Chris McKay takes over from Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, directors of The Great Lego Adventure, for this first spin-off centered on Batman. He who was the director of special effects of the first opus, he takes over as director while the two friends have left for a galaxy far, far away.
A completely different Batman:
Chris McKay plunges his viewer into an absolutely brilliant, offbeat and funny introduction, confronting the deep and suave voice of Batman with sponsors and other credits that parade in front of us, with well-felt comments from a character that has become cult. Chris McKay will play this celebrity, use it as a comic spring, see emotional. Thus Batman is more like Spider-Man than the real taciturn and silent Dark Knight. With his tongue hanging out, he comments on everything around him in an offbeat and irreverent tone, such as the immature and incessant chatter of Spider-Man, or even, sometimes a breach of the fourth wall like Deadpool. Batman is therefore here a childish protagonist, totally disconnected from reality.
The character's writing contradicts the vigilante's other appearances. Here, unlike usual, Batman enjoys his celebrity, he enjoys it, appears as a braggart addicted to the spotlight, he lives only for Batman and loves it. But when he returns home, Bruce Wayne is sad and lonely, haunted by the disappearance (again) of his parents. He has no friends or family. Even the Justice League rejects it. Chris McKay presents the evolution of a character who will have to leave his solitary condition, in which he was happy, to open up to his entourage and begin to create links with others. Strangely the psychology of the character is better treated than in some Warner feature films where Batman was more of a fairground beast than anything else (cf: Batman and Robin). Despite the inevitable happy ending for this type of production, the transformation of Batman takes time, which contrasts with the frantic pace of the feature film, a generous film but which places the viewer on the verge of asphyxiation.
A feature film full of references:
After an ultra-fast introduction scene that confronts Batman with his eternal enemy, The Joker, where the latter seeks once again to destroy Gotham, follows a funny and offbeat opposition between the two protagonists. An unexpected conversation about the special relationship between the two characters. Chris McKay mocks this confrontation, like a love story or a one-sided hate story, where Batman refuses to consider the Joker as his nemesis, his soul mate, his eternal motivation. Chris McKay chains pop references and especially those to the universe of Batman, comics or film, such as the punchline of Alfred who begs Bruce Wayne to come out of his lethargic state after the multitude of films that have been dedicated to him and in which he always remains sad and alone (archive images to the key on the Batman of 1966). Similarly, objects that are similar to Batman are legion. We rediscover all his gadgets derided in the image of the bat-anti shark, reference, once again, to the Batman of the 60s struggling with a cardboard shark, a scene legendarily ridiculous. The Joker also takes for his rank since references to Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson are very present.
But Warner does not stop there, and decides to go further and further in winks and references, which end up falling into a fan service bidding. Thus appears the Justice League for a restricted use, see useless. Similarly with the other super villains of the Dark Knight, but the most surprising is the appearance of other characters from the Warner franchises, in the manner of The Great Lego Adventure. But where the duo's film allowed itself pleasant pop references, Lego Batman falls into a surplus of fan service that ends up tiring. Batman is self-sufficient and the appearance of Godzilla, King Kong, Sauron, and so on and the best shoots the film in a generous but overflowing oven. The viewer ends up in an epileptic seizure in front of so many colors, noises, images and characters. But Chris McKay has the merit of going to the end of his bias, at the end of his thunderous self-mockery, even if it means tarnishing the image of Batman. However, the last part of the film is asphyxiating, exhausting, quite brutal, without any real form of subtlety.
Lego Batman can be summed up in this: a cruel lack of subtlety staging a merry mess where a multitude of characters, references and valves more or less inspired confront each other. A film in half-tone, which does not manage to break its rhythm launched at full speed, even if it means leaving part of the audience on the dock of Gotham City.
