★★★★
After 80 years in the public eye – and immediately following the abysmal gauntlet of 2016’s gritty comic reboots – who would have thought that the definitive movie about Gotham’s caped crusader would come from the folks behind The Lego Movie?
The super cool Batman (Will Arnett) has saved Gotham yet again from the villainy of the Joker (Zach Galifianakis), but with police commissioner Jim Gordon retiring and making way for successor Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson), it seems Gotham may not need vigilantism anymore… at least, until the Joker’s newest plan takes form.
Director Chris McKay admitted his deep love for the Batman mythos at the film’s premiere, but he hardly needed to: it’s there in every frame of his joyous ode to every iteration of the Bat in existence. Somewhat miraculously, McKay and the five screenwriters involved have tied the scowling Nolan-era anti-hero grit together with Adam West-level camp, and still managed to make their version of the vigilante stand out. Arnett’s Batman is a beatboxing, self-mythologising ‘cool guy’, whose crime-fighting urges and flair for drama stem from crippling loneliness.
The Lego folks don’t tiptoe around the elephant in the room, either. The market saturation of Batman is directly addressed time and again, but always as another opportunity for McKay and co. to wink at their audience, sling another in-house reference at you and blast off to the next sequence.
To its great credit, it’s also surprisingly canon – the only piece of significant comic history omitted is missing for good reason, as a) it’s from Batman’s most adult outing, which even Alan Moore has his regrets over, and b) “platonic co-worker” Barbara Gordon needs functioning legs to kick as much arse as she does here.
Naturally, the voice work is all gravy – Michael Cera is unrecognisable as the adorably fey Robin, an orphan Bruce Wayne accidentally adopts while trying to ignore him; Ralph Fiennes’ Alfred is perfectly classy; and Galifianakis’ initially off-putting Joker makes perfect sense when McKay reveals the far-too-funny relationship strains between the Clown Prince of Crime and the man he thought was his nemesis.
That’s not to mention the roles played by Conan O’Brien, Jenny Slate, Eddie Izzard, Seth Green, Jemaine Clement, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Mariah Carey… the list goes on, and the less you know about their respective characters, the better.
Add to that the Lego team’s astonishing grasp of action cinematography, their ability to craft action sequences that put their live-action contemporaries to shame, and you have arguably the best Batman movie ever made. And this coming from a Dark Knight mega-fan.
Darkly hilarious, slick as plastic and firing on all cylinders, The Lego Batman Movie is the comic book adaptation Gotham needs and deserves. IRON MAN SUCKS. Nananananananana BATMAAAAN.
The Lego Batman Movieopens in cinemas on Thursday March 30.
