April 14, 2016
Hello blog readers, this is Neil. Due to the very short notice on which this blog was called for and the fact that it was assigned on my work night, Wednesday, with only a day to finish it, and minimal time to write it due to the 5pm to 9pm shift, I will try my hardest to keep this post short. Somethings that are making waves on the internet are the two teaser trailers for The Lego Batman Movie, a spinoff of 2014's The Lego Movie. Will Arnett returns as Bruce Wayne/Batman, and the cast also includes Ralph Fiennes as Alfred Pennyworth, Batman's beloved butler and adviser; Michael Cera as Robin/Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, or Damian Wayne, Rosario Dawson as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, and Zach Galifinakis as The Joker. It may also involve the return of DC Comics superheroes from The Lego Movie and their voice actors, such as Channing Tatum as Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman, Jonah Hill as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern, and Cobie Smulders as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman. The film's plot is supposed to center around Batman trying to learn how to be happier and be more of a team player. This version of Batman generates humor from his frequent admission of how cool he thinks he is and doing silly things that no other Batman would do, such as beatbox and rap, and take himself seriously the whole time as no one else does the same. Nearly every previous version of Batman is to be referenced at one point or another, and it is implied that they all happened in the same continuity in one way or another in the Lego world. The central theme is supposed to be whether Batman can be happy, because as Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the movie's producers and the developers of Warner Animation Group's Lego Movie World, have gone on record to say that Batman just keeps going back to the angst despite having plenty of good things going for him, such as being a genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist (the genius and philanthropist parts aren't quite present in the Lego version) skilled in multiple languages and forms of martial arts who owns several luxury cars and is friends with several superheroes and is even co-president of an intergalactic superhero council. People praised the trailers as a breath of fresh air in light of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which many find too dark without justification by good storytelling like the Christopher Nolan Batman/Dark Knight trilogy, and that an acerbic parody/satire of what Batman has become in modern times is more than welcome in the current cinematic landscape. Perhaps it can get to the point where the message for Batman is that he can and should stop every once in a while to appreciate the cool life he lives even while acknowledging how bad it gets. Perhaps that's a lesson all of us could benefit from, whether you're a superhero or not. Thank you for reading, and I hope to have a good and meaty post next time.
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