Everything is Awesome in the Darkness, No Parents.

Lego Batman is the Batman movie we need. And the one we deserve.

No offense dear Christopher Nolan but leaving us with Dark Knight Rises just paved the way to make whatever the hell the mess of Batman v Superman was. And somehow Lego minifigs who can’t bend their legs can do a better job of acting and conveying emotion than human actors given one of the worst scripts of all time. *

(*This may be a slight exaggeration… but only slight.) 

At the moment when they began listing off Batman rogues (starting somewhere with Crazy Quilt, who is basically always the stand-in in my world for “bad Batman villain”) I lost my mind laughing and I didn’t even get to experience the whole list. I saw some of them but I was waiting for the Clock King and the unbearably boring Sewer King. Oh, it was glorious, especially when the audience was indirectly encouraged to have a “quick google.” Still, that’s the sort of fan service that actually made this a movie worth watching. That and not taking itself so seriously (such as self-referential Batman franchise jokes, a la “Master Bruce went crazy in 2005, 2008, 2012….”)

I’m a huge fan of the Batman world and this may be the first Batman movie ever to really say that hey, Bruce Wayne as Batman might actually be a bit of a villain. Comics have addressed this countless times, and the animated series certainly touched on it a few times but the movies have never given serious credence to the idea, even when Batman has been regarded as a vigilante and not liked. Considering how Dark Knight ended, where Batman kind of takes the fall, as it were, he’s still not really given room to consider whether he’s a good guy or bad guy. This movie, ostensibly suitable for children of all ages, has space enough to ask that question without it turning into a gun battle or “pity Batman” party.

Seriously, go watch this. Like, now.

Series Of Inordinately Unfortunates

Light Spoilers for Netflix’s Adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events & The Book Series

Full disclosure: the A Series of Unfortunate Events books weren’t published until I was an adult but I still read them vigorously. And in the early days, I sat at Barnes and Noble or Borders (RIP) and would read the latest volume and take notes. (I had no money then.) I later got out of college and got a job and bought them all, including The Beatrice Letters, with its message of doom and gloom and fatal activity. They’re good books with a set of siblings who fail to fall into one of the most common traps in children/YA writing: the kids are all distinct. They’re referred to as “the Baudelaire orphans” quite often but each has a unique personality. Violet isn’t a bookworm just because she’s good with machines, and Klaus lacks a lot of practical knowledge despite reading often. In many tales, they’d be treated as “smart sad kids” and that’d be it.

The movie, which was released in 2004, was just straight up awful. While the acting and casting was okay, the failure to create a cohesive screenplay from the books showed. Beyond that, there were certain useless changes, such as making Klaus the one who climbed to save Sunny. This was so against his character and seemed done solely to make him the “adventurous boy” who rescued his sister. And the “left hand/right hand” plot was completely removed within. And then they changed the path of the story, twitching about with Aunt Josephine and Uncle Monty in the wrong order. I bought the DVD but only because Daniel Handler/Lemony Snicket did a commentary track in which he completely picks apart the story. I love the snark.

So you can see where I might have been excited for Netflix to take a run at it, not only because Netflix has done better with a lot of adaptations but because they said they had recruited Neil Patrick Harris and Patrick Warburton. I watched the first episode and was actually not terribly impressed. I felt it lackluster and missing something of the “spark” that the stories held. So I put off watching more episodes until later. It got better, definitely, and some of the updates were nice, including little jabs about current events. It’s still not as good as I’d hope, and I don’t know why that is. Maybe I’m too old? I love Patrick Warburton as Lemony Snicket (and he’s a far better one than Jude Law ever was) but he cannot carry the entire show. NPH is also great and he does the differing Olaf personalities beautifully. I finished it all. But something still feels off about the whole thing.

If I had to guess, it’s just that the subtle book to screen changes take away some of the ambiance. That and putting the Quagmires in from the get-go. What’s up with that? I don’t know if that makes things better as I’m already familiar with the Quagmire kids from the books but I read these books like ten years ago. I don’t see where it improves anything. The mislead was shot well, but it was also obvious that it was going to be a mislead, and I would think that’s true even if you hadn’t read the books. Maybe it’s just that my mystical awesome experiences with book to screen are lowered in general. I have no idea. I do like the theme music, though, so there’s that.