Skip to main content

Movie Review/Opinion: The Lego Batman Movie (2017) *Spoiler Free*

I've heard many people say The Lego Batman Movie is one of the best Batman movies you'll see. Better than 2016's Batman v Superman even. I tend to disagree.

I enjoyed Lego Batman. It's a fun movie and, is especially a great Batman movie for younger Bat fans (say eight years and younger) because it is fairly fast paced, with plenty to keep younger viewers engaged.

For older fans, all the nods  to Batman's 75 plus year history are fun inclusions that will have your remote's pause button working overtime when the film gets a home release.



It's funny, though not particularly laugh out loud funny for me, like The Lego Movie was. I'd speculate that Batman had funnier moments in that movie - hence the reason his movie is the first spin off from that film.

As a Batman film I'd put Lego Batman on the same level as Joel Schumacher's 1995, Batman Forever and 1997, Batman and Robin.

Before you go 'NO WAY, THOSE TWO MOVIES ARE THE WORST BATMAN MOVIES OF ALL TIME AND BAT NIPPLES!!'... let's have a reality check. Yes, they're not great films but they're not terrible either. Not if you put them in the context of appealing to younger Batman fans.

Batman and Robin has a lot in common with
The Lego Batman Movie.

Batman and Robin, in particular, is my go to movie for kids, six and under, who you want to introduce to Batman in the movies. Whilst it does have a few scarier moments for younger viewers, it's fast paced, with plenty of cool, over the top action and, most importantly, Batman is pretty much on screen straight away. Not only that, but you get Bat Girl and Poison Ivy in the mix, both played as relatively strong female characters. The brighter color palette of the film works better for younger audiences too.

The scripts for both Batman Forever and Batman and Robin aren't that deep and contain some really corny lines. Especially cringe worthy memorable is Arnold Schwarzenegger's Mr Freeze. Just about everything he says is an ice pun, which, if I'm honest, is starting to become a highlight of the film. Arnold isn't bad in the film. He completely commits to the material and plays it up as much as Uma Thurman does with Poison Ivy.

I'm not trying to bring The Lego Batman Movie down, I'm just saying it has a lot in common with two widely criticized Batman films, that should get more appreciation in the wider pantheon of Batman films (which, by the way, both portray Batman/Bruce Wayne more accurately to the comics than the Lego Version).

Shumacher's films are deliberately over the top and fun. Where Tim Burton's Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992) were darker films, Joel was tasked with making Batman more fun. He did this by reminding everyone they were making a comic book movie, constantly. To his mind comics are all about fun.

Lego Batman raps in
his movie.
The Lego Batman Movie is as over the top as it gets. Every major and supporting character is a larger than life version of that character. Front and center is the most larger than life, over the top version of Batman ever put on screen. He's awesome, just ask him and he'll tell you how awesome. He's more over the top than Jim Carey's Riddler... and that's saying something.

Not unlike the Schumacher films, Lego Batman is filled with questionable plot holes, silly jokes and borderline nonsensical action. It's also guilty of suspending action, multiple times (like Spiderman 3 does), so that characters can have a moment swapping important dialogue. Most notably in one of the final scenes with Batman and Joker talking face to face whilst everything around them is literally falling apart. All that can wait until these two finish chatting right?

As a kids movie, Lego Batman is great fun. There's not as much here for adults to enjoy on an adult level, but your inner child will have plenty of fun. If you're a real Batman fan, you'll be delighted by the history nods. If you're able to comprehend the message of 'family is important' you'll probably roll your eyes at how that theme is crow-barred and hammered into the final act like they just remembered they were setting this up in the first act.

I enjoyed The Lego Batman Movie but I disagree it's one of the best Batman movies you'll see. One of the best children's Batman films maybe but, unlike Batman v Superman, I didn't leave the theater excited for the next installment. You won't be itching to see a Lego Harley Quinn movie, Lego Bat Girl movie or a Lego Justice League Movie. Lego Joker movie...? Yeah, sure. Why not? That would probably be fun right? Meh.

The original Lego Movie was innovative and stood out from much of Lego's straight to Home Video releases. Lego Batman didn't really bring anything new to the screen and plays like a longer Lego home video film but rendered in the Lego Movie style.

Everything being made out of Lego is almost incidental rather than essential to the plot. I could have been watching a Joel Schumacher, live action Batman movie, and it would've been slightly more awesome because of the leaps and bounds in realistic CGI effects we've had since 1997.

If we get a Lego Batman Movie sequel, or even just another Lego movie of any kind, I really hope they do something we've never seen before... like maybe Justice League v The Avengers. Could happen since Lego hold a license for both Marvel and DC characters and seem to have fewer stumbling blocks when it comes to mashing together different universes. I know I'd get excited for that!

In the meantime, here's what a JL v Avengers movie might look like...

Comments

Buy Gifts and Apparel featuring art by TET.

Popular posts from this blog

James Gunn's Social Media Monkeys Joke Was a Highlight of His Superman Movie For Me

B efore James Gunn's Superman Movie was released there was a whole rumor going around that the movie would feature monkeys on computers trolling Superman's social media, sparking much outrage. #supersh*t. I didn't know this was even a thing until just prior to writing this article. I did a search to see if anyone had posted a clip of the monkeys scene from the movie and got pages of discourse featuring videos and articles prior to the film. Most of it from Gunn detractors (let's say) seeing it as some kind of childish swipe at them... well not them specifically but, you know, those other people who have every right to hate on anything sight unseen. Anyway, I'm not going to give even one such example a link or air because it's kind of sad watching someone devote so much commentary to a throw away gag that is absolutely a nod to James Gunn's Superman trolls.  The whole reason this post exists, is to say I loved the joke, because fourteen years ago, and I...

I'm Joining the Illuminati Brotherhood By Personal Invitation of Hiltom Rothschild... Wait, What?

How special am I to have finally come of age (53 years young) and am now eligible to participate in building the world alongside other members of the Illuminati Brotherhood... Yes I've received the call by way of an email, which I'm sure is real because I had to translate it from the Dutch language and it was personally written by Hiltom Rothschild, one of the non-existent members of the Rothschild family (or perhaps deep undercover because Google has never heard of them?). A Transcript of the email below: To: etourist From: Illuminati Brotherhood  Subject: Illuminati Broederschap (Illuminati Brotherhood) I am Hiltom Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild family, one of the 13 families of the Illuminati brotherhood. I'm here to let you know that you've come of age and are eligible to participate in building the 🌎 world. It is a calling and a privilege to honor him with pride and gratitude as not everyone will ever be chosen by the LIGHT, many are called but few are ch...

How to Transfer Any Line Art to Your Griptape - Easy Skateboard Griptape Art Tutorial

Dog Star Griptape Art by TET Griptape art is once again gaining popularity amongst modern skateboarders. For those of us who have tried to create our own griptape art, using paint pens, you'll know reproducing your design onto the grip, without making any mistakes is incredibly challenging. Mostly because you just have to go for it and draw the design freehand, with paint pens, directly onto the griptape. You can make the odd mistake here or there but if you get the proportions of the design completely wrong, it can be very difficult to fix. Often you just have to live with the mistake. To address the problem I've come up with an easy way anyone can transfer a line art design to their griptape, removing almost all the anxiety of getting the proportions wrong. In fact, you could do this with any line art design, even if you have no drawing skill at all. Watch the video below to see my technique in action and/or skip past the video where I highlight the basic steps to get your de...

Is AI Art 'Art'? The Say NO to AI Art Movement, and Why Human Artists Will Adapt

AI Art No T-Shirt by TET Also available on other items . Right now there is a big debate over not just whether AI art is 'art' but whether AI's are actually ripping off the work of actual human artists, without their consent, to create their images - particularly images 'in the style of' specific artists. From my own observations this debate started to get more traction when artist's signatures began appearing in the output of AI Art  image generators. Is It Art? Cool Froyd the Cat Sketch by TET. My style is very much influenced by classic Disney and WB character styles. To get some clarity on how real human artists work (of which I am one)... we, that is all of us... take influences from the art that has come before. i.e. whatever artists we like, have studied, seen etc. we are influenced by. It shows up in our work, intentionally or not. If you really study my own cartoony art style you'll see I'm heavily influenced by early Disney and Warner Bros cart...

Movie Review: A Complete Unknown (2024) *No Spoilers*

Y ou would think the Bob Dylan story would be 'wind-swept and interesting,' to quote Billy Connelly, however, despite  A Complete Unknown  being quite an engaging film, it feels like it missed the years that really shaped him as a song writer/performer. The film starts in 1961, with a then unknown, 19-year-old Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) arriving in New York City with his guitar.  From there he forges relationships with musical icons on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance that reverberates around the world. The problem being, according to this film, Dylan arrived in New York, for the most part, fully formed as a folk singer/song writer. In virtually no time he makes a very important connection that puts him on the trajectory of doing the work and becoming a name, before making his world changing performance. While there is some drama behind the scenes with his various relationships, none of it is particularly unique to any number of up and com...

Commodore Computers Are On Their Way Back With a New CEO and Many of the Original Team Founders

Commodore 64 Ultimate: Starlight Edition. An updated C64 for today. C hances are, if you grew up in the 1970s and 80's, the first computer your family owned was a Commodore 64 (or possibly the Vic-20, also by Commodore, that preceded it). I taught myself to code in BASIC on our Commodore 64 (C64), making ASCII based games (i.e. graphics made from the letters and symbols assigned to the various keyboard keys). I coded a Tic Tac Toe two player game, a simple shooting gallery game, and a flash card game to help me learn the Periodic Table, which (much to my... I want to say horror... got me bumped up to an advanced science class in high school). Later I'd go on to dabbling in true 8 bit, and 16 and 32 bit, graphical games, when we upgraded to the C128, Amiga 500, then Amiga 600, but I never actually finished anything because, by then I'd gotten into skateboarding, so I was trying to make my ultimate skateboard game - ambitious much? It was Commodore machines that showed me mak...

Movie Review: Superman (2025) *No Spoilers*

T he one thing I like about James Gunn as a comic book movie director is that he leans into the comic book nature of the world and the characters.  He's not trying to do a realistic take on any of the characters. He's simply bringing the comics to life. It's still his take on the characters, but he doesn't shy away from their comic book origins. James Gunn's  Superman  is very much a comic book movie in every sense. Nothing is off the table because it's too 'comic-booky' and might look silly in a live action film.  To me that's incredibly liberating. It lets James actually tell a proper Superman story that isn't hamstrung by reality, or tip toeing into the fantastical just enough to allow Superman to exist in the real world. Superman begins in the middle of a battle. Metropolis is under attack by a super powered being known as 'Hammer of Boravia', however everything is not as it seems, and Superman (David Corenswet) must work with other s...