THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE - MOVIE REVIEW

*Directed by Chris McKay

*Starring Will Arnett, Michael Cera, Ralph Fiennes, Rosario Dawson, and Zach Galifinakis

THE PLOT: Batman (Will Arnett) is always awesome at being the best vigilante in Lego Gotham City, but his personal life isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. He’s lonely and grieving the loss of his deceased family and not ready to start a family of his own. However, an orphan named Dick Grayson (Michael Cera) enters his life, which reluctantly makes Batman a father and they have to team up to face off against the evil forces led by a villain who's the worst of the worst in all of Gotham, not according to Batman, The Joker (Zach Galifianakis).

Now, I was a big fan of 2014’s The Lego Movie. It was a very entertaining, energetic and all around hilarious movie. I still really love watching it to this day and with The Lego Batman Movie being released I was incredibly optimistic and excited to see how this high energy adventure and hilarious tone that worked for The Lego Movie would pan out for this spin-off film. Safe to say that The Lego Batman Movie was another incredibly fun time at the theater.

Of course, Will Arnett voicing the lead of this Batman character was so hysterical but also had enough weight to carry his own movie. Michael Cera’s Robin also had a great compatibility with this Batman on screen. It was definitely a lot of fun to see these two interacting. Even the choice of Ralph Fiennes voicing Alfred fit perfectly as well as the way the character worked into the film. There was also the inclusion of Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson), who, too, was a very fitting side character. Last, but certainly not least Zach Galifianakis's Joker was very fun to watch on screen and see planning out such mischief. I’ll just say his evil plan in the movie will make geeks and movie fans just cry tears of joy. It is so awesome to see how it’s pulled off, which leads to another aspect I loved about this movie.

The movie throws so much at you with the humor and how it’s incorporated to tell the story and it helps move the film along. It just reminded me why I love seeing these kinds of movies and that reason is to just have some plain old fun. It sometimes can be easy to pick apart something, not that this film is flawless, but the fact that there are movies like these where you can just have fun with what you’re watching and not think anything of it. You can just turn your brain off and have a good time. I’m not saying you can’t analyze films like these, but the fact that with a film like this you can have fun for what it was and that’s what I did for a great deal of this movie. I had a really good time watching it. Like The Lego Movie, it’s very fast-paced and doesn’t stop, but because of that, the film is just so entertaining to watch from start to finish. Visually with this fast-paced style, the animation looks so gorgeous and colorful that it makes for a very fun visual presentation. The construction of this animated film is very well done with a good story that has solid emotion in the mix of it as well. It’s a very entertaining experience with really fun and well executed animated action sequences. Also, if you’re a fan of the 60s Batman show you are gonna have the time of your life. Just putting that thought out there as well.

My biggest issue with the movie is that even though a majority of the humor worked for me it wasn’t until the first act leading into the second act that the jokes felt tired. The film doesn’t use the potential of its humor to its advantage and in that regard the film loses steam. It falls into just telling a story and then has jokes here and there that I chuckled at. Don’t get me wrong though, quite a few times I belted out loud, but mostly the humor plays up in the beginning, but kind of lost its way in the second act. The third act is just an action blast that I could forget about what didn't work. All that said it was a really fun movie that I look forward to checking out again and am very glad is a solid addition to this Lego film franchise alongside The Lego Movie. It was a very fun visual experience with a hilarious band of characters that isn’t the most innovative animated creation but doesn’t need to be.

Verdict: B+

Thank you all for reading my review of The Lego Batman Movie. I encourage you to check it out this weekend and have yourselves a fun time. I look forward to seeing how these Lego universe films pan out. The Lego Ninjago Movie releases in September and it looks equally just as fun. Also, be sure to be on the lookout for my review of John Wick Chapter 2 posted tomorrow. Cannot wait to see how that pans out. Super excited for that one. Be sure to follow me on the social medias:

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Thank you all for reading and be sure to see some movies and all that good stuff.
Take care. :-)