My Movie Review on The LEGO Batman Movie

Yo, what's up, Kemosabes?

This is your friendly film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.

Today, I'm gonna give you guys my take of "The LEGO Batman Movie".

Here's the rundown of this spin-off:

In the wake of foiling the Joker's latest evil plan, Batman finds himself in some very difficult situations. Barbara Gordon, the daughter of the now-retired Commissioner Gordon, plans to completely restructure the police department to where it wouldn't be too over-reliant on Batman's alliance. As if that wasn't enough, Batman also becomes the unwitting-adopted father of Dick Grayson, who later becomes his sidekick, Robin.

With the Joker already concocting a new scheme, can Batman balance his new lifestyle as both a superhero and a father? As well as stay in Barbara Gordon's good graces?

What's more, can he also learn to work alongside others?

After I did my review of the two "LEGO Movie" films last year, I've been making plans for reviewing "The Lego Batman Movie" for quite a while. The biggest reasons for why are because of the film starring Will Arnett's version of the title character as the protagonist, and the references the 2nd "Lego Movie" made to this motion picture. In short, this has mainly been for continuity purposes.

The last time I saw "The LEGO Batman Movie" was back when my family and I had HBO GO, and I believe it must've been nearly a decade since I watched it. The only thing I remember regarding my first experience with the film was that I wasn't particularly impressed with it.. In order to make my review, though, I watched "The LEGO Batman Movie" for the 2nd time in my life while it was available on Peacock. I was happy that the movie was on a streaming service where I could watch it for free, that's for sure.

Coming from a guy who saw this movie again recently...well, let's just say I finally remembered exactly why I don't have "The LEGO Batman Movie" in my home video collection. In contrast to many others, I personally consider this film to be severely overrated and aggressively mediocre. And for a variety of reasons too.

For instance, the direction by Chris McKay, the story by Seth Grahame-Smith, and the screenplay by Smith, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Jared Stern, and John Whittington, were among the elements I found to be lacking.

From the beginning, I noted that McKay and company were trying to replicate the humorous style and wit of the first "LEGO Movie", only loonier and with more meta-humor. Aside from a few chuckle-worthy moments, though, hardly any of the jokes made me laugh. It particularly felt like the production team was trying too hard to make the film funny, and rather than succeeding in doing so, their efforts only seemed to make things more aggravating than amusing. Their attempts at giving the film heart and emotion were genuine, that I'll admit; heck, I think it was nice that McKay and company were wanting to teach that people should never close themselves off from others or be afraid of actually feeling for things. Unfortunately, the heartfelt and emotional aspects were far too flat, and the overall morals and themes weren't executed well. Especially to where I couldn't help but question the point behind them.

Continuity-wise, especially considering the references to this feature in the 2nd "LEGO Movie" film, this motion picture clearly didn't age well. For example, in "The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part", all of the Justice League members outside of Batman were confirmed to have gone in search of the DUPLO Planet; whereas in "The LEGO Batman Movie", Superman first appears in a news report talking about sending General Zod to the Phantom Zone, and he later appears with the other Justice League members celebrating the "57th Annual Justice League Party" at his Fortress of Solitude (without inviting Batman)! Not to mention the film carried too many questionable elements in its story, and the way it often progressed was a little too unnatural.

Aside from this, the majority of the voice acting and characters in this film didn't stand out to me in the slightest.

Don't get me wrong, I think Will Arnett is a terrific performer. His distinct voice, and his ability to make any piece of dialogue fun, can make any animated character he portrays both enjoyable and memorable. A factor that easily puts him in league with the likes of Gilbert Gottfried, Patrick Warburton, and Brad Garrett. And, I loved Arnett's work as Batman in the two "LEGO Movie" films.

To tell you the truth, though, I personally felt that Arnett's version of Batman works better as a supporting character rather than a protagonist. He wasn't able to carry his own movie, and no matter what sort of developments and personal conflicts he had, I couldn't get engaged by his focus or get myself to care for him. What really doesn't help the matter is that Arnett and the filmmakers couldn't find a foreground for giving Batman heart while preserving the character's spirit, and Batman himself was uncharacteristically more childish compared to the two "LEGO Movie" films.

But that's not even the worst part:

Hardly any of the new characters the film introduced stood out in the best way, because they were either forgettable or annoying; an aspect that the vocal performances didn't help with, particularly due to the castings and portrayals not evoking enough texture or personality. The very worst of them, in my opinion, was this movie's version of the Joker. He was neither as funny, intimidating, or diabolical compared to other versions of the Joker throughout the DC franchise, and Zach Galifianakis's performance and interpretation of the character was openly bland.

The subplot revolving around the Joker trying to get Batman to classify him as "His Greatest Foe" was incredibly weird and creepy, if I may add. I mean, when that was being done in "Phineas and Ferb" through Perry the Platypus and Heinz Doofenshmirtz, you can tell that despite being enemies, they have a great respect for one another deep down to where they could genuinely classify each other as frenemies. With Batman and Joker in this movie, though, everything about how the subplot was coming across felt like it had a homosexual subtext, which caused me to get incredibly uncomfortable. A prospect that I similarly felt in the news interview with Superman when he was talking about banishing General Zod.

In spite of these negatives I mentioned, I would like to say that the film wasn't without its highlights.

For me, the one new character that I consider to be a positive standout is Alfred Pennyworth. In spite of this movie's misguided direction and storytelling, I loved how the film team successfully portrayed Alfred as a warmhearted father figure, as well as a voice of wisdom and reason. Ralph Fiennes did a smashing job portraying the part, and I'm surprised Warner Bros. and DC didn't invite him to portray the character for other Batman-related media installments that aren't LEGO-based.

Plus, the animation and cinematography was outstanding. The visual style still had that stop-motion playfulness that helped everything look like actual toys were starring in a movie, and the cinematography genuinely felt like the kind a DC film would have.

The music by Lorne Balfe was marvelously melodious, if I may add. He's definitely no Mark Mothersbaugh, but he did a great job at capturing the spirit of a LEGO film while making everything his own, and it fit quite well for a superhero film. The material he created for the Phantom Zone scenes were what I consider to be the best of them.

In the end, though, aside from the highlights I mentioned, "The LEGO Batman Movie" is neither worthwhile or fun. Too many things about its story, direction, and various character portrayals weren't particularly enjoyable, and it doesn't live up to the positive reputation it received at all.

So, I rate "The LEGO Batman Movie" 2½ out of 5 stars.