Movie Review: Lego Batman

This week I’ll be reviewing Warner Bros’ follow-up to 2014’s hugely successful Lego Movie: the Lego Batman Movie. Set in the same universe made entirely of plastic bricks, the film follows its titular character, originally introduced in the first movie, as he embarks on an emotionally fulfilling journey of his own. Much like its predecessor the Lego Batman Movie is a whip-smart parody, brimming with tongue-in-cheek references to pop culture, clever fourth wall breaks, and a simple but emotionally resonant message that viewers of all ages will find satisfying.

Plus lobster thermidor. So much lobster thermidor.

The film opens in true comic book fashion, with our hero’s internal monologue setting the scene. Lego Gotham is under attack from the Joker, who has gathered a who’s-who of Batman villains - both familiar and impressively obscure - to bomb the city. The Caped Crusader appears on the scene and manages to single-handedly defeat every bad guy and briefly capture the Joker, only to realize that he still has to diffuse the bomb that would destroy the city. Joker mocks him for having no one to help him save the city, but Batman stubbornly asserts that he doesn’t need anybody, releasing Joker and stopping the bomb on his own.

Joker took it well.

After receiving the city’s thanks and flying home, however, it’s clear that the Joker had a point. Aside from Alfred, Batman lives alone in his hilltop mansion, microwaving lobster thermidor and watching sappy romantic comedies in his massive home theater. Alfred himself has noticed this and encourages his master to let someone into his life for a change, but his pleas fall on deaf pointy bat-ears. The Caped Crusader’s life is turned upside down nonetheless when he attends Commissioner Gordon’s retirement party as Bruce Wayne. He unknowingly adopts orphan Dick Grayson, distracted by the arrival of Gordon’s replacement - his daughter Barbara. To complicate matters further, Barbara introduces an initiative encouraging Batman to work with the police, and Joker shows up to...surrender, helpfully delivering all the city’s other villains as well. Suddenly, Batman has a young charge, no support from the people of Gotham, and no crime to fight.

Certain that his not-archenemy is up to something, the Dark Knight springs into action, ignoring Barbara’s requests to work together and dragging along his adopted son in a harebrained scheme to banish Joker to another dimension of criminals. I won’t spoil the plan here, but suffice to say it involves a trip to Superman’s Fortress of Solitude and a hilariously depressing cameo by the Justice League. When his strategy backfires, Batman finds himself in such pinch that even he will need a little help getting out of it. Clocking in at just over 100 minutes, the film never drags or feels boring. Much like its predecessor, there’s no shortage of silly jokes and product placement, but thanks to a heartfelt message of dealing with loss and opening up to other people, it never comes off as a cynical cash grab. If all movies based on popular children’s toy properties were this fun, I’d never leave the theater again.

The Flash Movie Picks Up Third (!) Writer

Eza Miller thinking this may not have been such a good idea.

Warner Bros has just hired a third writer to work on its upcoming solo movie for The Flash. As I have previously reported, the studio has had some trouble finding a creative direction for DC’s fastest hero. Originally, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies scribe Seth Grahame-Smith was attached to write and direct, but he left citing that old classic “creative differences.” His replacement, Dope director Rick Famuyiwa, would also depart after his rewrite didn’t land with executives. Now, for the third and hopefully last time, a writer, one Joby Harold, has been tapped to do a page one rewrite of the film. Harold’s star appears to be on the rise recently. Another one of his scripts has been adapted Guy Ritchie’s action-packed retelling of King Arthur, due out later this year, and he also served as executive producer on the criminally underrated 2014 sci-fi thriller Edge of Tomorrow. I want to be hopeful that this will turn out well, but the DC Extended Universe hasn’t endowed me with an abundance of confidence to date. Let’s just hope they give Harold more than six weeks to write this one. In the meantime Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman and Zack Snyder’s Justice League are both due out later this year.

My Favorite Bits of News From San Diego Comic-Con (Part Two)

There were more big reveals than you could shake a stick at this Saturday, but here are some of my highlights:

Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes dropped in on the folks at MTV Geek to discuss their appearance in Plants Vs Zombies Vs Jay and Silent Bob. It looks like this:

Smith also updated MTV Geek on his latest creative projects. The title he formerly called his last directorial effort, a hockey comedy-drama dubbed "Hit Somebody," will now be produced as a miniseries. Instead, his last movie will be Clerks III, and the script has been submitted to The Weinstein Company for review. He also hinted at an idea for a bizarre horror movie that came up during one of his podcasts in which a man is held captive and turned into a walrus (smh only Kevin Smith).

Meanwhile, IGN was covering a talk by Microsoft Creative Director Ken Lobb on the new Xbox One console. Lobb announced that the next gen black box will allow players to record and share the last 30 seconds of gameplay with a simple voice command, and the camera can tell when players have switched controllers, automatically switching controller settings based on who is holding it.

While discussing his new Hulu series The Awesomes, Seth Meyers revealed that he'd always wanted to do a Blue Beetle/Booster Gold superhero movie (with himself as Blue Beetle). I was instantly reminded of the latest installment from Yale Stewart's fantastic webcomic:

Full size here

Fun side story: Meyers once ran into professional comics penciller Kevin Maguire and asked to be drawn as Ted Kord's Blue Beetle. The resulting drawing is the thumbnail image for Meyers Twitter profile.

Attendees of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. panel were lucky enough to witness the entire pilot episode (word on the street is it's awesome).

But perhaps the biggest news of the day came from the DC cinematic universe, with the announcement of not one but three new working titles. The first, a follow-up to this year's Man of Steel, will be a Superman/Batman movie - pairing DC's two most recognizable names to take on the sequel to Marvel/Disney's highest-grossing film ever (good luck with that) in 2015. It's probably a safe bet to assume Henry Cavill will return as Supes, but there's no word on who will be buttoning up Bruce Wayne's tailored Armani suit this time around. Next up will be a film adaptation for The Flash in 2016, followed by DC's answer to Marvel's The Avengers, Justice League, in 2017. DC also revealed the logo for the first film in line:

I think the batarang looks a bit chubby.

That's it for Saturday. Check back in Sunday for the last helping of juicy nerd tidbits!

My Favorite Bits of News From San Diego Comic-Con

There was plenty of good nerdy news to choose from today, but these particular tidbits hit all the right buttons and stood out to me:


1. According to Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, DC Comics is wrapping up a crossover Justice League/JLA/Justice League Dark story arc called Trinity War. He also hinted that things will not end well for Earth's greatest heroes, particularly everyone's favorite Big Blue Boy Scout .

2. The good folks at Mondo revealed a line of limited edition posters and vinyl covers inspired by the cinematic works of Studio Ghibli.

Here's a sample...stop drooling.

3. Creators of that underrated critical darling of a show Orphan Black, Graeme Manson and John Fawcett announced that Season 1 DVDs of the series hit shelves this week.

4. And last but not least, Avatar creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko finally ante'd up and gave Legend of Korra fans the information they'd been waiting for - a September 2013 release - and almost 150 seconds of hysteria-inducing new footage. Enjoy: