Movie Review - The Lego Movie

The Lego Movie

2014

Warner Bros. Pictures / Village Roadshow Pictures / RatPac Dune Entertainment / The Lego Group / Vertigo Entertainment / Lin Pictures / Warner Bros. Animation

20th Century Fox / Warner Home Video

4.25 / 10

This is an atrociously boringly unfunny and predictable movie, though it's beautifully shot.  All the faults lie with writers and directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.

The synopsis of the movie is pretty decent and should have resulted in a good movie.  A regular Lego construction worker, Emmet, finds out that he's the master builder of an ancient prophecy that states he'll save the world from the craggle and Lord Business.

Where the story falls short is the overused and cliched jokes and characters and they were telegraphed so early you knew they were coming.  For example, Emmet has only had one original design idea - a double-decker sofa; so when asked to build something when they are trying to escape from Bad-Cop and his minions, he builds (you guessed it) his double-decker sofa while everybody else builds the submarine; then when the sub is destroyed by Bad-Cop guess what survives... yep, you're right the sofa.  I was groaning and shaking my head.  All too predictable.

Next major fault is the direction, there are lots of scenes that are dragged out too long, in particular, the scene where Bad-Cop / Good-Cop (which was a very inventive idea) is interrogating Emmet.  Bad-Cop gets angry and goes mental and kicks a chair around the room.  It's not that funny a scene and it becomes boring quite quickly as the directors stretch the sequence out and actually diminishes the scene.

Another thing the films suffers with is the vocal talents.  With the exception of Will Arnet as Bruce Wayne / Batman, Elizabeth Banks as Wyldstyle / Lucy, and Nick Offerman as Metal Beard, the rest of the voices just don't quite fit their character.  I am not a big fan of Will Ferrell though I have to admit he's not too bad here as he reigns in some of his outlandishness.  However, he should have been more intimidating, mean, and menacingly voiced for his character of Lord Business.  I felt embarrassed for Morgan Freeman as he sounded tired, for the most part, in his rendition of Vitruvius.  Then there was the grating and annoying tones of Unikitty, played by Amanda Brie, who had me reaching for the remote and the off button.  I did like the way that they incorporated original voices into the cast as C3P0 was voiced by Anthony Daniels and Billy Dee Williams voiced Lando - shame they couldn't do it with the rest of the "Known" cast.

The only good thing this film had going for it was the Lego itself and it's CGI generation.  Had the rest of the film been as good these scenes it would have been a masterpiece of filmmaking.  However special effects cannot carry a film alone.

To be honest I wouldn't recommend this film to anybody.  There are a lot of much better kids films out there... So go treat yourself and watch one of them.  I wouldn't even push this for the Batman element, even though he's one of the main good elements he's still not enough... and he even starts to wear thin as the movie progresses...  I'm now a little worried for The Lego Batman Movie.

Movie Review - Batman: Return Of The Caped Crusaders

Batman

Return Of The Caped Crusaders

2016

Warner Bros. Animation / DC Entertainment : Warner Bros. / Warner Home Video

4.5 / 10

I am a big fan of the Batman '66 comic so when I saw this naturally I thought all my birthdays had come at once...  Damn, birthdays have gotten worse!!!

This is nothing but a poor imitation of the '66 series.  Granted the vocal talents of Adam West, Burt Ward, and Julie Newmar was a wise choice though only Ward still had the youthful sound.  I am sorry to say that West and Newmar both sounded as though they were having trouble getting a sentence out while breathing...  Then we get to the vocal talent of the other villains.  Jeff Bergman was responsible for killing the Joker; he tried so hard to carry off Ceasar Romero's voice, though by halfway through his first scene it was evident he didn't have the talent to carry it off.  Both William Salyers as Penguin and Wally Wingert as the Riddler just used their villains most recognisable vocal - so for the Penguin, it was "Wark!  Wark!  WARK!" and for the Ridler, it was his laugh.  One of the better vocals was Lynne Marie Stewart as Aunt Harriet and the worst voice was Thomas Lennon as Cheif O'Hara - If you thought Stafford Repp's "Begorrah" was bad just wait till you hear this one... I nearly hit stop at this point.

Then there was the story, though the plot and premise were solid it was the incidentals which spoilt it.  The constant in-jokes which parodied the original series got a little tiring.  The worse part was that most of the jokes just weren't funny.   Though, I did like the idea of this Batman going Dark Knight, though it could have been done much better.  One of the best parts of the story was when Batman see's three catwomen - Julie Newmar, Lee Merriwether and Eartha Kitt (her voice is spot on).

