A batty, brick-breaking tale
The Lego Batman Movie (PG, 104 mins)
This is the school holiday movie parents will wanna take their kids to. For this high-octane sequel to 2014’s outstanding and outlandish The Lego Movie probably offers more for kids from a previous generation than the current one.
After the extremely disappointing double bill of Batman vs Superman and Suicide Squad, Lego Batman is the film the character and his DC mates sorely needed. Didn’t get enough Joker in Suicide? He’s front and centre here. Not enough levity in the superhero smackdown? This one is crammed full of gags of all kinds.
Having stolen the show in The Lego Movie, the Will Arnett-voiced, mini-figured latest iteration of the night-stalking, crime-fighting vigilante now faces his greatest challenge – irrelevancy.
After almost eight decades, the people of Gotham have finally clicked that, despite his presence, they are still the most crimeridden city in the world. Incoming Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson) wants to marry the cowled-one’s tough approach on crime with a new emphasis on law and ethics.
And despite his most elaborate plan to take over the city yet, The Joker (Zach Galifianakis) is so hurt by Batman’s dismissal of his efforts that he decides to surrender and take every other criminal down with him.
However, unconvinced and now at somewhat of a loose end, Batman decides the best place for The Joker is in The Phantom Zone. Borrowing Superman’s Phantom Zone ‘‘projector’’, the Dark Knight tries to put the clown prince of crime away forever, only to discover he’s inadvertently about to unleash the greatest threat to Gotham ever.
Taking potshots at everything from the 1960s TV series to last year’s twin debacles (‘‘What am I going to do? Get a bunch of criminals to fight the criminals? That’s a terrible idea’’), Chris Mckay’s freewheeling and anarchic sequel will reward longserving fans of Bob Kane’s creation. But beneath all of the fourth-wall breaking, which begins with Arnett’s Batman providing voice commentary for the opening logos and credits, is a surprisingly poignant tale.
Essentially a bromance (or a series of them), the story suggests that no man is an island (even if the lobster thermadore-munching, Jerry Maguire-loving billionaire protagonist lives on one) and that work should not come ahead of family.
Naturally this is allied to a plethora of brick-breaking action and outrageously funny set pieces.
And yet, you may find your kids a little bored, shifting in their seats as the endless mayhem ensues and yet another joke goes over their head.
Maybe that’s what happens when you cram five writers together and throw Gremlins, Voldemort, Sauron (voiced by our own Jemaine Clement) and some iconic ‘‘British robots’’ into the villainous mix – it all becomes a bit Macbeth – ‘‘full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’’. But then along comes another pithy oneliner or well-timed gag and you start to laugh yourself silly again. – James Croot