The Lego Batman Movie

Best...movie...of the year.

What a treat this was, now you may be saying Dude how did you see this movie so early? Because I'm Batman! Nah, I just got tickets to an early screening. So The Lego Batman Movie is the epitome of a love letter to The Batman, with references galore, a great story, wonderful voice actors, and gorgeous animation. Now the plot is a little thick but still engages you so I will sum it up for you. Batman is being Batman fighting crime, saving the day, and all his usual buisness when a series of events happen both fortunate and unfortunate. Jim Gordon retires (Awww....), and his daughter Barbara takes over as the Comissioner, Bruce adopts young Dick Grayson, and the Joker has the grand schemes of grand schemes to take over Gotham. Oh my God, the sheer nautical tons of easter eggs were so vast and plentiful, my eyes were darting all over the screen, I friggin' loved it with it's sheer brilliant art direction and animation style! The characters were a blast as well, Will Arnett is hilarious as Batman and yet can still give some good serious performances, Michael Cera who I don't fully like played Robin awesomely, Rosario Dawson was fun as Batgirl, and Ralph Fiennes was a darn good Alfred. In fact I was surprised the emotion Will Arnett gave in this film, with almost Mask Of The Phantasm style scenes concerning his crimefighting and his parents. The movie was almost too good, I don't have anything to gripe about but for a hardcore Batman fan such as myself, this movie could not be more perfect. Check it out next week, and enjoy your stay in Gotham City.

The Lego Movie

Yeah not quite what you were expecting for the first review of the year. But a great movie nevertheless.

The story is actually not that original at first but grows and grows the deeper you delve into it. It follows an everyday average guy who gets swept up in a grand adventure through a case of mistaken identity. Sound familiar? It should but because of the characters themselves and the unique setting you really don't mind that the plot is like that because it takes you for turns and different scenarios that make the film great. Everything and I do mean everything is made out of Legos! Not just the characters, but the ground, the sky, the water, everything! And the animation style itself is kind of blocky (ba dum tss) like it's not exactly Harryhausen style of stopmotion to where it is so fluid and looks completely real it is more like how little Lego videos are made online. They can't move that fluidly because they are made of blocks so it seems stilted and that is by no means a bad thing. In fact, people loved it so much so that they screamed betrayal when the Academy Awards did not feature The Lego Movie for Best Special Effects and Best Animated Movie. The humor is great and some of it does rely on how the whole world is made of Legos so they can build different and crazy stuff but not entirely. The acting is great and we got a hell of a cast in this movie. We got Chris Pratt as our hero, Elizabeth Banks as our heroine, Will Ferrell as our villain, Liam Neeson as a corrupt cop, and even God himself Morgan Freeman as the mentor to our heroes. So quite a bit of star power behind this fun little movie. Bottom line, it's a great movie and I never get tired of watching it. If you want a visually different movie or just like Legos I highly recommend you seek this movie out. You'll like it and your kids will love it.