Latest / Potato Chip Pictures - A Podcast / As a Minifig, I Can Be Incorruptible, I Can Be Everlasting | The LEGO Batman Movie

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As a Minifig, I Can Be Incorruptible, I Can Be Everlasting | The LEGO Batman Movie · Potato Chip Pictures - A Podcast

0:00
I like this movie a lot and I think that it helps to watch it
0:03
with kids. I think it's a decent Batman
0:11
movie and we haven't picked the Batman universe to go into, but
0:16
that's very true. Think it works on that level and
0:22
it doesn't. I think I did catch a couple of
0:24
scenes with my youngest and he's like, is Emma in this?
0:29
Nope, he is not in this. Yep, sorry.
0:34
He's he's in a different world. He's in a different city, like a
0:41
whole table away. It works like a Marvel movie.
0:46
You know he exists somewhere. And you know it.
0:50
This one is definitely its own self-contained universe.
0:54
No human interference, but I'm going to push back and say
1:03
Emmett is in this movie. No, he's not.
1:07
So prove it. Towards the beginning during
1:10
Joker's bomb scheme, they cut to a news clip and there's this guy
1:16
talking about what will happen if the plates are blown up and
1:22
they they say we will fall to this endless abyss and they use
1:27
Emmett falling from the Octane tower with the battery strapped
1:34
on his back. Oh.
1:36
And that's their footage for falling into the endless abyss.
1:40
So Emmett is in the movie. It's just footage from a
1:45
previous movie. The bar is in the ground.
1:52
He exists. OK, OK, sure, fine.
2:07
Hello and welcome to Potato Chip Pictures, the movie franchise
2:12
review Podcast. My name is B Sammy Davis.
2:17
And I'm Justin. And today we are looking at the
2:20
second of the Lego movies, The Lego Batman Movie.
2:26
Justin, take it away. Oh, if it takes three years to
2:30
Malik a Lego movie, then I guess this is when it was supposed to
2:34
come out. 2017 different director.
2:38
I don't think actually in the future ones they don't get Phil
2:42
Lord and Christopher Miller back.
2:44
This is Chris McKay, unfamiliar entirely with any of his other
2:49
work with a lot more screenwriters, Jared Stern, Eric
2:54
Summers, Chris McKenna, John Whittington and Seth Graham
2:58
Smith. Looks like Seth Graham Smith was
3:01
the main story leader. I don't know what you call it,
3:06
story by him. I'm curious if any of these are
3:10
like comic creators because it works as a comedic comic book.
3:19
Like it has a it has a nice moral and nice heart and it's it
3:28
might be funnier than the Lego movie.
3:30
Like it's fun to make fun of the Legos in the Lego movie.
3:34
Like the stuff works like Legos and this one is more a superhero
3:39
movie. This one does feel like a Batman
3:44
movie that just happens to be filmed in a Lego style, but
3:49
otherwise, it's still pretty solidly a Batman movie.
3:55
Now, the director, I wanted to quickly say because I was like,
3:59
yeah, I I don't even know if I've ever heard that name
4:02
before. Chris McKay, I have watched one
4:06
other movie that he has directed.
4:09
I'll shout out the movie that he made.
4:11
He made two movies after this one.
4:13
One of them that I have not seen is called Renfield.
4:18
It is about Dracula's unwilling assistant is is crazy assistant.
4:26
I think it's a dark comedy. I think if I remember correctly
4:29
it had like Nicolas Cage maybe, but someone some big guy.
4:34
Was think so, yeah. But the one he made right, Not
4:39
right after, but like four years after The Lego Batman Movie was
4:44
from Amazon Studios and that was The Tomorrow War starring Chris
4:50
Pratt. Oh, and that's one of the worst
4:54
movies I have ever seen. Well, he just directed it.
4:59
Maybe someone else did the story, I don't know.
5:02
Given him a defense. I I and here's the thing, I want
5:06
to defend the Tomorrow War because I'm a sucker for time
5:09
travel. That's one of my favorite sub
5:13
genres in sci-fi and that movie sucks so much.
5:19
Like it's got 2 interesting moments, it's got some cool
5:24
visuals, but the story is so bad and the logic is so stupid.
5:31
I just hate it. It's one of my least favorite
5:34
movies that I have ever seen it. There's very few times when I'm
5:38
angry that I watched a movie and The Tomorrow War is one of those
5:42
times. I I was like why?
5:45
Why did I sit through this whole thing?
5:47
Why did I keep thinking it was going to get better?
5:51
0 out of 10. It's not a franchise.
5:54
Thankful. Yep, we're never going to review
5:56
it. So that's, that's my quick
5:57
review and and I think I would give it a 2 out of 10 if I had
6:01
to give it a score. But it does we're you know,
6:03
that's not official because it's not a franchise.
6:05
So it it doesn't matter. We'll finish the last numbers of
6:09
this producers or Dan Lynn, Roy Lee which were in the first one
6:13
and Phil Lord Christopher Miller apparently produced it.
6:16
So they I would assume give it their blessing and it went from
6:21
80 million to the budget up to 312 million in return.
6:26
So still a little less than the first one, but that's great for
6:33
an animated movie. Yeah, like this was well over
6:38
what, 250? I'm trying to do quick, quick
6:43
maths in my head. And I think that's, I mean,
6:47
it's, it's like 2. Yeah, it's two.
6:51
It's over $200 million in profit and for a children's movie,
6:56
that's pretty great. But I got to be honest, I there
7:00
are times when I'm like, this movie should have done way
7:04
better than that. This movie should have at least
7:08
matched the first movie. But whatever, I'm not audiences
7:14
in 2017. I'm.
7:15
Curious I I have a hard time remembering when movies come out
7:20
so I have no idea what it was going up against because yeah,
7:24
it's just as good as the first one and I enjoy Batman movie so
7:29
I think I liked it a little bit more.
7:31
Well, we have reviewed another 2017 movie, and that, of course,
7:37
was The Cult of Chucky. I don't think they came out
7:45
against each other, but who knows.
7:47
Just the same year, I'm not going to, I'm going to, I'm not
7:50
going to go into like months to figure out.
7:53
We need a we need a separate Co host.
7:55
That's just. In charge of, just in charge of
7:59
that for real other notable movies from that year.
8:05
It's not. Again, I don't know if these are
8:08
movies that came, I don't know when they came out against each
8:11
other, but you have Murder on the Orient Express, the Tom
8:16
Cruise version of The Mummy that was supposed to kick off the
8:19
monster verse and bomb so hard that it killed a franchise
8:24
before it happened. Baby Driver, which I think won
8:28
an Oscar. And then controversial opinion.
8:32
I hope we are able to get to it one day.
8:35
But my favorite of the sequel Star Wars trilogy, Star Wars The
8:40
Last Jedi also came out in 2017, but that was like December of
8:45
2017. So that would have been way at
8:48
the end of the year. But yeah, those are those are
8:52
some of the movies from 2017. I'm not seeing a lot of family
8:56
movies. I'm I'm sure there were.
8:58
There was a Despicable Me 3 came out.
9:02
I found that it looks like in that weekend it came out it was
9:07
going up against 50 Shades Darker and John Wick Chapter 2
9:14
and Split. Oh, those are two movies I I
9:18
enjoyed. Split is part of a franchise.
9:22
As well. So I am I am interested in
9:27
watching that although at the time Split was a stand alone
9:30
movie had nothing to do with the other ones in it.
9:34
It was because of Glass that we learned that this was all a
9:38
shared universe the whole time. The whole time even twisting the
9:44
franchises in the end. I have not watched Split or
9:48
Glass so I would be down for picking that one.
9:51
Have you seen what is it called? It's on.
9:55
First one, Yeah, I have. I have seen that one.
9:59
Yeah, Oh my gosh. Unbreakable.
10:03
Thank you. I was like, my brain has
10:05
completely broken. I can't even remember Bruce
10:07
Willis's name, but Unbreakable I think is the name.
10:12
But you and I know which one we're talking about.
10:14
Have you seen that 1A. Long time ago, but yes.
10:18
Yeah, I like that movie a lot. I also like to split a lot.
10:23
And then Glass happened and it's it's a movie.
10:26
I wasn't angry that I watched it, but it it didn't shake me
10:31
the same way that its predecessors did.
10:34
Those two were quite good. And then one more 2017 movie
10:39
that I just want to shout out because we talked briefly about
10:42
time travel because of the director, The Endless, which is
10:47
a an independent time loop movie.
10:51
The basic premise of it is that you've got these two brothers
10:54
who escaped a death cult and now they're adults and they get this
11:01
this VHS tape of the the death cult essentially saying we are
11:07
ascending. We are tonight's the night.
11:11
And so they decide to go and check out their old stomping
11:15
grounds and everything is quite interesting.
