The Lego Batman Movie review: Batman never better as a psychopathic jerk

It hardly seems fair to ask if The Lego Batman Movie is the best Batman movie ever. After all, it couldn't exist without a long line of predecessors stretching back to Adam West, all of which are merrily, promiscuously referenced throughout the latest Lego adventure.

Christopher Nolan's Batman, however, remains the blueprint for Will Arnett's marvellous takedown of the Caped Crusader, a breakout star of 2014's unexpectedly brilliant Lego Movie. Under the direction of Robot Chicken's Chris McKay, Arnett relentlessly prods at Batman with a welcome helping of BoJack Horseman-brand misery and narcissism.

Without doing anything that isn't fun, anarchic and entirely family-friendly, Lego Batman never allows the viewer to forget that Batman is a self-regarding, self-important, psychopathic jerk. (And he's not even the biggest jerk in the movie: that honour falls to the occasionally glimpsed Superman.)

The glowering one is greatly perturbed when Commissioner Gordon retires to make way for his daughter, Barbara (Rosario Dawson), a radical, forward-thinker, who hopes to defeat crime with a community-minded, socialist-sounding ‘It Takes a Village’ approach. “I hate everything you just said,” Batman scowls at her.

Elsewhere, the self-regarding vigilante troubles his loyal butler Alfred (Ralph Fiennes) by remaining resolutely friendless and by refusing to take an interest in the orphan he accidently adopts (Michael Cera’s Robin).

The best-known Gothamite also angers the Joker by refusing to acknowledge him as his nemesis. Much capering, hilarity, awful parenting (“First lesson: life doesn’t give you seatbelts”) and several jaunts to the Phantom Zone ensue.

Nobody expects the next Batfleck film to be quite so irreverent, but as so many gamers will attest on behalf of Lego’s videogames, there’s a lot of mojo to be plundered when you treat your source material and mythology as if it were a funfair. (Yes, there is a funfair scene). When Barbara finally dons the Batgirl costume, her response deserves a cheer: “Then can I call you Batboy?”

Between merciless but fond lampooning (“All serious movies start with a black screen”), there’s an entertaining all-ages comedy that values togetherness and jokes equally.

It hardly seems fair to ask if The Lego Batman Movie is the best Batman movie ever, especially against the recent underwhelming run of DC films. But yes. Batman has never looked better than he does in construction plastic.