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“Everything is awesome … Everything is cool when you’re
part of a team.” To be sure, everything is
awesome, and cool, when you’re part of the LEGO-movie-watchers team. “The LEGO
Batman Movie” may not compete with this past weekend’s Oscar picks, but it’s
plenty awesome, and, as all the nerds will agree, it’s way cool.
Every moment of the movie is a shotgun blast of fast-paced
action, dialogue, plot, and character development. It’s like a normal Batman
movie put on fast-forward.
It starts with the Joker (Zack Galifianakis) once again
threatening Gotham City. Oh, and he’s joined by Bane, Two Face, the Riddler, Cat
Woman, the Penguin, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, and a bunch of other guys I’d never ever
heard of before but that I’ve come to learn really have been Batman villains at
some point (Condiment King? Seriously?). It is intense.
But just as quickly as these baddies come on the scene,
Batman (Will Arnett) wipes them out. A few kicks here, a couple punches there …
a dazzling array of explosions, jumps, flips, crashes, falls, etc., and it’s
done. Batman is the hero once again. Everyone adores him.
But then just as quickly as the celebration erupts—which,
really, is just an extension of the over-the-top action sequence—everything
stops. Batman goes home, alone. He quietly changes his clothes, moseys on up to
the kitchen, microwaves a plate of lobster thermidor that Alfred (Ralph
Fiennes) left him in the fridge, and eats his dinner … alone, in silence.
Batman repeatedly insists that his greatest fear is snake
clowns. But that’s just a cover. His greatest fear is new relationships—it is opening
himself up to new bonds of affection, and thereby risking further loss and pain
(remember, his parents died). Even the Joker is miffed at how Batman doesn’t consider
their adversarial relationship special.
So when orphan Dick Grayson (Michael Cera)—who becomes
Robin—gets a very distracted Batman to agree to adopt him, Batman’s frail
psychological constitution—a constitution that is masked by his gruff exterior,
nine-pack abs, raspy voice, and, yes, a literal mask—is put at risk.
But, hey, Robin turns out to be all right. He does
everything Batman tells him to do, and ends up being pretty good at the whole
crime-fighting thing. The only question is whether Batman—who cannot hide his
approval of Robin’s performance—can let Robin in, so to speak.
Indeed, that’s the big question. Batman is a solitary
warrior. It’s in his DNA. But complete solitude isn’t good for anyone, even
Batman … especially when you are trying to fight roughly 10,000 baddies at
once. So Batman can go it alone, as he always has, and risk the complete
destruction of Gotham (which, of course, is built on a couple of those flimsy
LEGO panels, and so is primed to snap apart). Or Batman can work with his
friends and newfound family, and risk losing them.
OK, there’s not a ton to “The LEGO Batman Movie”. What do
you expect? But there is still plenty to love. It is quick, witty, and super
funny. You know when you read that Will Arnett is the voice of Batman and
Michael Cera is the voice of Robin, you were already cracking up. They are
perfect.
And I say there’s not a ton to the movie, but that’s not
quite right. Its relentless sendups of the Batman franchise—and superhero
movies in general—are pretty sophisticated. Even the insanely fast pace of the
movie scratches the action movie itch while also cleverly making you aware that
it is, perhaps to an embarrassing extent, scratching that itch.
And, as I’ve said, the dialogue and jokes (some of which
are quite subtle) come at you with such blistering speed, that a lot of this
movie is more for adults. It’s hard to imagine kids getting it all. They will
still enjoy it, of course—there is enough stimulation to guarantee that. It’s
like a fine chocolate truffle. Kids won’t appreciate the complex flavors cascading
over their undiscriminating palates, but, no worries, they’ll still scarf it
down.
There is also a nice little moral that is accessible to
kids. What ends up being really noble about Batman (I won’t really ruin
anything here, I promise), is not that he beats everyone up, or that he learns
to let others into his life; it is rather that Batman recognized one of his
flaws, and made a change. That’s a rather simple message, but a good one.
Anyway, go see the movie. It’s great.