11:20
If if you like time loop movies, it's a very interesting take on
11:25
the concept and I might be spoiling too much by saying that
11:31
it is that type of sci-fi because it's it's really an
11:35
interesting way of going about telling that kind of story.
11:39
It's definitely not a Groundhog's Day.
11:42
Interesting. Well, maybe we'll see.
11:45
It's not a franchise. It's not a franchise, so yeah,
11:48
maybe we'll never watch it or you'll never watch it.
11:52
Well, let's let us, what do you call it?
11:58
Pile our praise on to this movie.
12:01
Indeed, I got to say, I really liked most of this movie.
12:11
This I'm I don't want to reveal too much.
12:16
I have some criticisms. There are some things that that
12:21
I was like, OK, but this, this is one of my favorite Batman
12:28
movies. This is genuinely a top tier
12:32
movie. Just just might minor things
12:37
that kind of bug me. Well, let's see if we run into
12:41
them as we go, because. Indeed.
12:44
I think to to what would you call it to lead a movie that is
12:53
as silly and serious as this one?
12:56
They picked the perfect voice back in the first Batman movie
13:00
or first Lego movie in Will Arnett, like he does the like
13:07
he's doing a voice that you know is a voice that he's putting on,
13:14
but it fits so well into what he has to say.
13:19
I just feels like Bruce Wayne, pompous yet competent, which he
13:27
was in the Lego movie and that this this entire movie gets to
13:33
just paint in all the blacks and Grays of the way that like you
13:40
probably shouldn't like how great Batman is.
13:43
And you should see that he's he's failing in this just this
13:47
one way that he's pushing down and away.
13:50
And it's like this is too good of a character.
13:55
Like it's it's perfect. So.
14:00
You know, I think other movies, at least in the live action area
14:06
of Batman, I would say the Christopher Nolan movies movies
14:11
are probably the one that gets closest to demonstrating this,
14:16
but this movie demonstrates it better than the rest of them.
14:20
In the comics, Batman is the the identity and Bruce Wayne is the
14:26
alter ego. Like most heroes, their their
14:31
person out of the costume is who they are.
14:34
They put on the costume in order to tell everyone they're a hero.
14:39
Well, Batman, when he puts on the costume, he is himself.
14:45
That is when he feels like who he is and when he takes it off,
14:51
that's the mask and the Nolan verse.
14:55
It hinted at that. I think they even said it
14:57
explicitly at one point. But Bruce Wayne is the costume.
15:03
That is not the identity. And in the comics, there's this
15:07
famous image or like it's a few pages, but it's the forming of
15:11
the Justice League. Can you God, Batman, Wonder
15:15
Woman and Superman? And Wonder Woman puts out the
15:18
lasso of truth and she's like, we will swear to this alliance
15:23
with our names. And she says Diana Prince, I
15:28
think is her name. Or maybe she just says Diana.
15:32
And then Superman says both Clark Kent and Kalel.
15:36
And Batman says Batman like that is his when he's holding the
15:41
Lasso of truth. That's his name.
15:44
It's very what all that trauma has just made him into Batman
15:51
and I this one I think portrays the the the downsides of trying
15:58
to just be Batman. So it it's a nice redeeming type
16:04
of exploration and it's a Lego movie of all things.
16:10
Maybe we wouldn't care if it was live action, but it just is the
16:16
the comedy covers so much of the the content in a great way.
16:24
Like kids will love it and it's just a nice simple, hey you, you
16:30
will need people type of message.
16:33
And I think this is the first time since Adam West, when Robin
16:39
was genuinely a child. I think in the Adam West ones,
16:44
the actor was an adult, but he was meant to be like a teenager
16:49
or a young Robin. And then when we get to the
16:53
Shoemaker movies in the 90s, those terrible ones, when Robin
16:58
shows up, he's definitely an adult.
17:00
He is not a kid. And then we get no Robin in the
17:06
Nolan verse. We get the reference the the
17:09
hidden Easter egg of maybe there's a Robin out there, but
17:13
even he's an adult. He's already a cop, he's got a
17:17
career. And now, now we finally in
17:21
theaters, have a child who is Robin.
17:25
And that, I think, was a pretty great touch.
17:28
Like, Robin's always been a kid. Why do we keep getting movies
17:31
with an adult hanging out with Batman?
17:35
So I like that. And I enjoy his his personality
17:42
it it works really well in this sort of format.
17:49
Well, we we skipped over all of the intro and I went straight to
17:53
Robin's, so I apologize. Tell me what was your favorite
17:57
thing about the start of this movie?
17:58
Because it this movie has a banger of a start.
