The LEGO Batman Movie - Film Review

  TheBloodyCritique’s ‘The LEGO Batman Movie’ Film Review

From the guys who brought you The Lego Movie we now have The Lego Batman Movie, but it’s written by someone else and directed by someone else. In the DC Lego Universe Batman is beloved superhero who revels in Gotham City’s admiration for him, although when he returns to the Wayne Manor he’s overcome with a sense of loneliness, meanwhile The Joker, who only wants to be Batman’s nemesis, is assembling a mega group of all the villains from the DC universe as well as Sauron from Lord of the Rings, Voldermort from Harry Potter and the Daleks from Doctor Who, oh and the Mogwai from Gremlins! After accidentally adopting an orphan and undermining the new police lieutenant Barbara Gordon, Batman must overcome his loner act and learn the importance of friendship and team work!

I hated this movie, it was an hour and a half of Lego animation and movie references and that was it! This is coming from someone who really enjoyed The Lego Movie as well which was written and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, they serve only as producers on The Lego Batman Movie which is instead written by Seth Grahame-Smith and directed by Chris McKay. Upon a quick Wikipedia search it would seem neither of them have done anything particularly noteworthy and after seeing this they still haven’t. Well, Chris McKay did some work on Robot Chicken which means nothing to me, I’ve never watched it, I’ve seen clips and that’s why I haven’t watched it but I know people like it, or liked it, so maybe it will mean something to you. 

Every single attempt at comedy fell completely flat with me, I didn’t laugh once, they were definitely trying to be funny but I pretty much watched the entire movie with a blank expression on my face, the characters were boring, the story was boring, the jokes were lazy and uninspired, it was just colours and noise. There’s a lot of references, remember Batman, remember all the Batman villains, remember Superman, remember Lord of the Rings, remember Doctor Who, remember Jerry Maguire, I member! There’s nothing clever about this movie, I don’t even see the point of this even being a Lego movie, the relevance of the Lego is almost non-existent unlike The Lego Movie itself where it was important to the narrative and to the humour itself, The Lego Batman Movie is just a Batman spoof.  

Lending their voices to the noise side of this movie are Will Arnett as Batman, Zach Galifianakis as The Joker, Michael Cera as Robin, Rosario Dawson as Batgirl, Ralph Fiennes as Alfred, Mariah Carey, Eddie Izzard, Seth Green, Conan O’Brien, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill etc. No wonder it’s had such a great response, 91% on Rotten Tomatoes? Fuck off. No one’s voice stood out to me as particularly memorable, everyone voices their characters well I suppose but ultimately none of them could save this poorly written excuse for comedy from being the dud it is. I appreciate the effort that must have gone into animating it and it looks great but the novelty of Lego animation has really worn off since The Lego Movie and they don’t really do anything new or interesting with it here so it’s just wasted time. 

So that is that, would I recommend The Lego Batman Movie? No I wouldn’t, it’s not funny and it’s not entertaining, children might enjoy it, maybe! And people who love references, if you like Batman stuff this is a Batman thing so maybe you’ll find something in it but to everyone else, I would recommend that you just steer clear of this, if you haven’t seen The Lego Movie watch that instead! The Lego Movie was great! The Lego Batman Movie is just empty, unfunny and boring, nothing about it was remotely entertaining so yeah, I’m gonna give The Lego Batman Movie 5.2/10 and recommend you watch The Lego Movie instead!  

What did you think of The Lego Batman Movie?