Film Review: The Lego Batman Movie

 "Hey Batman! I'm Rubbing My Butt All Over Your Stuff! Gonna Have To Rename This The "Buttmobile"..."

A few years back, the appeal of an animated, feature-length Lego movie did indeed falter at first input into my mind, with the only response to the existence of such being an unashamedly sarcastic giggle, a response which in hindsight was one of undeniable small-mindedness considering the monumental success of The Lego Movie back in 2014 and the irritable notion of walking out the cinema singing "Everything Is Awesome" for the foreseeable future, which in itself resulted in astute looks of bewilderment from those within my singing range. With power however comes great responsibility and more importantly, a sequel, a sequel which this time focuses primarily on the Caped Crusader himself and a sequel which continues the sharp, witty standards set by the original whilst successfully improving upon its' predecessor by being a much more relatable and comedically astute animated offering. Being a huge fan of Gotham's most infamous export anyway, The Lego Batman Movie is an undeniable universal success, providing a steady output of eye-boggling animation for the younger viewers as well as a rafter of constant jokes to keep the older audience smiling from beginning to end. 

With a lightning-fast string of laugh-out-loud quips, puns and nods to the world of comics throughout its' more than satisfactory ninety minute runtime, The Lego Batman Movie is a movie which lays to waste most so-called comedies of recent years, relying on a mixture of gold-plated one-liners and animated slapstick amidst a narrative which obviously verges on the edge of absurdity from the get-go, one which features a broken hearted Joker and a selection of infamous villains from a wide range of different universes such as Harry Potter's Voldemort, Sauron from The Lord of the Rungs, and my personal favourite; the Daleks, all of whom team up against the most egoistic yet unrelentlessly hilarious incarnation of Bruce Wayne yet, one which gives Christian Bale's portrayal a run for its' money. Whilst the film does become too fast-paced at times, with the structure so relentless you live in fear of missing certain jokes and particular Easter eggs, The Lego Batman Movie is a superb and mightily entertaining piece of cinema, one which not only adds to the argument of the current golden age of animation but one which will result in you never watching any other Batman movie in the same way ever again. Everything is awesome once again. 

Overall Score: 8/10

Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice - NEW TRAILER - GET YOURSELF SOME OF THIS!

Its here! For the love of god its finally here!

Comic book movies have been on the rise for many years and the Dark Knight trilogy cemented itself into a market that was predominately dominated by Marvel. With Man of Steel, DC hit the nail on the head and created a truly great Superman movie, even though previous iterations sucked just as bad as Paris Hilton and her musical career. Though this time around, Superman has taken on a persona very reminiscent to that of the Injustice comic/game series.

Failed as a god by the world for his powers, it appears that Gotham's Dark Knight doesn't take to much of a shining to the false prophet and comes to bring justice to his ass. Although I couldn't see a shoutout to Aquaman or Wonder Woman, I honestly cannot wait to see their role in all of this and finally see Aquaman beat out his crappy reputation! Along with rumours of the Flash popping up and a confirmed Cyborg appearance, this looks to be the start of a very exciting path for the universe

Let us know what you think of the trailer down below!

Superman Man of Steel Review! -SPOILERS-

Superman: Man of Steel never looked to be a quality movie. Superman is a hard hero to convey on screen and the trailers and pictures did little to aid this notion. Going in sceptical and coming out pleased was quite the surprise, which was the exact opposite of After Earth. Directed by Zach Snyder and Produced by Christopher Nolan, we have a brilliant blend but I do feel that it wouldn't have worked out as well without Nolan hanging about. With Nolan, come Zimmer. Hans musical creations are some of the best and are incredibly distinct. In Man of Steel, Hans kicked it out of the park with this and I'm sure he will keep it up for many more years.

Man of Steel is an origin story which is executed in much better fashion than many other movies. We open the movie on the planet Krypton with a pissed off Russell Crow arguing with the planets law makers. Minutes into this argument, explosions and a few deaths happen created by General Zod (Michael Shannon). An attack provoked by the governments choice to stay on a doomed planet seemed inevitable but it also led to the complete annihilation of the planet and leaves few alive. One Being the baby Superman and the rest were General Zod's team who were banished and impressionism for high treason. 33 years later we skip straight onto a fishing vessel that is inbound to an oil rig emergency. This is when we see our hero (Henry Cavill) and how his actions define him and how much he looks like Wolverine. In classic Nolan fashion, we jump from past to present multiple times and it shows the formation of Superman's powers.

The rest is pretty simple enough to guess, so we shall move onto the visuals of the film. Superman films demand a lot of visual effects and will rely on CGI specialists to get it just right. The crew involved with the epic task did a brilliant job. The movie was visually perfect. Its lighting was just right, set pieces looked original and nothing stood out like a sore thumb. Yet there is one instance

when Clark is on fire and it doesn't look perfect but its a quick shift and is hardly noticeable. For the huge amounts of fight scenes and the excessive speeds that happen, the landscape stays clear and nothing is diminished by poor CGI.

The fight scenes are also pulse raising, aggressive and violent. Deaths were visible, the sheer violent actions by the enemy are shown and really help to convey how strong and evil these guys are. Being fairly sadistic, the smashing of faces, pile driving through skyscrapers and the occasional "eating of concrete". From fighting to acting! The acting was good and with a cast of excellent actors, you wouldn't expect much otherwise. We are also met with a few people that are a little less noticeable, who play minor roles, but do so with ease and don't try to stick out.

I have a few issues with the movie that do get on my nerves a little bit. One of them is the script. Some of the lines are really cheesy and why doesn't superman have many lines? The movie is about him and he appears to have very little lines throughout the whole thing! Secondly, how does no one know its Superman walking into the office when they all stood 10ft in front of him and why does his hair stay combed back all the way through with no effect from the window or the fact he's been thrown around the shop? It's not just lines that were cheesy though. We also have the catching of Louis Lane and the returning to the ground spinning gently around. Scenes like the death of his adopted father was also kinda cheesy and would have been easy to prevent. It's lapses in concentration and focus has led to a lot of Babybell moments, but its not Fast 6 cheese. In contrast you do have quite a few emotionally packed scenes which are touching.

After going into the movie expecting it to be terrible and watching as the crowd grows to one of the busiest that I have seen in quite a while, I came out impressed and I look forward to see a Justice League movie and the follow up with Lex. I am only speculating about Lex, simply because you see a lorry being used as a weapon against Clark which is plastered in Lex Luther's company logos. So, my total rating shall be a 7.5/10!