18:02
I'm going to say 10 out of 10. Introduction for a movie.
18:09
Yeah, I think sometimes when you do, I'm trying to think of what
18:17
a movie would have done. Like songs generally date each
18:23
movie and choosing to go so flat out with a direct quote of
18:31
Michael Jackson to Batman. It I think it will stand the
18:38
test of time because it is. It's a good lyric and it's a
18:44
good message. And it's also like ironic until
18:50
you get into the movie. Like Batman isn't gonna change.
18:55
He's doing his thing, his way, and it works until there's no
18:59
more bad guys to fight. And I that's where like, it
19:02
really works as just a the story is great.
19:07
Generally, when I don't like the characters, I have to back into
19:10
the story and be like, OK, well, at least the story is telling me
19:13
something fun. The story is great, the
19:15
characters are great, and this is a very good movie.
19:19
Yeah, in the beginning. I mean, I think, I think they
19:25
start with jokes, they start with comedy, with the Batman
19:30
giving, giving his little monologue about how black.
19:35
All great movies start with a black screen.
19:38
I just love it so much. It's great.
19:45
But yeah, like the first like major character that we meet is
19:51
the Joker. Like it's it's a long time
19:54
before we get The Batman. He's so mysterious, he's he's at
19:59
the height of his prime man. He's taken on villains from
20:03
different universes in this, so he.
20:06
I'm pretty sure he only. Well, oh, you're right, you're
20:09
right. But in the intro it is pretty
20:12
much all of his his villains. All of his bad guys, he can
20:18
totally beat them. Stop the crisis and just crush
20:23
Joker's hope that he's the most important one.
20:28
I think that's always like a comic based universe.
20:34
Not plot, but just like theme. You know, the Joker is always
20:39
going to just fight against Batman and always be there
20:42
because Batman can't get rid of him.
20:45
That relationship in comics is like, so he's so like he's
20:52
absolutely homicidal and bad, but you can't get rid of them
20:58
because you care too much or. Well, he's got his no killing.
21:03
Rule. Yeah.
21:04
So he cares about the Joker in that sort of way.
21:10
That roundabout logic of what LEGO's Lego usually does a great
21:15
job of lampooning whatever it takes on.
21:19
And I think it this is done lovingly to say, well, the Joker
21:26
is your #1 bad guy, but Lego Batman can't really handle that.
21:33
Yeah, he doesn't do shit. Shit.
21:39
Oh, I love it. I love.
21:41
And this is something that I just happen to know.
21:44
I don't remember which writer or if it was the director.
21:49
This is one of those movies where the whole production team
21:52
worked very closely together. So it's it's hard to say like
21:57
this person did their job and then they laughed like this was
22:00
a movie where everybody was pretty much all hands on deck at
22:04
all times. And so they started at the top
22:08
of Batman's menagerie of villains.
22:11
And then they were like, OK, now go to the bottom of the list and
22:16
let's start filling out the rest of the villains from the very
22:19
bottom, including Condiment King and the killer whale dude like
22:26
so many. It works so well with Lego, you
22:30
would never put them in a different movie, but with Lego
22:32
it's like, well yeah, of course there's a mini fig of like the
22:36
most random rare character from any.
22:40
Of the movie, I was going to say most of these villains have
22:44
since had more appearances in comics, but at the time I I want
22:50
to say some of them like Zebra man, I think was only a one time
22:56
appearance before this movie. Like he's a real villain.
23:00
He really did appear in a Batman comic, but nobody cared.
23:05
Like he's not someone who made waves and that's why they chose
23:09
so many of these bottom of the list villains.
23:13
And I love it. I love that they were like, OK,
23:16
we got to have the big ones. We got to have Mr. Freeze,
23:19
Clayface, Penguin, Joker, obviously 2 face got to have the
23:24
big guys. But then let's let's go all the
23:28
way to the bottom and just get some bizarre characters.
23:31
Like nobody knows who Eraserhead is, but he's in this movie like.
23:37
Yeah, Yeah, that's a, It was a great intro to kind of show
23:47
Batman being amazing even in this universe, and introduce the
23:54
fact that Joker wants to actually feel like the main
24:00
conflict is Joker trying to convince Batman that he hates
24:04
him the most. And like, that's where the rest
24:10
of it comes in. Joker has the plan.
24:12
Batman's kind of just living his life absent mindedly adopting
24:17
Robin and then finding himself with nothing to do.
24:25
Oh man, I I love the introduction of Robin.
