The LEGO Batman Movie - Everything is Still Awesome

[Hawki]

I like Man of Steel. I don't think it's a "good" film per se, but it's still an enjoyable one. For me, its primary flaw is its pacing and editing, but as far as themes go, I don't buy that they should be off-limits to Superman.

Man of Steel sort of gets progressively worse as it goes on. At the starts it's a pretty admirable attempt to paint a human portrait of Clark Kent, but by the end it's devolved into explosion laden action that's really, really boring. Starting out in a bold direction before ending up in really boring action is a problem that permeates almost all of Snyder's directorial work.

I actually feel that it gets better as it goes on. The first half (up to about where Supes meets Louis or where he starts to fly) has a stop-start feeling, partly because we're constantly getting flashbacks, partly because a lot of the scenes feel rushed in areas. The second half, IMO, is much more cohesive - it becomes more concentrated in plot, location, timeframe, etc.

I also personally love the fight scenes. The cinematography is a bit janky at times, but it does convey a feeling of weight/power/strength for Supes and the kryptonians, given that they manage to be both agile while insanely strong.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

So the Zootopia hype finally died down?

No clue, I don't really follow or care what the Internet collective is talking about. I saw Zootopia, thought it was pretty good with some semi-decent flaws (just below a blu-ray purchase for me), and I moved on.

Zootopia is rated lower (on RottenTomatoes) than the classic 2D Disney movies you refer to. I don't know how Zootopia is overshadowing known classics.

Should ratings on rotten tomatoes or IMDB affect a person's relative enjoyment of a movie? Are internet website ratings an objective way to judge what makes a movie good? What makes a movie better than the other? If someone does not like a movie rated better by a third party does that mean their appreciation of a movie is wrong? Does that mean people who like movies that are not universally accepted to be "Good" are people with poor judgment? Is it right to judge a person by that? Further, is it alright to judge your own self-worth based on things you like and consume? Because I like metal and do not like rap, is it ok to be hateful towards other form of music? What is the difference between indifference and offense? Or is it because I'm looking for a reason to feel like something separates me from the people who like the other form of music? Does my offense or indifference come from an objective place? Can art be objective? Have their been studies showing whether people with higher IQs like a particular type of movie or music? But most importantly having a higher IQ make you a better person? What is a good person?

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I wasn't implying anything about ratings being objective measurements for movies or any kind of art. I was merely questioning how are movies like Zootopia overshadowing prior classics when critics didn't even rate such movies as well or better than the said classics?

Its not the fact that its Lego, its the fact that its Batman, I don't like Batman being treated as a joke anymore than he already is.

I mean people mocked him for f#$%ing Batgirl in the Animated Killing Joke and the whole Martha thing, but this Lego-fication of him just demeans him even more than the campy Adam West Batman..

Batman v Superman was more demeaning for both characters than a Lego movie can ever be. Don't you realize that the Adam West Batman was how Batman comics were like at the time?

 

[Laughing Man]

Not really sure why the reviewers keep using this term 'Best Batman Movie in years' correct me if I am wrong the last stand alone Batman movie, which is what this is as close to being as anything, would be the Dark Knight Rises? So any reviwer saying this is the best Batman movie in years is wrong, in fact this is not only not the best Batman Movie in years it plain and simple isn't a good movie.

I saw this today after having seen the Lego movie, a movie which I liked hugely, in fact more than I should have and my god this movie is bad.

Where to start

1st, the Batman character everything about him, the gruff I am a loner douche (and yeah he is a douche) worked in The Lego movie because you had a group of characters that were fun enough to actually highlight how stupid Batman was, to put it simply the Batman persona in this movie is too annoying and too grating to carry a movie by himself. Their was not a single thing that he said or did that made me laugh, I chuckled once but fuck me if I can remember what it was at. No matter though, what the Lego Movie showed us is that with the right ensemble team this annoying grating douche can actually be funny, except in this movie he doesn't get that. The female 'love interest' Barbara is dull, the boy wonder takes Emmett's positive up beat attitude and turns it up to fuck me this guy is a tw*t levels of annoying and Alfred is British.

