Remember ‘The Lego Movie’? It seems mad to say it but it really was three whole years ago that it first entered our cinemas and, as the soundtrack suggested, everything about it was awesome. Now comes ‘The Lego Batman Movie’, the well-awaited spin-off moving away from the classic Lego characters such as Emmett and Wyldstyle and moving instead to the crime-drenched city of Gotham.
The Joker (Zach Galifianakis) and his team of usual suspects are back and, as always, Batman (Will Arnett) is hot on his case. Things go slightly differently this time though – Batman tells Joker that he is not, in fact, his greatest enemy after all, and claims that he means nothing to him. Joker, upset by this revelation, hands himself and the rest of them into the new commissioner Barbara (Rosalia Dawson) which effectively renders Batman redundant.
The focus isn’t all on Batman and Joker’s bromance though, as Batman also finds himself accidentally adopting Dick Grayson (Michael Cera), an orphan who idolises Bruce Wayne and Batman. Alfred (Ralph Fiennes) suggests he use this to get over his fear of being part of a family, and lose his loneliness once and for all. As you can expect it doesn’t all go to plan, and Batman has to face some of his biggest hurdles yet.
What makes a great kids’ film is the ability to appeal to all ages, and ‘The Lego Batman Movie’ does just that. It’s filled with jokes and gags that are funny for adults and children alike, but it’s also incredibly modern and current, as was ‘The Lego Movie’. Not all of the jokes worked (admittedly I found myself laughing less than I did in ‘The Lego Movie’), but it was easy to enjoy even if you’re not particularly a Batman or Lego fan. Don’t be surprised if, like the previous movie, your kids are still quoting this months down the line.
The start was excellent, as was the end, but it was the middle that didn’t work quite so well unfortunately – although the plot was interesting, it was so fast-paced that it felt a little messy at times. I also got the feeling that the idea for the franchise came long before the idea for the story, meaning that there were parts that seemed a tad forced. However, that’s not likely to be picked up on by the kids watching (just us cynical adults), and so wasn’t too much of an issue.
What I loved about it was just how many characters were involved – not only did we get to see a whole host of DC characters such as Bane, Harley Quinn, and a load of lesser-known ones, but we were also treated to a combination of enemies from unrelated franchises like Voldemort, Jaws, and the “British robots” (Daleks, of course). This worked really well but I just wanted more of it; there was so much going on at every point that some of the jokes got lost in the action, and it would have been more effective to have a bit less crazy at times.
Despite that, ‘The Lego Batman Movie’ is still a good film, with an excellent soundtrack and some really funny and silly moments mixed in with some quite emotional and poignant ones. It’s not as good as ‘The Lego Movie’ was, but it’s still got me hoping for another one.
★★★★☆
Hannah Read
The Lego Batman Movie at CeX
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