“Lego Batman Movie” entertains audiences of all ages

Note: this review contains spoilers for The Lego Batman Movie.

A follow-up to 2014’s smash box office hit The Lego Movie, The Lego Batman Movie focuses on one of its predecessor’s most well-received characters while introducing a host of new and enjoyable characters central to the classic DC franchise. Blending nostalgia for Legos and well-loved comic book characters with witty one-liners, the film managed to charm adults and children alike. While it lacked a strong central, cohesive plot, The Lego Batman Movie kept audiences rolling from start to finish.

Throughout the film, there wasn’t a stretch of time longer than two minutes when the audience was not laughing out loud. The humor ranged from rudimentary fart jokes to subversive adult jokes that would go over the heads of younger audiences, leaving the film open and entertaining for every age group in the theater. The story was designed so that the movie itself, not just individual one-off lines were humorous. Combining the two was the complex, gay-adjacent relationship between Batman and the Joker. Batman’s early lines about liking to “fight around” and “fighting a few villains at the moment” was a clever, subtle chip at modern, Tinder-esque relationships.

Meanwhile, the unique animation style, which fuses stop-motion Lego bricks and Computer-Generated Images (CGI), is arguably more advanced in The Lego Batman Movie than in the franchise’s first film. The texturing, shading, and design were so immaculate that it felt like the Lego minifigures of everyone’s childhood had come to life on the silver screen. Wayne Manor’s gigantic fireplace, every visible explosion, the engine exhaust from Batman’s various vehicles, Godzilla, King Kong, Gotham Bay, and every visible building in Gotham City is made from Legos, and every independently-functioning Lego brick is animated as such. Even the texture of the pieces and figures are included, adding to the surreal feeling of toys come to life.

The film’s writers clearly took inspiration from characters like Deadpool, who regularly breaks unspoken movie rules, makes crude jokes, and survives impossible conditions. Batman and his crew regularly blur the line between movie and imagination, allude to their own self-awareness of being toys in a movie, and forge ridiculous relationships and connections, all of which are just ridiculous enough to pile on humor. The Lego Batman Movie builds on its predecessor’s world by introducing dozens of new characters from outside the Batman franchise. Harry Potter’s Lord Voldemort, The Wizard of Oz‘s Wicked Witch, and Jurassic Park‘s dinosaurs all fight alongside The Joker for control of Gotham City, along with minor (and bizarre) Batman villains like Condiment King, Calendar Man, and Killer Moth. While most characters only play a minor or trivial role in the film, they all excel at their main goal: humor.

Only in the movie’s plot does it falter. It appears to have no clear direction throughout, and important elements are introduced casually and randomly throughout. Characters often seem to act as the script dictates, not according to what is logical in their scenario. And while many of these actions do provide comic relief, they detract from the overall sense of a congruous, holistic story. The Phantom Zone, the otherworldly prison which houses the likes of King Kong and Lord Voldemort, is only mentioned once or twice throughout and not visited until just before the climax. Furthermore, the realm’s manager, a single brick, was not present in 2014’s The Lego Movie, despite the fact that it feels like the audience should be familiar with the character. The same is true for the manager’s boss, which is referenced multiple times, but never shown or made useful. While this leaves the manager open to appear in future Lego “cinematic universe” installments, it left the audience awkwardly questioning why the detail was necessary in the first place.

In the same vein, Batman’s attraction to Barbra Gordon throughout the film is not important at all to the story. Their relationship remains unchanged throughout the movie, despite the fact that Batman’s infatuation with her is continually referenced. And while its inclusion could be written off as comedic relief, it is still an uncomfortable and awkward plot point, especially in contrast with Batman and The Joker’s preexisting anti-relationship.

While The Lego Batman Movie isn’t the greatest animated movie ever made, it more than accomplished what it set out to do. It was a hilarious, enjoyable, nostalgic romp through two well-known and loved franchises. And although the film was clearly marketed for kids, the subtle adult humor present throughout makes it worth the watch for parents, too.