Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'The LEGO Batman Movie'

Written by Mike Cervantes

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

It’s been reported that, while on the set of 1997’s Batman and Robin, director Joel Shumacher would shout “Remember everyone, this is a cartoon!” on the set just a few seconds before saying action, which was jarring to many of the actors, and likely led to many of the dramatic fallen arches of that film. Mind you, here have been cartoon versions of Batman before, but even in respect to the critically acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series, they’ve only existed to play to the themes present in the 75+ year franchise.

On the other hand The LEGO Batman Movie, answers Shumacher’s call, not just by being a literal cartoon, but by presenting us with concept after concept that turns out awesome despite reading like it was just written off the top of some hyperactive kid’s brain: Characters shout ‘pew-pew’ as they fire lazer pistols. Batman doesn’t ride in a Batmobile OR a Bat-plane as much as in an ambulatory “Bat-Scuttler” that either crawls on the ground or flies in the air, depending on what mode it’s in. Master plans are set forward by The Joker, as played by Zach Galifianakis, who commands a rogue gallery that includes not just Catwoman, The Penguin and the Riddler, but obscure villains like Orca, White Rabbit, and Condiment King.

The Batman featured in this film, imported directly from 2014’s The LEGO Movie, and voiced once again by Will Arnett, is the emotional center of the film. He is neither the brooding dark Avenger, nor campy Adam West law enforcement surrogate. He’s a rampaging super-ego who has a perceived rivalry with Superman (Channing Tatum), inclinations towards beatbox and dress up parties, with an oddly routine personal life that involves eating microwaveable lobster while watching Jerry Maguire. The life he lives as an abject loner is obvious to everyone who has interacted with him, particularly his butler Alfred (Ralph Feinnes), who goes out of his way to try to attach a social life to his surrogate son. An opportunity arises when he simultaneously adopts an eager young orphan Dick Grayson (Michael Cera) and loses his “savior of Gotham City” title to Commissioner Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson). Instead of choosing to open himself up to his new allies, he hatches a plot to steal Superman’s Phantom Zone Projector and send The Joker to an interdimensional prison where he can cause no more damage to Gotham.

In regards to references to the overall Batman mythos, I would say that nods to the series are scattered across the film as easily as a pile of loose LEGO bricks. There’s more than one reference to the characters being more than 75 years old, despite some of them meeting for the very first time, and a battle that Batman alongside Robin contains large visible sound effects that exist nowhere else in the film.

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At the same time the movie plays as much with its in universe tropes as it displays them, as it features a Joker that actually has a compatible relationship with his Harley Quinn (Jenny Slate) although his one-sided relationship with Batman is truly the thing that drives him insane. There’s also the presence of a romance between Batman and Barbara Gordon, an element of the mythos that was considered to be the worst element of a recent direct to DVD adaptation of The Killing Joke. While it was absolutely skeevy and wrong in that film, it surprisingly works here, not merely because this Barbara Gordon is elevated to the status of crime-fighting equal, but because this emotionally immature Batman limits his attraction to taking sparkle-lensed gazes at her while Cutting Crew plays in the background. Then there is the moment when the Joker is inevitably tossed into the Phantom Zone, and he makes acquaintance with several villains that are neither Batman OR DC Comics related, leading into a third act that is exactly as hyperactive and fanservice-filled as the one in the original LEGO movie.
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The movie runs at a breakneck action film style pace with the characters moving at a speed so kinetic it outruns even the mock-stop-motion CG style that it is trying to convey. Unlike your standard action film, however, it does take the occasional pause to establish genuine emotion and compatibility amongst its main cast. This film would have lived or died based on how realistic its characters felt, and thankfully the directors took the time to imbue their plastic toy creations with just the right amount of heart.

Just like The LEGO Movie before it, The LEGO Batman Movie emits a joy the same as opening a big box of sugary cereal puffs: it’s jolly and candy-colored, with a free prize inside, and might leave you hyperactive once you’ve swallowed the whole thing in one sitting. You’ll walk away from the experience both wanting more, and taking a few of these zany interpretations as your own personal headcannon. We can only hope, as we anticipate almost yearly LEGO adaptations of films in the coming years, that they still maintain this exact same level of overall quality. 

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