After a long hiatus of not reviewing movies, I am back, and it feels great. I will start things back up first with The Lego Batman movie, then tomorrow with John Wick: Chapter 2. So without further delaying, here is my review of The Lego Batman Movie.
2014 bought us one of the best animated films to date, The Lego Movie, and riding the success of that film comes this movie. To be honest The Lego Movie is one of my favorite films period in this decade. In comparison The Lego Batman movie is a well written movie in terms of comedy and action, but the story is not as well developed as the previous Lego movie. The other film was able to interject many adult points into the plot without overcomplicating things. The Lego Batman film is without a doubt a fantastic movie to watch with the entire family. It has nonstop laughs, pokes fun at comic book movies in general, and is never boring. This is surely a must watch movie.
Chris McKay is the director of this movie. McKay is known for having directed many episodes of the adult animated show, Robot Chicken. For a director on a show like that to make the big transition in terms of the extreme level of comedy from Robot Chicken to this film is very impressive. Some of the jokes do get close to raunchy, but never actually cross that line. There are a few actions scenes that are really impressive to watch, especially if you get to see this movie in IMAX. McKay as the director really delivers in this aspect. This is truly one of the best elements of the film, and director Chris McKay deserves credit here.
Probably my favorite part of the movie besides the fun actions scenes and the jokes was the amazing score from composer Lorne Balfe. Balfe is known for working on movies such as Iron Man, The Dark Knight, and Inception. While you can easily say the score here is more of another joke towards the comic book genre in general, it certainly fits this movie. As someone who really enjoys scores, I will be listening to this again and again.
In closing, this is truly the first great movie of the year, while the plot is thin compared to the previous Lego movie, it is well worth the price of admission. The extra money for IMAX is also worth it in my opinion, especially if you have the option of IMAX 3D. Animated movies seem to be the best bang for your buck for the 3D movies. This film is also great fun for the entire family, so taking your kids to this movie is certainly a must.
8/10