There are two heinous crimes that the writers and director Rick Morales cannot be forgiven for...

There is no Narrator's voice, "Meanwhile, back at stately Wayne Manor..."  He is there, but in such a limited manner they may as well not have used him at all.

Worse still Robin NEVER say's, "Atomic Batteries To Power; Turbines To Speed!"

On the whole, the animation is okay, though the CGI cars stand out, which isn't a good thing.  This is not one of Morales' best-directed films as the pace is all over the place and gives the movie a rambling and disorganised feeling.

I would stay away from this one if you're a Batman fan, especially of the cheesy '66 series.  Buy the original movie or rewatch the series as both are a hundred times better than this film.

Movie Review - Justice League: Doom

Justice League

Doom

2012

DC Entertainment / Warner Bros. Animation / Warner Premiere : Warner Home Video

9.25 / 10

This has to one of the best DC Stories of all time as it shows the Justice League has faults.

Here we have the ultimate bad guy Vandal Savage recruiting his crime syndicate to help him with his plan to defeat the Justice League so he can reign over the human race.  So who will help him to defeat the superhero team?

None other than Batman.

The story helps to give depth to The Batman as he's devised strategies to render the other members of the Justice League powerless, should they end up on the dark side, this is how far ahead the Dark Knight thinks.

The story is strong as DeWayne McDuffie has done a great adaptation of the comic book and Lauren Montgomery directs it just as strongly, keeping the pace fast and entertaining while allowing the characters to shine.

To be honest, there's not much wrong with this film.  I love the fact they decided to go with the known voices of Kevin Conroy as Batman, Tim Daly as Superman, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern, who are the voices of the main characters who had their own series, then the rest of the voices are the actors from the original Justice League series; Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman, Carl Lumbly as The Martian Manhunter, and Michael Rosenbaum as The Flash, so right from the get-go you're in familiar territory.  This is one of the reasons the movie is so good.

If you like the DC Superhero's then this is one film you need to watch.

  

Movie Review - Justice League: War

Justice League

War

2014

DC Entertainment / Warner Bros. Animation / DC Comics : Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group / Warner Home Video

7.5 / 10

This is a strange little film in the fact that it has so much wrong with it... but it also has so much right.

So what's wrong?

Batman's voice.  There's just no conviction, power, or menace in it.  This is one of The Bat's main features, other than his lack of super powers.  It's one of the main talking points when a new Batman a character is cast.  Everybody loves Kevin Conroy from The Animated Series, I really liked Anthony Ruivivar in Beware The Batman (it has the best vocal talents of the Batman series), now Will Arnet has done a brilliant job in The Lego Batman Movie.  Unfortunately, Jason O'Mara doesn't do the character justice.

Cyborg's origin.  Though it follows the lines it's blue goo which I didn't like as it took the blame off his father, Silas Stone creating The Cyborg out of his dying son.  This made Victor Stone more a casualty of Darkseid's attack rather than the love of an estranged father.

The appearance of Shazam, who wasn't in the original story.  The choice to use Shazam instead of Aquaman, in my eyes, was not a good one.  Aquaman was instrumental in the defeat of Darkseid and his Parademons. There's also the brilliant scene when he has the whales and sharks erupt out of the ocean to devour the Parademons.

The Parademons.  I really do like the original design, the ones in the movie are too bulky and appear to be more machine than living entity.

What's right with the film?

The Green Lantern, voiced brilliantly by Justin Kirk, has the right amount of bravado and ego and his relationship with The Batman and The Flash helps to give the movie more power and a sense of humour.

Christopher Gorham does a great job of voicing The Flash and adds the joy and wonder that the character exudes in the comic.

Wonder Woman, though you don't know her origin story for the New 52 in the movie this could make her strong character feel a little strange, to begin with as she's like a child in a toy shop... if you knew that she's new to the real world after leaving Themiscyra would've helped there - however it's this scene which gives the character heart but as soon as the Parademons attack, her sword starts swinging and the no-nonsense female warrior we know and love come to the fore, and Michelle Monaghan who does a great job at voicing all aspects of the character.

Though the thing that really makes this film work is the story and the action, for which Director Jay Oliva does a great job.

These elements nullify the bad ones make the film enjoyable and watchable, though it isn't the best of the Justice League films.  Still worth a watch though.