Review: The LEGO Batman Movie – “The best DC movie in nine years. A brilliant blocks buster”

Robot Chicken director Chris McKay and the writer of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Seth Grahame-Smith, team up to make the best DC movie in nine years: The LEGO Batman Movie.

Lending their voices to the minifigs are Will Arnett (Arrested Development) as Batman, Michael Cera (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) as Robin, Zach Galifianakis as The Joker, Rosario Dawson as Batgirl and Ralph Fiennes as Alfred.

Batman may be awesome, but LEGO Batman is even awesomer. We first meet him easily defeating The Joker and every other Bat-villain at the same time, while singing a song, quipping and looking rad doing it. But he still returns to an empty Batcave. Not that he would ever admit it, but Bats is lonely and discovering that the rest of the Justice League are partying without him makes it even worse.

While The Dark Knight is at his lowest, The Joker ditches the standard Batman villains, travels to The Phantom Zone and recruits a new, completely bananas rogues gallery that includes: the Gremlins, Sauron, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, the Daleks, King Kong, Agent Smith and even some raptors. To defeat this new multi-franchise rogues gallery, Batman can no longer work alone, and might just have to let Alfred, Barbara Gordon and an orphan named Dick into his life for a self-discovering adventure of family, friendship and fun.

As well as being insanely easter egg riddled, the action sequences are complex and cool, and the whole thing is non-stop hilarious. Lively direction and incredible animation bring these tiny, not particularly articulate toys to wonderful life, and the excellent voice cast make them fully fledged characters.

As well as the central core of Arnett’s spot-on Batman, Cera’s sweet Robin, Fiennes’s father figure Alfred and Dawson’s cracking Babs/Batgirl, some other highlights are: Doug Benson doing a spot-on Tom Hardy Bane, Billy-Dee Williams finally getting to be Two Face after never getting further than playing Harvey Dent in Tim Burton’s Batman, Eddie Izzard as Voldemort, and Jemaine Clement as Sauron.

Even better than The LEGO Movie, The LEGO Batman Movie is an brilliant blocks buster full of awesome action, friendship and ninjitsu. A complete treat for anyone who is alive, it is a pure joy that knows, mines, loves and mocks the Batman mythology to delightful, ludicrous and priceless effect. Plus, it thankfully does not have the awful world-breaking reality check that wrecked the first LEGO Movie.

Dear Warner Bros.,

Build the rest of the DCEU out of LEGO.

Love,

Alan