‘The LEGO Batman Movie’ is exhilarating and exhausting

Everything is alright in LEGO Batman‘s neck of the woods at least.

Three years ago, “The Lego Movie” introduced us to a perfectly wonderful, self-aware world where Batman can fight pirates and hitch a ride on the Millennium Falcon with Han and Chewie to go out for pizza afterward. LEGO Batman in The LEGO Movie stole every scene he was in, and now he has his own vehicle.

The film however is definitely geared towards those familiar with Batman’s heritage.

For those wondering what the other Lego Batman – let’s call him the Lego Batman of Lego Earth-2 – has been up to all these years, here’s a quick guide to his adventures to date. I felt more pure joy watching this film than any other movie in a long, long time. As the movie opens, Batman singlehandedly saves Gotham from an all-star assault of super villains, led by the Joker (Zach Galifianakis).

Playing gleefully loose with these and other characters’ mythologies and free from the allegorical shackles of its forebear, “The Lego Batman Movie” can focus on simply playing around, yielding a silliness that’s its greatest asset and, though it helps the teamwork/family message go down easier, can occasionally be a bit much. That he can’t be The Joker without Batman. But the first movie had the element of being totally unexpected and really unique. The parents will appreciate the double entendres and subtle in-jokes. In short, it celebrates everything cool about Batman and laughs at everything ridiculous about Batman.

“The Lego Batman Movie” is the Dark Knight parody that we could never get with live action. Even if it comes in the form of talking plastic blocks.

Batman, however, doesn’t want to be in relationships. The Joker’s sexual obsession with Batman and Batman’s complex reactions to it have been touched upon in comics too.

Arnett reprises his role as the brooding superhero Batman in The LEGO Batman Movie, directed by Chris McKay, who is listed as the voice of “Larry the Barista” in the credits of the first LEGO film.

Director Chris McKay, who has made a career of stop-motion action figure films with amusing voices in “Robot Chicken“, wields his exhaustive knowledge of the character’s ridiculous past as Batman does his utility belt gadgets.

Joker and the rest of the baddies surrender to the new chief of police, Barbara Gordon, leaving Batman all alone with nothing to do but brood – that is, until he realizes that he unintentionally adopted a son at a recent gala he attended.

For reviewing purposes, I generally see one movie each week. A kid in the front of the theater screamed out “Just TELL HIM!” to the muffled laughter of the entire audience. In fact, we got a trailer before the movie for The LEGO Ninjago Movie. “I loved this movie“. Ace and Gary would be thrilled. However, the movie not only expands on the LEGO Cinematic Universe and the emotional stakes of these plastic bricks, but it shows that we don’t know what to expect from the LEGO films anymore.

But the enduring aspect of this movie is the constant chipping away at LEGO Batman’s oversized ego. Whether he meant to or not, even the Dark Knight learned to embrace all of those by the end of this movie.