Will Arnett’s Batman is a jerk, and that is the joke. In The Lego Batman Movie, he sulks through Gotham in black everything, saves the city, then tells the Joker to his face that their rivalry means nothing. The villain’s feelings are hurt. That is the engine of the whole film, and it is a better one than the 2017 release got credit for at the time.
Trailer, via Warner Bros..
A Batman Who Cannot Share the Room
The Lego Batman Movie runs 104 minutes and comes from director Chris McKay, working from a screenplay by Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Seth Grahame-Smith, Jared Stern and John Whittington, based on a Grahame-Smith story. It is the first spin-off in The Lego Movie franchise and the second installment overall, made across the United States, Australia and Denmark, with animation from Animal Logic and a score by Lorne Balfe.
The premise is small on purpose. Batman fights crime alone, prefers it that way, and says so. When he deems the Joker a perfunctory presence in his life, the insult lands harder than any punch. Zach Galifianakis voices the Joker as a wounded ego with a plan, and the plan is revenge, not robbery.
That is a sharper setup than most superhero comedies bother with. The film’s tagline — “Always be yourself… unless you can be Batman” — is a gag, but the movie keeps poking at what being Batman actually costs.
Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon and the Adoption
Bruce Wayne attends a gala for the retiring Commissioner Gordon and the ascension of his daughter, Barbara Gordon, voiced by Rosario Dawson. He is smitten by Barbara. He also, absent-mindedly, agrees to adopt Dick Grayson, the enthusiastic orphan voiced by Michael Cera.
Then Barbara tells him her plan to restructure the police so the city no longer needs Batman. He does not take it well. The Joker crashes the party with his crew, and then — this is the film’s best swerve — almost all of them abruptly surrender, Harley Quinn excepted. With the villains locked up, Batman has nothing to do. He becomes despondent. Gotham no longer requires him.
The film understands something the darker Batman movies mostly skip: a vigilante with no crime is just a man in a costume, alone in a big house.
Alfred, the Phantom Zone and a Bad Idea
Alfred Pennyworth, voiced by Ralph Fiennes, steps in. He tells Bruce to care for Dick. Bruce refuses. Alfred lets Dick into the Batcave anyway. Bruce appears as Batman, says he is adopting him, and christens him Robin.
Batman and Robin then steal Superman’s Phantom Zone projector, a device that banishes anyone to the Phantom Zone, where the Lego universe keeps its most dangerous villains. They recover it from the Atomic Cauldron in the Fortress of Solitude, break into Arkham Asylum, and send the Joker to the Phantom Zone.
Barbara suspects the Joker wanted to be sent there. She detains the two. While the projector is seized as evidence, Harley Quinn steals it back as part of the Joker’s plan and frees him. He returns to Gotham.
The plot is a machine for forcing Batman to work with other people, and it runs clean. No scene overstays. No subplot wanders off.
A Voice Cast Built to Bounce Off Each Other
The cast is the reason the jokes land. Arnett reprises the role from The Lego Movie. Cera plays Dick Grayson as pure neediness, which is exactly right against Arnett’s deadpan narcissism. Dawson gives Barbara a spine. Fiennes makes Alfred the only adult in the building.
Around them: Jenny Slate as Harley Quinn, Jason Mantzoukas as Scarecrow, Conan O’Brien as The Riddler, Doug Benson as Bane, Billy Dee Williams as Two-Face, Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman and Kate Micucci as Clayface. Billy Dee Williams voicing Two-Face is a nod to Batman history that the film does not stop to explain, which is the correct call.
Casting calls began in July 2015, when Cera was brought in, and ran through that November. Galifianakis entered final negotiations for the Joker in August 2015. Dawson came aboard in October, Fiennes the following month. Mariah Carey was initially reported as Commissioner Gordon; she was actually cast as Mayor McCaskill. The film pays homage to earlier Batman media and pulls in characters from other franchises and film series alongside them.
What the Movie Is Actually About
Under the bricks, The Lego Batman Movie is about a man who cannot let anyone close. The adoption is not a gag. It is the plot. Batman’s greatest fear, per the story, is what he has to overcome while saving Gotham from the Joker’s scheme, and the film treats that fear as the real antagonist.
The Lego Movie proved the toy could carry a feature. This one proves the franchise can spin off a character without losing the voice that made him funny. Development started in October 2014, after Warner Bros. announced several Lego films on the back of The Lego Movie’s success. McKay was hired to direct after being replaced by Rob Schrab as director of the sequel to The Lego Movie. McKay cited The Naked Gun and Airplane! as main inspirations, and you can feel both in the pacing.
The film premiered in Dublin, Ireland, on January 29, 2017, and Warner Bros. Pictures released it that year.
Where It Lands
The Lego Batman Movie holds a published critical score of 7.5 out of 10, with Metacritic at 75 out of 100.
The restraint is the achievement. A Batman movie that spends two hours telling you its hero is lonely could easily turn maudlin. This one keeps the jokes coming and lets the loneliness sit underneath. The Phantom Zone detour, the Arkham break-in, the evidence-room theft — each beat pushes Batman toward the same conclusion: he has to let people in.
What holds it back is that the film rarely surprises after its first act. The Joker’s surrender is the sharpest turn in the script, and nothing later tops it. The emotional beats arrive on schedule. The Lego gimmick, meanwhile, is mostly texture here rather than structure — a choice that keeps the movie accessible but costs it some of the inventiveness that made The Lego Movie feel like it was building something new.
Still, the voice work is the thing worth keeping. Arnett’s Batman is a genuine comic creation, vain and wounded and funny in the same breath. Cera’s Robin gives him something to push against. Fiennes makes Alfred the film’s quiet conscience. Galifianakis plays the Joker as a man who wants to matter to someone, which is a stranger and better read than the usual chaos agent.
For a spin-off built on a toy line, that is a lot of feeling to carry. The Lego Batman Movie knows its hero is ridiculous. It also knows why he is alone, and it says so without flinching.
KEY FACTS
– Title: The Lego Batman Movie
– Year: 2017
– Director: Chris McKay
– Runtime: 104 minutes
– Published critical score: 7.5/10 (Metacritic 75/100)
– Premiere: January 29, 2017, Dublin, Ireland
– Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
– Animation: Animal Logic
– Score composer: Lorne Balfe
– Lead voices: Will Arnett (Batman), Michael Cera (Robin), Rosario Dawson (Batgirl), Ralph Fiennes (Alfred), Zach Galifianakis (Joker)
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