24:31
I there's a joke that killed me twice because I I watched about
24:35
half of the movie on my own, got very tired and went to bed and
24:40
then decided to watch the whole movie with with my son.
24:43
My daughter didn't want to watch it, but I was watching it with
24:46
my son and Richard Grayson is like, Hey, my name is Richard.
24:52
But everybody just calls me Dick.
24:54
And and Bruce Wayne is like, kids can be so cruel.
25:01
Oh, I loved it so much because Dick Grayson is his name.
25:04
Like that's the comic book name. That's that's the Nightwing.
25:08
Like everybody knows who Dick Grayson is, but in this movie
25:12
and then even in the subtitles, they put his name as Richard
25:16
because they don't want to write Dick.
25:19
It's so funny. That's pretty good.
25:23
Yeah. I mean, introduction to that
25:26
character. We are kind of skipping over the
25:29
other characters. We see Alfred, we see Barbara
25:32
Gordon, we see Commissioner Gordon.
25:34
But really? He's he's a nothing figure in
25:38
this movie. He's funny.
25:40
He's funny. Barbara's is the real star at
25:45
least, and I've got a bit of a crush on Rosario Dawson, so I'm
25:49
fine with shouting her out. I guess I only really recognized
25:54
Michael Cera's voice. I was trying to look at this and
25:57
be like, oh, is that girl for Nexus?
25:59
He's the Joker. Seeing OK now we've gotten to
26:04
one of my sticking points and that this is just a me problem.
26:08
My son was like, you are absolutely wrong on this.
26:12
I don't like Zach Galifianakis and I can hear him fully as the
26:17
Joker. And so I was like, it's a great
26:21
character. It's a great premise.
26:23
And I just, I've got a hang up. I don't have a reason to have a
26:27
hang up with this actor. Like he's never done anything to
26:31
me. Like I don't, I don't know why I
26:34
it's just I don't particularly like him.
26:37
And so I just don't like him as the Joker.
26:41
Gotcha. I don't think I could.
26:44
Like I couldn't have told you that it was Rosario, Dawson or
26:47
Zach. I guess the Butler is Ralph.
26:52
Yeah, or I think it's Ray Fines is how it's pronounced, but it's
26:56
I spelled Ralph. I did not pin any of those
27:01
names, just just by their voice, so it was not an issue for me,
27:07
but just to introduce the fact that they're their present.
27:12
Barbara matters to the story. Robin matters to the story.
27:16
Joker matters. Alfred matters not as much, but
27:21
he does matter. He's throughout this movie and,
27:23
and I really love when he's talking about The Batman being
27:29
despondent and he runs through the list of every Batman
27:34
franchise that we've had and all of them are Lego except the Adam
27:38
West version. That crazy version, yeah.
27:46
Oh, I, I mean, I enjoy the beginning because it sets up
27:52
Joker's plan, sets up Batman not really caring about anyone.
27:58
But you see that it's hinted that he's not caring because,
28:02
like, he lost his family and he's completely blind to the
28:07
fact that Alfred essentially adopted him as his son.
28:14
Yeah. One point he's like, you don't
28:16
understand and like literally the main person that could
28:20
understand having a child in their care.
28:26
But yeah. Which is such an interesting
28:29
twist on the character because every version of Batman that I
28:34
have ever seen, Alfred Pennyworth is massively
28:39
important not only to the Batman hero, but to the Bruce Wayne
28:45
identity as well. So to have this version just
28:50
trying to, well, frankly not trying, being so selfish that he
28:55
doesn't even notice Alfred. Like it's such an interesting
29:00
twist on the character. And that's, that's always going
29:03
to be what sets this movie apart for me.
29:06
The fact that this version of Batman is so different from
29:12
every other version and yet captures so much of the, the
29:16
characters essence and conflict. It's.
29:20
It's wild that they could go off script this much and still hit
29:25
it out of the. Park he still he's still
29:29
recognizable Batman like yeah, all those maybe they're extremes
29:34
of the character, but he's still crime fighting.
29:37
He's just super rich. He sings about not paying his
29:41
taxes and it's it's all just so many good digs that land and are
29:51
enjoyable. So I think first up until the
29:55
Joker, what do you call it, springs his scheme to be sent to
30:00
the Phantom Zone. I think, Oh, did I lose it?
30:05
I'm trying to remember what my favorite thing are.
30:09
Some of the bust up laughs that Will Arnett does.
30:14
It's that random things that are funny, but it's like it says
30:18
this Batman is childish. Yeah, they're what?
30:22
Or he's watching alone. Jerry Maguire.
