I'm a night stalking, crime fighting vigilante.
I don't feel anything emotionally except for rage.
Everyone knows who Batman is.
But prior to 2017, the vast majority of DC Comics Batverse
was still waiting to be faithfully translated
to the silver screen.
Then The LEGO Batman Movie happened.
It could have been a glorified toy commercial,
but in what came as a delightful surprise
to pretty much everyone, it turned out
to be the ultimate cinematic love letter to the Dark Knight
and one of the most faithful Batman adaptations ever.
I've seen you go through similar phases in 2016, and 2012,
and 2008, and 2005, 1997, 1995, 1992, and 1989.
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By the early 1980s, the general public
mostly associated Batman with the campy 1966 Adam West TV
show.
A darker, grittier version of the character
managed to fight his way onto the screens in the 1989 movie
simply titled Batman, directed by Tim Burton.
Ever since then, film audiences have
been treated almost exclusively to increasingly dark, serious,
and realistic takes on the caped crusader.
The LEGO Batman, who appeared in 2014's LEGO Movie
and who was modeled on the Batman from Burton's movie
was a great satire of these black body armored gravelly
voiced movie Batmen.
Emmet, this is my boyfriend.
Batman.
I'm Batman.
His role in the original LEGO Movie
was to be a romantic rival for the protagonist, Emmet.
But along the way, Batman was featured
in some of the film's most memorable bits
and became something of a breakout character.
If anybody has black parts, I need them.
OK?
I only work in black.
And sometimes very, very dark gray.
Still, it wasn't obvious that he had
a tale of his own worth telling, much less
one that demanded a spinoff.
So when The LEGO Batman Movie was announced,
fans understandably suspected a cash grab.
It would be the feature directorial debut
of Chris McKay, who had worn a number of hats on The LEGO
Movie but was still greatly an unknown commodity
to the public.
Turns out, McKay knew what he was doing.
From a worldbuilding perspective,
LEGO Batman instantly realizes what
is by far the most expansive version of the Batverse
ever to make it onto the big screen.
Sure, it all doubles as commercials for LEGO figures
and playsets, but everything happens
in a way that supports the story and character journeys.
The film only takes minutes to establish
all of Gotham City, Wayne Manor, the Batcave, the Batmobile,
the Batsignal, and a Commissioner Gordon
who is used to turning it on every time he's in trouble.
Hey, kids!
Who wants a shot from the merch gun?
Great.
I got a lunchbox!
It also immediately shows us Batman's marquee supervillains,
like the Joker, the Riddler, the Penguin, Catwoman,
and Two-Face.
This stands in sharp contrast to the more serious takes, which
tended to start with origin stories
and then build and populate Batman's world
piecemeal over the course of several films.
LEGO Batman is as far from an origin story as you can get.
It just dives into a fully formed Batverse,
and even many of Batman's more obscure adversaries,
like Crazy Quilt, Eraser, Polka-Dot Man, Mime,
and Condiment King get to make appearances.
OK, are you making some of those up?
Nope, they're all real.
Probably worth a Google.
The film is full of fun Batman Easter eggs
and just generally gushes with love for all things Batman.
Given the hyper-detailing, The LEGO Batman Movie
probably could have rested its case on nostalgia alone.
But instead, it also delivered what
is among the most complete and heartfelt Batman stories ever
in a movie.
The plot is pretty simple.
Despite Batman being the celebrated hero of Gotham,
Bruce Wayne spends his life sad, alone,
and trying not to think about how much he misses his family.
His life is so empty he can walk around Wayne
Manor in a bathrobe and cowl.
It doesn't matter.
There's no one to hide his secret from.
But one night, he accidentally adopts plucky, wide eyed
orphan Dick Grayson, and the two team up to take on the Joker.
Over the course of their adventure,
Batman begins to feel a fatherly pride to his new ward, who
of course becomes Robin.
Meanwhile, the Joker is hurt and outraged
because Batman won't admit their rivalry is special.
You mean nothing to me.
So he gets himself sent to the Phantom Zone
where he recruits monsters from other franchises like Sauron,
Lord Voldemort, King Kong, and a bunch of others
to help him attack Gotham.
The scale of the threat forces Batman to confront his fears.
To win the fight, he has to open himself up to being a part of
and working with a new family that includes Robin, Alfred,
and the new police commissioner Barbara Gordon.
Why did you build this thing with only one seat?
Because last I checked, I only had one butt.
But to save Gotham City from falling into an abyss,
he also has to team up with all of his villains,
which means fessing up to his special relationship
with the Joker.
Chris McKay was a lifelong Batman fan,
and it showed in every frame of the movie.
He crafted a heartfelt ode to found family
where the assembled Batverse itself turned out
to be the hero of the story.
And he did it while simultaneously
respecting the mythology of The LEGO Movie.
If Joker's bomb were to go off, these plates
would break apart, plunging every Gotham citizen
into the eternal abyss that smells like dirty underwear.
Audiences loved it.
Critics loved it.
And most importantly, Batman fans loved it.
What are you doing?
Punching Bane.
That was unnecessary.
The LEGO Batman Movie sounded like a stupid idea
in the abstract, but that actually turned out
to be its greatest strength.
It meant it didn't have to worry about seeming goofy.
While we still have yet to see a live action kid
version of Robin, The LEGO Batman Movie
built its whole story around the Batman-Robin relationship.
My name is Richard Grayson, but all the kids at the orphanage
call me Dick.
Well, children can be cruel.
Yeah.
And the inherently goofy nature of LEGO Batman
made it easy to hand wave off some of the problematic aspects
of a billionaire using an orphan to perform dangerous superhero
work.
Can we use codenames?
I could be Robin.
As in the small Midwestern frail bird?
Yeah, and I already have a catchphrase.
Tweet tweet on the street.
Hard pass.
And when he's allowed into the Batcave,
his reaction is nothing short of wondrous and rapturous delight.
Batman thrusts him into the field on a whim,
and he's hilariously great at it,
so we're never worried about LEGO Robin.
It all works because the tone of the overall world is so silly.
The aesthetic of the LEGO characters
also make it so easy to poke a light
at some of the comic books' arguably dated wardrobe
choices, like Robin's green underwear and bare legs.
Pants are just a little tight.
I don't know if I could throw a kick or jump in them.
I got an idea.
Rip!
That's better.
It wouldn't have worked in live action,
but here it serves as a knowing wink to the camera
and sets up Batman for a joke.
I can only look you in the eyes right now.
That kind of thing freed viewers up
to focus on the story of two lonely orphans who
become each other's found family without getting bogged
down in the kinds of troublesome, real world details
that had frustrated previous attempts.
Another element of the Batman universe
that LEGO Batman was able to put back
at the center of the storytelling was family.
Specifically, the Bat Family, which is the name fans
use to describe the core characters in Batman's life.
But LEGO Batman took the idea of the Bat Family
to its furthest extreme, and by the time the movie is over,
the whole city is effectively Batman's family.
Bruce opens himself up to being part of a family again,
and he gains his whole world.
Most fitting of all is that Bruce's new family
forms around Batman.
Unlike the more serious tone takes, being the Dark Knight
isn't a curse to bear in this universe.
In The LEGO Movie, being Batman is a good thing,
and it saves Bruce's life in multiple senses.
No wonder Batman fans loved it.
In its opening minutes, the movie
establishes that LEGO Batman remembers
the climaxes of Batman '89 and Nolan's Dark Knight.
What about that time with the two boats?
This is better than the two boats.
At the same time, elements of the Adam West
show like Egghead and Chief O'Hara
and all those wacky Silver Age comic book villains
are also a part of his world.
And The LEGO Batman Movie is faithful
to all of those experiences.
So what do you think?
Did you like The LEGO Batman Movie,
and how do you think it stacked up against other cinematic
takes on Batman?
Let us down in the comments below.
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