Does The Lego Batman Movie really need and explanation. It's a Batman spinoff from The Lego Movie. You now know all you need to know about the tone and content.
The Lego Movie is probably now my favourite animated film of 2014. At the time I would have said How To Train Your Dragon 2, due to its better story. But The Lego Movie is just so fun and enjoyable that I find it much easier just to watch. I think it's fair to say I went in to The Lego Batman Movie with high expectations.
I'm glad to say that it didn't disappoint. It is just as fun as the original, but I'm not sure whether it is quite as good as it. This is the first film in a while that I have seem where I have had a constant smile on my face from the opening until the credits. There's a lot of smart humour, reference humour and meta humour, and just innocent fun that I can see almost anyone enjoying this. As a Batman fan I really appreciated the references to the past films and the comics. As a film fan I really appreciated the film references and the general meta-ness it had. And as a Lego fan I really appreciated how much of a pure blast of fun this is. With the meta and reference humour present it isn't surprising to learn that two of the writers worked on Community.
Will Arnett's Batman is never intended to be as serious as Bale or Affleck's. Despite being a few centimetres tall and made of plastic, he is somehow more complex than Affleck's Batman in BvS:DoJ was. He is shown as a man with commitment and family issues, and is too stubborn and self focused to notice any other person apart from himself. Michael Cera is perfectly cast as this Robin, and works really well with Arnett's Batman. The Batman villains' voices are made up of comedians, but there is one big missed opportunity that I will specify at the end, as I would consider it a spoiler.
It really isn't surprising when an animated film looks great. So I hope you're not surprised when I tell you this looks great.
It's nice to see that DC is able to have fun with a film. Like Deadpool and Fox/Marvel, WB/DC are able to poke fun at their films here in what is essentially a parody of superhero films. It is somehow the best DC film since the first half of Man of Steel, and is the Batman movie we need, but not the Batman movie we deserve right now.
In short: The Lego Batman Movies strives and succeeds to entertain.
Spoilers: Because it is Lego they are able to bring in characters from other properties. One character is Voldemort, as played by Ralph Fiennes from Goblet of Fire to Deathly Hallows Part 2. Here Fiennes provides the voice of Alfred and Voldemort is voiced by Eddie Izzard. It seems like a missed opportunity not to have Fiennes voice both characters and have a meta exchange between them.
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