The Lego Batman movie was missing one thing: The Lego Movie. Not that I didn’t think it wasn’t good. I actually marveled at the excellence of the animation and laughed at many of the funny bits. However, there was something missing in this movie that made The Lego Movie so great… Batman.
Batman’s cameo in The Lego Movie made a great impact in that film, and that’s what’s missing from The Batman Lego Movie. We needed a show stealer; a character as insanely authentic to complement Batman’s complexities. Sure, Boy Wonder was hilarious and Wilfred was good too. However, those characters did not bring that humor, say, Morgan Freeman brought to The Lego Movie. Batman’s presence was too overwhelming so why not play up Galifianakis as the Joker wild’n out as Batman struggles with his inner self. And I’m not saying The Joker should go around killing people, but this is a Lego movie so have The Joker have some creative building fun.
Lego Batman is a fun trip into a brighter world of The Dark Knight, however, it did not offer us much more than what we saw in The Lego Movie. Batman was just as outrageous but I just could not be as entertained by this spinoff as I was by the original Lego Movie. Not to say it was generic, but it wasn’t original. We’d seen it before. Now, if Batman were the first movie to premiere in the Lego Cinematic Universe, then maybe it would have been funnier — again, not to say that I was not entertained. I laughed the first time I watched the movie and found different parts to laugh at the second time I viewed the film with my family. I just felt that there was something missing. Something humorous to make this movie everything as awesome as The Lego Movie.
Maybe that’s my problem: The Lego Movie, it was too perfect of a movie and I just can’t let go. So, yes, I’m biased but I did enjoy the movie, really. So much so here are a few aspects of the movie I did like:
- Boy Wonder Cute and gullible. With those big eyes and glasses who wouldn’t love this adorable orphan?
- Awesome Bat Vehicles The Skuttler was a great master build; its wild how well animators of this movie were able to piece together the various means of transportation for the Batman.
- Rosario Dawson as Barbara Gordon Rosario Dawson… enough said.
- Soundtrack The theme song Friends are Family is almost as contagious as Everything is Awesome and just as great. Also (as a colleague of mine mentioned) The Justice League jammin’ out to African Bumbata was heavenly.
- Quips I wish I could list my favorites but I didn’t watch the movie with a notebook, and my ability to retain information disappears immediately as I think to regurgitate any of them for the purpose of sharing.
- The Bat Reference Many great references to the Batmen of today and yesteryear; they were great.
- The Looting Guy Once all h-e-double-hockey-sticks breaks loose, one guy runs away saying “I’mma go start looting.”
There is much to like about the Lego Batman movie and although I had that unsatisfied feeling thereafter, I could watch the movie much more times and discover more and more nuances and pop culture references, and jokes to entertain myself many viewings over.