Sporting a brilliant and relentlessly funny script, while somehow still maintaining and paying due reverence to Batman's identity and legacy, The Lego Batman Movie (LBM) is the best big-screen outing for the Dark Knight since, well, Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight (2008), being in equal parts a self-aware parody, worthy homage and poignant deconstruction of everyone's favourite gravelly-voiced crime fighter.
To be frank, the broad strokes of LBM's story are largely unimportant. Rather, the story acts as a medium in which the intricacies of the Dark Knight's legacy and character are discussed (and deconstructed). Batman, with his new sidekick Robin in tow, fights through a gauntlet of villains in order to thwart the Joker's plans to destroy all of Gotham. Pretty much just another day in the life of Batman. What is different about LBM's Batman -- and its extended cast of classic characters -- are the ways in which they embody their respective character traits.
Batman (brilliantly voiced by Will Arnett) is now portrayed as a macho, egotistical dude-bro who can't go three lines without referencing his awesome nine-pack abs. Like his more serious iterations, however, Batman is very much still haunted by the death of his parents all those years ago, with his bravado and self-assured arrogance a façade to keep those around him at a distance, so he won't have to suffer the loss of those he cares about again.
Other characters -- from Robin to Joker -- similarly maintain their respective core character traits in wildly parodied ways. Robin, who in LBM is now a (literally) wide-eyed, bubbly, optimistic young orphan, still remains Batman's son-figure who connects him with his compassionate human side. The Joker, who is portrayed as Batman's sensitive (sort-of) girlfriend -- getting mad at him for "fighting around" with other villains or refusing to say "I hate you" back -- maintains his symbiotic relationship with Batman, with each of them giving each other meaning as hero and villain. The fact that these characters still retain their identities in relation to Batman's established ethos allows LBM to have fun with their portrayal, while still managing to tell a deeply "Batman" story that is simultaneously hilarious and emotional.
While Batman's over-the-top manliness and childishness acts as the crux of the film's comedy, LBM's brand of self-aware humour also brings to mind the 4th-wall-breaking antics of last year's Deadpool, without the profanity and gratuitous violence. Characters are often aware of the ridiculous, often comicbook-like situations they are in, and make mention of it more than once. At a certain point, Batman even says to Robin, "We're going to punch those guys so hard, words describing their impact are going to spontaneously materialise", before going on a beatdown filled with BAMPF!s and KAPOW!s.
This self-referential humour is often how the film pays tribute to the Bat's 70-plus years of history. Characters mention events from past Batman films ("Like the plan with the two boats?") like they're part of the same timeline, and Alfred (voiced by Ralph Fiennes) even goes on a monologue overlayed with a montage of every past Batman film poster at one point (except the 1966 Adam West version, which was lifted from the original film) only featuring Lego Batman instead (as the titular hero puts it himself, "I have aged phenomenally"). This history is even weaved into the story, as a sort of loving knock on the fact that Batman has hardly changed throughout his years on-screen.
In fact, Batman's very unchanging nature becomes a crucial part of LBM's emotional core, which has a surprisingly moving and well-earned resolution despite the film's inherent silliness. To ruin this for anyone would be criminal, and so I urge you to discover it yourself.
Much like The Lego Movie before it, LBM is a thoroughly pleasant romp through the joyful and imaginative world of animated Legos, with a hidden emotional depth that is only all too real.
The Lego Batman Movie
Animation featuring the voice of Will Arnett, Rosario Dawson, Ralph Fiennes, Zach Galifianakis. Directed by Chris McKay.