So surely the story must be alright, NOPE. The story is a total cluster fuck that can be summed up as Batman learns to trust but the story leading up to it is horribly paced and borders on just plain stupid but here's the thing the Lego Movies story was a bit daft but because it was self aware enough to make the story about fucking Lego it actually worked, this on the other hand did not. It wasn't even a tad self aware about the fact this was all about Lego, a child's play thing.

The whole story came across as a Warner Bros extended universe movie, lets see how many of our IPs we can stick in this movie and get away with it, I mean fuck me the Joker goes to the Phantom Zone after learning about how Superman sent General Zod there and some how doesn't come back with fucking General Zod???? He comes back with just about every other WB IP bad guy, including for some stupid reason the Daleks. What's worse though is that their are parts to the movie that feel like they were put in because someone brain stormed the idea and someone just went fuck it yeah lets put that in. One example being Batman beat boxing with Robin, it just doesn't work, the situation the tone the timing nothing about it works and worst still it isn't even fucking funny.

The final nail in this turd coffin though is the action and effects, it all happens at a million miles per hour, their is so much going on on screen it's all dark and black colours and its keeps cutting in and out of the action the whole thing is an utter mess, it looks like so much is happening but their is fuck all detail shown. Put simply The Lego movie looks like a movie made with Lego (I know it's actually CG) THIS movie looks like a CG movie that used Lego as a premise.

The movie has a line in it in which Batman says 'Ironman sucks' as a password with a rye smile and tone I would pay Marvel money for them to have Stark turn round and use the line 'Lego Batman sucked' at some point during Infinity war, because at least THAT statement would be true.

 

[Chewster]

Unpopular opinion but I thought Nolan's Batman films were overwrought and dull. The first is nothing special, the second only noteworthy because of Ledger's performance as the Joker and the third was so convoluted, predictable and hamfisted with it's "we are the 99%" nonsense that me being drunk in the theater wasn't enough to make it entertaining on any level. Also, Bane sounded like Sean Connery on nitrous. Nolan is sometimes a decent director but a lot of time hyped all to fuck. IMHO, naturally.

Frankly, I welcome a bit of levity in the Batman world.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

I mean it'd be like if they made Lego Lord of the Rings the Movie, it be even more of a mockery to Tolkien's work than Peter Jackson's adaptions.

Okay, no word of a lie, I would watch the shit out of Lego Lord of the Rings if they made it. Seriously, I would want to see that so much

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

It's hilarious that CW's tv series kicked the movies, and stole their lunch money. But now a children's toy is kicking their ass too.

 

[Hawki]

It's hilarious that CW's tv series kicked the movies, and stole their lunch money.

If they did that, they lost the lunch money almost immediately.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

So the Zootopia hype finally died down?

No clue, I don't really follow or care what the Internet collective is talking about. I saw Zootopia, thought it was pretty good with some semi-decent flaws (just below a blu-ray purchase for me), and I moved on.

Zootopia is rated lower (on RottenTomatoes) than the classic 2D Disney movies you refer to. I don't know how Zootopia is overshadowing known classics.

Should ratings on rotten tomatoes or IMDB affect a person's relative enjoyment of a movie? Are internet website ratings an objective way to judge what makes a movie good? What makes a movie better than the other? If someone does not like a movie rated better by a third party does that mean their appreciation of a movie is wrong? Does that mean people who like movies that are not universally accepted to be "Good" are people with poor judgment? Is it right to judge a person by that? Further, is it alright to judge your own self-worth based on things you like and consume? Because I like metal and do not like rap, is it ok to be hateful towards other form of music? What is the difference between indifference and offense? Or is it because I'm looking for a reason to feel like something separates me from the people who like the other form of music? Does my offense or indifference come from an objective place? Can art be objective? Have their been studies showing whether people with higher IQs like a particular type of movie or music? But most importantly having a higher IQ make you a better person? What is a good person?

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I wasn't implying anything about ratings being objective measurements for movies or any kind of art. I was merely questioning how are movies like Zootopia overshadowing prior classics when critics didn't even rate such movies as well or better than the said classics?

Its not the fact that its Lego, its the fact that its Batman, I don't like Batman being treated as a joke anymore than he already is.

