'The Lego Batman Movie', the latest in a toy franchise based on 2014's 'The Lego Movie' doesn't have very much going for it other than its cutesy childish appeal. Its predecessor certainly had much more going for it, including an original concept and consistently entertaining contretemps against socially-enforced conformity.
The big changes brewing in Gotham are ominous, and Batman (Will Arnett) will have to regroup from his lone vigilante ways to prevent the Joker's (Zach Galifianakis) from taking control over the city. Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson, who eventually becomes Batgirl) replaces her father and takes over as commissioner.
She wants Batman to work alongside the city's police as a team. In addition, while at a charity event for an orphanage, Bruce manages to unknowingly adopt foundling Dick Grayson (Michael Cera), who eventually assumes his own super persona as sidekick Robin. The superhero's loyal butler Alfred (Ralph Fiennes) is yet another of his allies.
78 years of Batman history is too long a period to catch up on for the neophytes. So there's plenty of scrambling to do on the bat jokes referencing ancient Batman history.
The comedic spin-off is a little frenzied with almost all the previous villains of the Batman/DC comics universe finding a mention-including the Eye of Sauron, Voldemort, King Kong, Gremlins, Godzilla and the Wicked Witch of the West and her Flying Monkeys. So naturally there's plenty of action and visual imagery to dazzle you but the content does seem a little too thin for a standalone movie. With kids' attention span getting smaller every day, the runtime at 104 mins works out as easy going and comfortable. The bar here is much lower than the first outing so not much excitement or entertainment to report.
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean.