The Lego Batman Movie Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

Downs

4. It Not As Fresh Or Clever As The Lego Movie

Let's get one thing out of the way first: no, The Lego Batman Movie is not as good as The Lego Movie, the main reason being that it just lacks the freshness and wit that made the 2014 movie such a pleasant surprise.

Here things feel a little more ordinary, the success rate of the jokes isn't as strong and it lacks the emotional resonance that came in The Lego Movie's third act.

It's undeniably a funny, well-written film, just not up to the previous film's high standard, and its central theme about the importance of family feels much more trite than The Lego Movie's call for children to question and defy authority.

Perhaps this is in part because so many expected The Lego Movie to be a crass cash-in and it proved to be the total opposite, whereas here expectations were already set pretty high, and the movie doesn't quite reach the same level as its predecessor.