Lego Batman (Review) (1 Viewer)

[steve jaros]

I'm giving it a "B", which is less than what I thought I'd be giving it given that (a) I am a pretty big fan of the Lego Movie, and (b) the 91% RT score, which usually tracks my opinion pretty well.

On the positive side, it does capture much of the same verve, spirit, and humor that made the Lego Movie a winner. The wisecracks and asides hit 2/3 times, the lego characters are cute and appealing, and the animation-SFX are crackerjack. From a meta-perspective, IMO the mindless fun silliness of the Lego approach suits the Batman character better than the dark, brooding approach of Batman vs Superman, so this was a nice antidote to that.

But ... even though the film is just 90 minutes long, it felt like a Looooooong 90 minutes to me. The pacing was poor, too frenetic for my liking. Whole plot twists and turns and action sequences would unfold and end, and ... just 10 minutes would have gone by. IMO, the makers just cram too much everything into the film, it's a case where less action, less plot movement, less everything, would have added up to 'more'. I'm 52 so maybe your sugar-addled eight-year-old will disagree, LOL.

FWIW, a "B" is a decent grade to me, if I were on Siskel and Ebert it would translate into a "Thumbs Up". Just not as "up" as I thought it would be.

One final thing: Of course this movie is going to be massive at the box office, but I got what amounted to a private showing. I saw an 11 AM matinee (2D) and was the only patron in the theater.

 

[Todd Erwin]

Sadly, all of the IMAX engagements in my area are 2D only.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Sadly, all of the IMAX engagements in my area are 2D only.

I wrote to IMAX and they said that the U.S. domestic release would be in 2D-only. No reason for the decision was given. I will instead see it in a RealD 3D theater.

 

[Charles J P]

If I can find time I'll go with my middle daughter this weekend. She's very excited about it and I LOVED Lego movie.

 

[Patrick Sun]

It's a lot of fun for kids and parents alike. Quite the family values film.

I give it 3 stars or a grade of B.

 

[Sam Favate]

A real delight. We took the kids today and everyone had a great time. I liked that it focused on Batman and the Gotham City characters, and only included the Justice League characters peripherally.

 

[Edwin-S]

Not nearly as well done as the first one. It had some good dialogue; however, at times, the film felt like it was straying into toy commercial territory which the first one largely managed to avoid.. Also, they decided to make this a "message" movie. Frankly, towards the end, the film started to feel preachy as they drove home their points about family.

 

[Sam Favate]

Pretty good haul for this movie, which won the weekend box office with $55.6 million.

http://variety.com/2017/film/box-office/box-office-lego-batman-movie-fifty-shades-darker-1201985655/

 

[Edwin-S]

I think this film is going to see a rapid fall off compared to the first one. I doubt it will even come close to the final box office level of the first one.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

My wife and I saw it this afternoon and neither of us loved it. We really had enjoyed the original Lego Movie but it felt that there wasn't enough to hang a whole movie here. There were lots of amusing asides and wisecracks but the main story didn't really do anything for us.

As a quick aside, we saw this in 3D at a Regal branded RPX premium screen. The presentation was surprisingly terrible, with the picture out of focus the entire time. Spoke to the manager as it got started but they didn't fix it or acknowledge it afterwards. They gave me a return pass but refused by request for a refund. It reinforces my preference for IMAX - this has never happened to me at an IMAX theater, but any time I have ever experienced even a minor issue with an IMAX screening, they've acknowledged the issue and bent over backwards to make it right. I get that 100% perfection 100% of the time is impossible, but it's how you handle the mistakes that really shows what you're worth.

Anyway, for the movie itself, sadly it was a disappointment. It wasn't the worst thing I've ever seen but I won't need to see it again - whereas by comparison I'm happy to own Lego Movie. I agree with Steve that despite its short running time, it felt long.

 

[Ryanlion]

Looking forward to that

 

[Sam Favate]

I'm not sure what people mean by the movie's short running time. It's an hour and 40 minutes, that's about the average length of a movie aimed at kids. Their attention spans aren't long enough for a two hour movie.

 

[Charles J P]

I did end up seeing it yesterday with my middle and youngest daughters and my sister. It was pretty good. Not quite as good a The Lego Movie but still good. Both kids (6 and 10) really liked it.

 

[DavidJ]

We enjoyed it. There was plenty of laughs for both kids and adults which was nice. I would probably agree with the comments in this thread that it's not quite as good as The Lego Movie.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I'm not sure what people mean by the movie's short running time.

Excluding the credits, it came in at or under 90 minutes. To me, that's a shorter film. Not unreasonably short, but I'd consider about two hours to be a normal running time, anything half an hour or more under that to be on the shorter side, and anything half an hour or longer than that to be on the longer side. It's not a criticism of the film in my book to call it short - the criticism is that the 90 minutes or so felt like two and a half hours.

 

[Wayne_j]

Saw this in a standard real-d presentation today, when they started showing 3D trailers they were a mess, I went to the lobby and told the employees, they fixed it after a minute or two. The 3D was pretty well done.

 

[Johnny Angell]

The wife and I saw this yesterday. I don't think it measured up to the first movie or to the 90%+ tomato score. It was ok, but not as many laughs as I wanted.

 

[MattBradley]

Just returned from seeing it. What a fantastic experience too! Normally I'd turn around and tell someone to please be quiet during a movie but when it was a 4 year old who is obviously a huge Batman fan... no dice! This kid made this movie so much fun! Everyone around us was cracking up at the ongoing commentary. This kid knows Batman's history very well so during a scene where Batman stares at a photo of his parents, the kid starts talking about how they are dead and that someone needs to hug him! There's a scene at the end where Batman's fate is up in the air and this kid started freaking out that Batman's friends would never see him again. I knew we were in for a treat when the Cars 3 trailer played and the kid gasped very loudly when the lamp hopped onto the screen during the PIXAR logo. Then when Lightning McQueen goes crashing through the air, the kid says very loudly, "oh no, he's all broke!" hahaha This kid will be posting here on the HTF in a few years if not sooner!

 

[sleroi]

My 12yo son gives it an A. I would give it a B+. It was consistently funny throughout, but the jokes never really built on each other for huge laughs. It was a series of one liners. Really clever and funny one liners, but I would have liked a few more gut busters for a comedy. I recently watched a lego DC movie or show on cartoon network with my son and other than the bigger name voices there wasn't much difference.

 

[ponset]

Good movie, 'B-'.
Always like seeing the C-List villains in action: Polka-Dot Man, Calendar Man, Mime, Killer Moth, Cat-Man, and all the others.
Not that interested in the non-DC villains that appeared in the final act.
All this big deal about Billy Dee Williams voicing Two-Face, he had like one line.
I see its been doing well at the Box Office. Raked in about $42 Million in its 2nd week.


I see Director Chris McKay is in talks to direct a Live-Action NIGHTWING movie for Warner Bros.

http://collider.com/nightwing-movie-chris-mckay/