favorite characters in the history of cinema in this film. And to see that character and a Harryhausen character… but with like a PACIFIC RIM super power… I mean… this film has the kind of joy of culture mashing that READY PLAYER ONE has… but with a LEGO GOTHAM CITY that I just want to VR walk around in for… the rest of my life. If our world is a Hologram, it’s time to switch the program to something way the fuck more fun than our modern BS.
The only regret of this screening was that we weren’t at the Bob Bullock IMAX with it’s astonishing Laser Projector and 3D, cuz baby… I’m telling you, this psychedelic Lego Batman trip is made for 3D. It’s LEGOS… they’re about as 3D as you get - and when the Batplane is flying through Gotham… you’ll want to see that whiz by.
Also, can we get a round of applause for using Lando for Two-Face here? All the happy.
The big question that I had as I’m left wanting to spoil every spoiler in this wondrous film… is actually not a spoiler… but a genuine wonder… I can’t imagine THE FLASH movie that Seth-Grahame-Smith was going to make. It had to tonally be something wildly apart from this, but this is all the Frosted Flakes. It’s GRRRRREAT!!!
Keep it cool,
Harry