30:25
Oh yeah. And it gets the most romantic
30:29
scene in the whole movie. And he does that inappropriate
30:32
laugh. Oh my gosh, it's so good.
30:36
It's so good. The other The second thing would
30:40
be whenever he says pewter instead of.
30:42
Computer, that's where I get it works.
30:46
If you've ever seen me talking like whenever I get mad at my
30:49
computer and I'm talking about it in our group chat, I always
30:53
call it Pooter, but I spell it differently.
30:56
But it it comes from this movie. I was like, that is such a funny
31:00
way to call a computer. I'm just going to start calling
31:02
my computer Pooter from now on. So those are my favorite things
31:08
because some of the plot isn't like absolutely necessary, but
31:18
it's so good. Still, I I don't have many
31:26
criticisms. I can't have we?
31:29
We ran across one of your criticisms so far in the Joker
31:32
voice. OK.
31:33
Yeah. Let me get to the next one
31:36
because we have seen it a few times.
31:39
I pointed this out in the last movie.
31:43
Nearly everything in the last movie was made of Lego and that
31:47
includes smoke effects and water.
31:50
This movie, I mean far off smoke effects appear to still be made
31:56
out of Lego, but there's a lot more fog that is genuine fog,
32:02
which you know that maybe that's just the style they wanted to go
32:06
for. But the one that gets me is
32:09
water. They they used well, not real,
32:13
but they they did not make Lego water in this movie.
32:18
And I don't know why that irked me so much.
32:22
I was just like, you guys already mastered this effect.
32:25
Why, why aren't you using it anymore?
32:27
It looked so good in the last movie, like now it's jarring to
32:32
see realistic water in this movie so that it's such a
32:38
nitpicky thing, but it really, I don't know it it really kind of
32:42
bugged me. Interesting.
32:44
Unreasonably mad about it. Oh, 'cause he drinks and spits
32:51
it out and it's like, it's not Legos.
32:53
Well, and also when they're flying across like the Gotham
32:57
City River, they're, you know, they get really close to the
33:01
water to the point where there's they're kicking up spray and it,
33:05
it's just clearly meant to be water and not Lego bricks that
33:11
are supposed to look like water, if that makes sense.
33:15
Yeah, OK, well, I didn't really notice that jarring thing.
33:24
And that's fine, that's fine. I I get it it this is a weird Z
33:28
for me but it was the thing that got me.
33:31
Gotcha OK well the plot is for Joker to prove that over all of
33:41
the villains everywhere Batman would hate him the most.
33:48
And when Batman said he's not, he wants to just blow up the
33:53
panels to break everything apart essentially and everything for
33:58
everybody because he's so distraught.
34:04
Yeah, he's, he just wants, he just wants to be someone's main
34:08
villain. And he thought it was Batman
34:10
and. Batman likes to fight around.
34:11
And doesn't do shit. Yeah, he doesn't do ships.
34:14
He likes to fight around. That's the other line.
34:16
I love is so good because it's just the tone is so funny and it
34:25
stays funny. But like they really put
34:29
everything together very well in the intro.
34:34
Well, he adopts a kid. So yeah, Batman has to
34:38
infiltrate Superman's hideouts so that he can get the Phantom
34:45
Zone gun. Like, I don't, I don't even
34:48
remember what it is, the thing that sends people to the
34:51
Phantom. Zone portal something.
34:53
Yeah, to send the Joker where Joker wants to go because Joker
34:59
is tricked. Batman outsmarted Batman, which
35:02
sometimes in movies it feels like it's hard for hit Joker to
35:05
actually seem like he's genuinely going toe to toe with
35:09
Batman. So in this one, yeah, Batman
35:14
seems a little bit Dumber. It's it's got to be sad, but
35:18
that might just be the arrogance of Batman I.
35:22
Mean he's made of plastic it's it's hard to put brains in that
35:25
little. Plastic head of his sends it to
35:29
the Phantom Zone and. And gets arrested for doing it.
35:37
I I do want to briefly touch on I I do like that Superman is
35:44
throwing a party without Batman. He knew Batman wouldn't come.
35:51
Batman. 'S totally fine, you know.
35:55
But clearly he's not like there. There are some small emotional
36:00
touches that I think exceed the previous movie where even though
36:07
this is a very funny comedy movie, they are able to put in
36:13
these these deeply emotional moments that that are relevant
36:19
and resonant. I mean, who hasn't felt lonely
36:23
at times and felt like their friends are just abandoning
36:26
them? