The Lego Batman Movie

Taken at face value, The Lego Batman Movie, much like its predecessor, sounds like a perfectly stupid cash-in idea for a studio that unintentionally struck gold the first time around. Let's take a one note character from The Lego Movie, that's arguably already overexposed, and give him a full length movie. However, the Lego approach to movie making might be exactly what movies need nowadays: an accessible for all ages take down of self-serious nerd properties that have forgotten to have fun for years. As such, it's not a surprise that The Lego Batman Movie is not only the funniest movie I've seen this year, but also the best Batman movie in over half a decade.

The movie follows Batman living it up in Gotham City as he beats up multitudes of bad guys and fights with his nemesis Joker. However, after a series of events including the arrival of a new police commissioner and the capture of all of Gotham's criminals, Batman suffers an existential crisis, that may bring Gotham it's biggest threat to date. Faced with a job he can't finished alone, Batman will have to open and up and finally cooperate with his newfound team to save the day.

Like all of the best parodies, The Lego Batman Movie works wonders because it clearly knows and loves the character its spoofing. Much like his portrayal in The Lego Movie, Batman is still a cocky broody mess of a man with an added element of detachment. The reason this works for an entire feature, is because the script makes it clear that Batman's hyper-focus on fighting criminals solo is a clear effort to avoid connection and loss. So much so, that the inciting incident of the entire movie is Batman offending Joker by failing to acknowledge their connection in a prolonged sitcom-esque, just admit we're in a relationship, fight between the two.

Which means that a new commissioner, Barbara Gordon, aiming to team up with Batman rather than calling for help and the arrival of Robin both hit Batman's noted sore spot, but also force him to present an emotion besides rage. It's a great message of why teamwork is great for kids, but also emphasizes to adults and current comic book geeks that members of the Batman family like Robin and Batgirl serve a greater purpose. It feels a touch overplayed in certain moments, but somehow the movie manages to bring them back in an emotionally effective way.

With this emotional backdrop as the driving force, the movie offers up a frenetic pace of jokes as the character's expense, a powerpoint presentation even notes how it's not cool how this guy constantly beats up poor people, bolstered by the series scatological approach to comedy, fast paced action, and great Lego Brick animation. It's the kind of movie that people unfamiliar with Batman will like, but people who have watched every Batman movie and know the comics will be rolling in the aisles. There's something truly amazing about how a movie that makes fun of all of the Warner Bros. Batman movies  and features the character comes out of the same studio, but it's delightful.

Will Arnett is still perfect as Batman with a voice like gravel but with the added benefit of excellent comedic timing who clearly has a handle on how absurd the character inherently is and embraces it. The rest of voice cast is equally excellent with Rosario Dawson as Barbara Gordon, Ralph Fiennes bringing British deadpan as Alfred, and Zach Galafianakis as the emotional distressed Joker. However, my unexpected second place trophy actually goes to Michael Cera as Robin. In a perfect mixture of writing and performance, Cera's Robin is a bouncy ball of boyish energy and enthusiasm that is less of a moody teen and more of an excited puppy at Batman's side. The back and forth's between Batman and Robin are some of the best bits in the entire movie.

If there is an element doesn't fully work with the film it's the latter inclusion of other pop culture properties for the film's action packed finale. The jokes all land, because pretty much everything from the absurd physical bits to the pop culture jokes all land, but I was hoping for something akin to an expansion into the DC Comics Lego universe or a deeper dive into the Batman mythos. It's a small complaint and certainly doesn't take away from the movie, but it's where my preferences landed.

Above all else, the main thing that makes The Lego Batman Movie is the same thing that made The Lego Movie work: an undeniably sense of fun from the tone, to the voice-acting, and the animation style. Great for kids of all ages and likely one of my favorite movies of the year. Go see this.