Sunday, May 9, 2021

RageLite review - The Lego Batman Movie

I wasn’t intending to do this one, but it’s a leadup to another review so here we are, the Lego Batman movie.

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t enjoy the movie, far from it, but the reason I don’t review it is the same reason I haven’t done an in-depth review of a lego short since way back when I did Star Wars, there’s precious little to say about them. Most of the jokes in them are self-referential, either to the fact that they’re Lego or to various plot elements of the story it’s based on. They’re designed to sell Lego merch to children first and foremost. The Lego Batman is a good kids advertisement, don’t get me wrong here but its humour is satirical and it’s difficult to explain why I like it without also spoiling the jokes, plus unlike with the Lego Movie, there’s no overt real world allegory to it.

Still, it’s hardly surprising that Lego Batman would get a spinoff. Warner Brothers already owns the rights to the character, there have been 3 Lego Batman games and various Lego shorts based around Batman, plus Batman is still DC Comics’ most popular character. The film made a reasonable $312m on its $80m budget, not quite as much as its predecessor but enough to call it a success. And it has a pretty stunning 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a 9.5/10 average score.

The Joker, hurt but the thought of not being Batman’s greatest enemy concocts a new plan, get higher level help from villains in the phantom zone. But as the Joker toils, and a new Commissioner insists that Batman must work with the police as opposed to alone, Batman must face his greatest fear, being a part of a family again.

It says something about other adaptations that I feel this may be the most comic accurate portrayal of Batman to date, bear in mind he’s a complete man-child in this, and he’s not perfect, deliberately putting Dick in harm’s way, and seeing him as expendable early on. Batman films often don’t consider the aspect of his personality being that he doesn’t like to let people in because he’s scared of losing them.

This a core character flaw for Batman and it’s shocking that the best example I can think of it being used in film is in Batman and Robin. Sure, we can talk it about in terms of his romantic life, which other films have adapted, but that’s usually done as Bruce Wayne, a false persona he uses in public rather than as Batman, his true identity.

His relationship with the Joker is also probably the truest to the comics, but taken to the extreme where you could practically see them kissing. They’re both inspired to constantly one-up each other to the point where the Joker becomes a singular focus to the detriment of everything else and possibly reason.

That said the Joker being captured on purpose is a cliché but, in this case, brilliant plan. He knew Batman would know he’s up to something and had Harley set up the right triggers to make him consider putting him in the Phantom Zone, a place with the higher level help he desires.

Batman’s arc of facing that fear in the face of soul-crushing loneliness is only amplified when the League show up. I only mention this to bring it back up in the Lego movie 2 review. His dynamic with Dick Grayson strikes the right balance between being funny and being sweet. Michael Cera provides a brilliant voice for that, toeing the line between being annoying and endearing.

The show is chock full of gags and references for keen eyes, there a whole bunch of references to older Batman movies, even a couple to things like the Suicide Squad. But of-course that’s not the only thing they reference

You see, it’s not just DC Properties in the Phantom zone, there’s a whole bunch of nostalgic references from Gozilla, King Kong and Sauron to Gremlins, to Daleks (except they can’t call them that because of complicated license issues – they knew this from Looney Tunes: Back in Action, did they just think it was funny?) to the Wicked Witch of the West and Lord Voldemort, voiced by Eddie Izzard despite the fact that Ralph Fiennes voices Alfred in this movie. You have the real thing, why go for the inferior diet alternative? I mean he does just fine.

They’re all in on Joker’s plan which is a bit beneath many of them. Also, considering we heard about Zod being sent there, we never actually see him. This might lean a little too much toward the fanservice, but it’s not without substance as we do see them each bringing something to the table, including some good jokes.

I think this might be the first time in film I’ve seen Batman deliberately distance himself from his family in fear of losing them. It’s happened plenty of time in other media. Batman deliberately kept Dick Grayson out of the loop when Tony Zucco came back (B: TAS), Batman kept Dick and Barbara away from the Joining Invasion (The Batman), Batman locked Tim Drake in a prison cell (Arkham Knight) and so on. People often focus on the wrong things about Batman, putting him perpetually alone is a disservice not just to Batman but the ever-growing extended family in the comics.

The Lego Batman movie does justice to the Batman name, though many of his core traits are highly exaggerated, it captures elements of his character often ignored by other films. The comedy is tight, though heavily reliant on fanservice, particularly for its final act. It’s very fast paced, but that helps the comedy, and also helping is some pretty decent music. Though perhaps quoting Michael Jackson wasn’t the wisest idea.

Rating 85/100

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