After The Lego Movie was a hit, there was a slight worry that they may not be able to follow it up with another hit. Worries alleviated! The Lego Batman Movie is a real joy to watch. It is so good it might even be up there with the best Batman movies!
To start with, as with The Lego Movie the animation is outstanding. Everything is Lego! It looks just like Lego! In fact, it looks even better than real Lego! Also it helps that there’s no risk of stepping on it and crippling your foot. Everything looks great. It’s like those dreams of an entirely Lego world you had when you were younger have become a reality. A not real, fake, animated film reality. But the animation isn’t all that’s great! The cast is also great. Will Arnett as Batman is the stand out act, dark and brooding and yet funny and cool. Michael Cera as Robin, Ralph Fiennes as Alfred and Rosario Dawson as Barbara Gordon round out the Bat-family and Zach Galifianakis puts in a memorable performance as the Joker. The cast is huge. Every Batman villain you can think of appears, even the ones you don’t know!
But all of this would fall flat if it didn’t have a great story. And boy does it! Every Batman movie seems to focus on city-wide destruction instead of small scale crimes and, while The Lego Batman Movie is no different, it focuses more on the characters than most of those other movies. Why is Batman so dark and brooding? Why is he such a loner? Can he ever be happy and have a family again? Batman is fleshed out like never before, and the rest of the cast help with that. Young Robin just wants a family too, and their father-son type relationship is the main focus of the story.
Also, this film is hilarious. There are jokes to keep the kids laughing and even more jokes and references for the adults watching. References to past Batman films are perfect and the jokes land throughout. Plus there’s an awesome soundtrack, which is at its greatest during the opening action set-piece which I won’t spoil here.
I loved Lego as a kid and have always loved Batman but The Lego Batman Movie renews my love for both. I can’t wait to see what the Lego movie team do next but I know I’ll be there to see it. Even if I have to walk over a field of Lego bricks to get there!
JACK’S SCORE: 5/5
Jack-Types-Stuff 