{"id":8411,"date":"2017-02-20T00:38:48","date_gmt":"2017-02-20T05:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/?p=8411"},"modified":"2017-03-06T11:33:11","modified_gmt":"2017-03-06T16:33:11","slug":"lego-batman-a-breath-of-fresh-air-for-dcs-dourest-crusader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/archives\/8411","title":{"rendered":"Lego Batman a Breath of Fresh Air for DC\u2019s Dourest Crusader"},"content":{"rendered":"

(02.19.2017) By Jared Martin —\u00a0\"Lego<\/a><\/strong>Lego Batman<\/em> sticks the landing as a sequel every bit as fresh and exciting as its predecessor, The Lego Movie<\/em>, with almost everything that made it great carrying over into a heartfelt, wickedly funny, gloriously animated, and above all else fun sequel.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t just a Lego movie, though: it\u2019s also a Batman movie. Usually, Batman is not the star of the show, serving as a backdrop to show off the more elaborate villain characters, without much personality himself.<\/p>\n

Lego Batman<\/em>, however, showcases the intricacies of the character, and Batman is by far the most compelling character of the film. He\u2019s a loner, as always, but he\u2019s also a lonely dork, which is much more fun and refreshing than the dark, brooding Batman we usually get.<\/p>\n

Despite different writers and a new director (Chris McKay) taking over, the film\u2019s jokes are as sharp and fast as they were in the first movie. There\u2019s rarely a moment where there isn\u2019t one, whether it\u2019s dialog, visual humor, or background gags to be noticed on repeat viewings.<\/p>\n

The animation is stunning as well, and every frame is detailed, with creative animation sequences and the subtle wear of plastic retained.<\/p>\n

The movie feels tightly written in spite of its runtime of nearly two hours. The film focuses on relationships and family, and it does a good job of being heartfelt without getting cheesy or trite.<\/p>\n

Will Arnett brings Batman to life perfectly, balancing the fun aspects of Batman\u2019s personality with a pitch perfect sense of vulnerability and loneliness. Arnett is a deft voice actor, taking on the challenge of rapping one minute and giving a real sense of heart the next.<\/p>\n

The rest of the cast is strong as well, with Michael Cera giving Robin a loveable charm, and Ralph Fiennes and Rosario Dawson are excellent as Alfred and Barbara Gordon respectively. Zach Galifanikis gives a different take on The Joker, which after Jared Leto in Suicide Squad<\/em> is entirely welcome.<\/p>\n

The characters mesh well into a cohesive story, though the movie could have done well with less. It does get a little overwhelming having so many obscure Batman characters running around, along with Voldemort, Gremlins, and Daleks.<\/p>\n

Lego Batman <\/em>does lack some of the emotional punch of the ending of its predecessor, and it didn\u2019t quite invoke as strong a feeling of nostalgia, but it still serves as a worthy sequel, and exactly what Batman needed to keep going before DC\u2019s undoubtedly super serious, super dark, super un-fun next swing at Batman.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(02.19.2017) By Jared Martin —\u00a0Lego Batman sticks the landing as a sequel every bit as fresh and exciting as its predecessor, The Lego Movie, with almost everything that made it great carrying over into a heartfelt, wickedly funny, gloriously animated, and above all else fun sequel. This isn\u2019t just a Lego movie, though: it\u2019s also…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":8412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[205],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8411"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8414,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8411\/revisions\/8414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}