I mean people mocked him for f#$%ing Batgirl in the Animated Killing Joke and the whole Martha thing, but this Lego-fication of him just demeans him even more than the campy Adam West Batman..

Batman v Superman was more demeaning for both characters than a Lego movie can ever be. Don't you realize that the Adam West Batman was how Batman comics were like at the time?

I get lectured by people here about me thinking that this Lego movie demeans Batman and Superman is only my opinion and than you counter my arguement with your opinion that Batman v Superman is more demeaning to these charcaters?

Fine, than let me counter that, Batman v Superman did nothing to these charcaters.

If anything is absolutly, egregiously demeanimg Batman and Superman as characters, more so than BvS and Lego combined, its this comic

 

[gorfias]

I have never laughed so much in a movie before. Seriously, the first 10 seconds of the movie had the first joke and then I did not stop.
I'm such a sucker for meta humor.

I've heard that the jokes are so fast and furious you actually get exhausted laughing. Almost, almost, almost a bad thing.

But even the critics are agreeing it is so much fun.

I'll very likely see this in the theater.

 

[hentropy]

I can have some sympathy for the point of view that there seems to be too much nonserious, irreverent, stake-free "fun" things out there. I'm a fan of classical melodrama myself and it seems like no one is interested in doing that well anymore, it's either pale attempts at being 'dark'. Everyone from normal comics to webcomics to movies seem to be moving in this direction, where you can't play anything out seriously and everything has to be self-aware and silly. Balancing the two is very hard, so you'll either get something "fun" that doesn't challenge you at all or push any boundaries, or you'll get something grimdark for edgekings laced with sophomoric political statements and MORAL GREYNESS.

However, Batman does NOT have the problem of currently being too light-hearted and meta... everything that has been made movie-wise for Batman has been the edgy shit. I always thought superhera stuff was better when it was animated, because it's just really hard to take seriously otherwise, no matter what thematic approach it's going for.

 

[RJ 17]

Don't mind Sam, after reading through the first few posts it became clear that he's just reveling in being a contrarian. Not saying that he doesn't have the right to not like this or any other movie he's mentioned. I'm sure he has his reasons, I'm just saying that it seems to me one of the bigger reasons he dislikes the movies he's brought up is because so many other people DO like them.

 

[Story]

I have never laughed so much in a movie before. Seriously, the first 10 seconds of the movie had the first joke and then I did not stop.
I'm such a sucker for meta humor.

I've heard that the jokes are so fast and furious you actually get exhausted laughing. Almost, almost, almost a bad thing.

But even the critics are agreeing it is so much fun.

I'll very likely see this in the theater.

That is very true. In fact I was thinking about watching it a second time to see the jokes I missed the first time around. It did have the same franatic pace as the Lego Movie but I liked this one more for its meta humor, which this had a lot more of.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Unpopular opinion but I thought Nolan's Batman films were overwrought and dull. The first is nothing special, the second only noteworthy because of Ledger's performance as the Joker and the third was so convoluted, predictable and hamfisted with it's "we are the 99%" nonsense that me being drunk in the theater wasn't enough to make it entertaining on any level. Also, Bane sounded like Sean Connery on nitrous. Nolan is sometimes a decent director but a lot of time hyped all to fuck. IMHO, naturally.

Frankly, I welcome a bit of levity in the Batman world.

The whole premise of Batman is a bit absurd, especially in the comics where he fights aliens or wizards every other weak. The police can't handle things, so they call for an angry rich furry. Ok, fine, but best not to try to be too serious about that.

I accept that I'm somewhat in the minority here.

 

[Imre Csete]

And here I thought LEGO Batman and Batman were two different things so there shouldn't be any reason to be upset.

Whaddaya know.

Nolan is sometimes a decent director but a lot of time hyped all to fuck. IMHO, naturally.

Exactly my thoughts.

