Luckily, The LEGO Batman Movie is here to bring such elements to the forefront once again and utilizes them in a way that helps reinforce why someone like Robin has existed in the funny books for 77 years now. But before the likes of Robin and Bat-Girl get introduced in The LEGO Batman Movie, we get to meet this film's depiction of Batman, who's played by Will Arnett and previously appeared in the 2014 feature The LEGO Movie. Batman is a powerful crime fighter in Gotham City, loved by many and seemingly has the perfect life...except, when he's not out crime fighting, he's a lonely soul who refuses to become emotionally entangled with anybody due to how he's still unable to recover from the loss of his parents at a young age.
His inability to commit emotionally to those around him makes it difficult for him to properly engage with some extremely important figures in his life, including new police Commissioner Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson), recurring enemy The Joker (Zach Galifianakis) and recently adopted son Dick Grayson A.K.A. Robin (Michael Cera). Despite being ostensibly on the surface another 100-minute long commercial for various DC Comics-themed playthings, this newest Batman feature actually explores a pretty interesting side of its lead superheroes psyche in an intriguing manner that dwarfs the exploration of Batman as a character seen in the works of filmmakers behind supposedly more grown-up Batman films like Tim Burton or Christopher Nolan (the latter filmmaker with The Dark Knight Rises specifically).
Getting at the roots of why Batman is such an emotionally withdrawn soul provides some fine grounding for the project, especially since it goes deeper into how the loss of his parents affects Batman than just showing the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne for the umpteenth time. To boot, giving this specific character arc for Batman allows recurring Batman comic book fixtures like Robin and Barbara Gordon to carry new thematic meaning in the way they're depicted in this particular feature. I'll freely admit, on a super fanboy-ish note, that it is really nice to see Robin, who's been relegated to just being a punchline for so long, utilized in a dramatically satisfying fashion here. That young ward really is a pivotal part of Batman if you get the chance!
While The LEGO Batman Movie takes its lead character in some intriguing dramatic storytelling routes, the main name of the game here is, of course, to provide some zany fun reminiscent of the sort of enjoyable rules-free experience kids have when they're playing with their LEGO's. There's some parts of the big final battle in the third act where recreating this particular zany atmosphere becomes more frantic than fun for sure, but otherwise, The LEGO Batman Movie manages to retain the endearing as all out zippy a-gag-a-second spirit of the original LEGO movie, with dialogue and jokes coming at the audience in a rapid fire manner that makes it all the more impressive that, despite how quickly these gags are coming at the audience, they don't just work OK, there's some real gut-bustingly funny pieces of dialogue in here, particularly in regards to anything the eternally optimistic Robin says in response to the aloof Batman had me in stitches (just you wait until you hear the song he wants to sign in honor of his superhero code name!).
This type of comedy gets to be applied to the seventy-eight-year-old mythology of Batman, which turns out to be an excellent pairing, since all of the little comic book/film references to Batman's past provide plenty of opportunities for humorous off-hand pieces of dialogue or background gags. Replicating the breakneck speed of the piece is the way director Chris McKay shoots the various action scenes Batman engages in, which have the camera swooping around the combat so as to follow the brooding hero as he punches down bad guys and lays down some sick beats (yes, you read that right) in a way that lets you take in all the colorful brick-built mayhem. Despite The LEGO Batman Movie very much carrying an indefatigable sense of excitement in its presentation, that unique energy doesn't come at the cost of cohesively shot camerawork, which really lets every detail of the beautifully crafted LEGO-built world get soaked in.
In his second turn as LEGO Batman, Will Arnett cements himself, in my mind, as the best big screen version of Batman. Yeah, come at me nerds in the comment section! In all seriousness, Arnett manages to prove once again why he's so good at htis whole voice acting biz, doing a vocal performance that meshes together humor and underlying pain in a way that doesn't feel too far removed from his other iconic animated character, BoJack Horseman. Michael Cera makes for the perfect foil to Arnett's grizzled performance, with his eager-to-be-loved spirit providing plenty of laughs and Zach Galifianakis find similar levels of success in his turn as The Joker, which manages to bring a more needy everyman quality to the world-renowned baddie. Really, the entire cast (which also includes a perfectly cast Jenny Slate as Harley Quinn) is loads of fun and they provide a lot of the irresistible zest that makes The LEGO Batman Movie the kind of fun film that handily put a Joker-sized grin on my face before the studio logos were even done playing.
No comments:
Post a Comment