In Which I Make the Case That The LEGO Batman Movie is DC’s Best Film

In a total one-eighty from my last article, in which I recommended foreign films, today I’ll be instead writing about superhero films: the most American movie genre there is. In particular, I’ll be revisiting 2017’s The LEGO Batman Movie, my personal favorite movie, and examining it in the larger context of the cinema behemoth that is the superhero genre, specifically in the DC entertainment universe.

Now, this movie is not by any means a serious one. Unlike other superhero movies (inexplicably), this is first and foremost a children’s/family movie. It’s stand-alone, requiring no background knowledge of the characters or of some larger plot -- there is none. There are no hard themes. The Joker’s primary character motivation is that he’s upset Batman won’t admit that he’s his arch nemesis. Batman and Alfred have a tuxedo dress-up party. Bafflingly, Voldemort, Sauron, the Wicked Witch of the West, King Kong, and the Daleks all make cameos. It’s tantalizingly close to being mindless entertainment.

What this movie lacks in depth and maturity, though, it makes up for in the heart and joy that the film exudes at every turn; even in a children’s movie that doesn’t shy away from marketing the toys it’s based on, there’s a beating heart to this film, and that heart comes about through its self-aware silliness. The movie works in the superhero film canon because of its lightheartedness, radically different from the gritty comic book movies we’re so accustomed to seeing. It paints Batman, the most infamously brooding superhero of them all, in a new, hilarious light, drawing away the gritty curtain the Nolan and Snyder films cover him with to reveal and poke fun at the very character concept of a lone wolf billionaire who dresses as a bat to fight crime, all the while breaking down the concept of isolationism and leaving audiences with story of love and found family, and a renewed appreciation for superhero stories.

I know how eyeroll-worthy it must be to hear someone call a Lego movie a subversive masterpiece, but I really feel that any work of storytelling in this genre that challenges the conventions of this genre and gives audiences a joyful perspective on life is, simply put, a good one. Take George Lucas; when Lawrence Kasdan suggested in discussion that he had to kill off a major character to give the story some weight, replied with, “This is a fairytale. The whole point of the film, the whole emotion that I am trying to get at the end of this film, is for you to be real uplifted, emotionally and spiritually, and feel absolutely good about life. That is the greatest thing that we could possibly ever do.” 

And that is what is missing in the highest-grossing DC films: a sense of wonder instead of a vague, hollow “cool factor”. I’m not saying comic book films that don’t deal entirely in uplifting an audience are wastes of time, nor that only Batman films are guilty of this sort of humorlessness and relentless grit (see: Man of Steel) -- but I will point out that no other superhero sub-canon has its own laughably edgy and thematically shallow arthouse film based on its primary antagonist. This is just a matter of personal preference; but it’s a personal preference that I’m (clearly) very passionate about. 

That being said, I do think that with films like the wildy fun Shazam! and the colorful and explosive Birds of Prey under its belt, and films like Wonder Woman 1984 with its vivid 80s aesthetic and The Batman, which gets a pass on my “edgy is boring” rule because it is a self-described detective film instead of a primarily action film, just on the horizon, I’d say that things are looking up for DC.