I consider The Prestige and The Dark Knight his last two good works, and both of them are carried by the great performances instead of directing. I got really bored with his scifi writer whiz kid hypemachine very quick, because his movies are just AAA blockbuster versions of different, less prolific low budget scifi movies, made serviceable for people who don't watch scifi in general by adding impressive spectacle.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Saw it yesterday, absolutely loved it, and I'm still chuckling at some of the jokes. Cynics can call it the most massive franchise commercial in history (seriously, the batcave is basically screaming "These LEGO kits coming to your local toy store"), not to mention the ludicrous amounts of other WB properties they cram in. It's also not quite as unique as the first Lego movie, which had the meta thing about the characters being scratched and worn and even the effects being composed of lego. Here the water and smoke are your typical CG imagery.

But I don't care. It was an absolute riot, and my jaw literally hurt from laughing so much by the end. It wasn't even a barrage of jokes, it was like 200 joke machine guns emptying their magazines only to stop to reload, and then continue. It's downright baffling how much it gets away with bashing other WB and DC properties, and even the studio itself. There's a split-second Suicide Squad joke in the first three minutes which was one of the biggest laughs for me, but by the time my mouth was open with laughter three other jokes had already passed. This is a film where being literate about the Batman adaptations, and film in general, is a massive bonus for enjoyment. There's also tons of humor that will fly right over the kids' heads, and I'm sure this will become one of those classic films which kids who see it now will go "OH MY GOD I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE THAT" 8 years from now. The undertones and dialogue in Batman's relationships with both Joker and Robin can be incredibly dirty-minded, but kids will take at face value. I'd love to see some kid grow and realize what Joker's arc was really about. The thought that for a shit ton of kids this out of all things will be their introduction to not only Batman, but also all of his previous incarnations, and also Harry Potter, Godzilla, the Matrix, King Kong, and Lord of the Rings is endlessly satisfying.

Only February, and it's very likely to be one of the best movies I'll see this year. Maybe I'll go see it again just to see all the jokes I missed. Word of advice for anyone going to see it: get far away from the screen. There's so much stuff going on you'll miss half of it if you're in the front row.

 

[Leg End]

Finally, a reason to actually go see a movie, let alone a Batman movie, again.

Or silly Manga like One-Punch Man overshadowing brilliantely written Manga like Lone Wolf and Cub.

Try actually reading OPM. Actually deep shit in there and exploration of what it is to be a Hero.

Well, this turned into a dumpster fire. 0_0

We can pop some kernals with it too!

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

It's great to finally see Batman being humanised with humour in an unexpected release. He is in dire need of being shown as something other than so fucking stoicly boring! I can never take anybody that takes everything so seriously, so seriously. I just get an uncontrollable desire to remove lodged sticks from betwixt bumcheeks by any means necessary for their own mental well-being.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I get lectured by people here about me thinking that this Lego movie demeans Batman and Superman is only my opinion and than you counter my arguement with your opinion that Batman v Superman is more demeaning to these charcaters?

Fine, than let me counter that, Batman v Superman did nothing to these charcaters.

If anything is absolutly, egregiously demeanimg Batman and Superman as characters, more so than BvS and Lego combined, its this comic

Batman in the Lego movie is closer to the actual character of Batman than he was in BvS. Being out of character is more demeaning than being lighthearted and self-aware.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

I get lectured by people here about me thinking that this Lego movie demeans Batman and Superman is only my opinion and than you counter my arguement with your opinion that Batman v Superman is more demeaning to these charcaters?

Fine, than let me counter that, Batman v Superman did nothing to these charcaters.

If anything is absolutly, egregiously demeanimg Batman and Superman as characters, more so than BvS and Lego combined, its this comic

Batman in the Lego movie is closer to the actual character of Batman than he was in BvS. Being out of character is more demeaning than being lighthearted and self-aware.

I still don't think Batman killing and Superman being mopey as the worse things ever done to the charcater since I can sight multiple examples of worse. Especially when Batman had killed his villains before in certain comics.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I still don't think Batman killing and Superman being mopey as the worse things ever done to the charcater since I can sight multiple examples of worse. Especially when Batman had killed his villains before in certain comics.

BvS isn't probably the worst depictions ever but worse than their Lego counterparts. Batman killing occasionally isn't the equivalent of him just not caring about life in general. People are fine with Batman killing depending on the situation.