Another biggie we got today at the SDCC is The LEGO Batman Movie. This one took awhile to go online (you can see the new Fantastic Beasts trailer here and the Suicide Squad trailer here), so here you go. Wow, between The LEGO Batman Movie (February 10, 2017), Kong: Skull Island (March 10, 2017), and King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (March 24, 2017), the Dream Factory is going to have a very crowded Spring. Oddly enough, in a year full of big swings (some DC-related, some not), I would argue that The LEGO Batman Movie is their safest bet. It may not be their biggest hit, but it is probably the “big” movie over which they are losing the least amount of sleep.
The LEGO Movie is the very definition of a breakout hit, opening with a whopping $69 million and still legging it to $259m domestic thanks to rave reviews and strong buzz. The film didn’t go nuts overseas, with “just” $469m but on a $60m budget. And now, we get a spin-off which combines their biggest “new” franchise with their crown jewel character. Of course, the irony is that Batman himself has never been the biggest overseas traveler, with only Batman v Superman, The Dark Knight Rises, and (oddly enough) Batman & Robin making more overseas than they did in North America.
But again, assuming that Warner Bros., Vertigo, and Village Roadshow didn’t spend that much more than what the last movie cost, it doesn’t have to go nuts overseas as long as it plays well in America. And with Batman v Superman introducing a much darker/grimmer/unpleasant Bruce Wayne/Batman into the live-action DC cinematic universe, this animated offshoot will certainly be a more appealing option for younger kids.
The irony is that Will Arnett’s winning take on the Caped Crusader last time out was something of a satire of “The God-Damn Batman” variation popularized (and then self-satirized) by Frank Miller. So, as of this moment, you have one big-screen Batman that personifies one version of Batman and another that overtly mocks that very same persona. That’s really somewhat amazing if you think about it.
And whatever you think of Ben Affleck’s Darkest of Dark Knights performance (he was quite good no matter my thoughts on the character choices), the fact that this alternate LEGO variation exists, to say nothing of the countless other more kid-friendly incarnations (like the upcoming Justice League: Action animated series) somewhat negates the complaint that the current live-action DCEU isn’t very kid-friendly. And that's not even taking into account the increasingly hardcore DCAU toons, but that conversation (re: The Killing Joke) is for another day.
Yeah, sure, I’m still a little annoyed that I couldn’t take my eight-year-old daughter to see Dawn of Justice (and may not take her to see Suicide Squad even though she is quite interested), it’s not like there aren’t an abundance of options for these characters in one adaptation or another. My son has little knowledge of the current live-action DC Films universe, but he is quite aware of The LEGO Batman Movie. I imagine The LEGO Batman, starring Arnett, Michael Cera as Robin, Rosario Dawson as Batgirl, Ralph Fiennes as Alfred, and Zach Galifianakis as The Joker, may be the big-screen Dark Knight of choice for an entire generation of novice DC fans.
