THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE ■ Another entertaining Lego brick in the wall
THE LEGO MOVIE was better than it had any right to be. It could have just been a cheap cash-in on the popular LEGO construction toys, but it turned out to be so much more. With a talented voice cast led by frequently hilarious writer/director duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, THE LEGO MOVIE proved to be a transcendent triumph that could be enjoyed by cinemagoers young and old.
A sequel was inevitable, but before that hits, the powers that be decided a spin-off was the best first order of follow-up business. Enter THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE. Will Arnett’s take on Batman in THE LEGO MOVIE was fantastic, but with so many gritty BATMAN movies over the years, it was always going to be a challenge to find the right story to tell in this family-friendly space. As it turns out, the solution for director Chris McKay was to make THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE an homage to all things Batman, both the weird and obscure examples from the comics, and all screen iterations.
On this level, it works really well for the older viewers who get the references, while the kids can laugh at the good-natured goofball humour that permeates throughout the movie. In terms of the emotional through-line, though, THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE suffers because of what came before it. Where THE LEGO MOVIE seamlessly blurred multiple realities with different intellectual properties, and consistently entertained while telling a heart-warming story, THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE leans a little too heavily into its exploration of Batman’s self-determined isolation and rejection of familial relationships.
When it’s firing on all cylinders, THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE is a tonne of fun, but it sometimes feels like there’s a stark tone shift between gravitas and comedic moments. It just doesn’t gel together as well as it should. That’s not to say that these tone shifts in THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE are distracting to the point where it resets the fun-o-meter. There’s still absolutely enough entertainment here to justify the price of admission, it’s just missing that magical thread that made THE LEGO MOVIE an instant must-see classic.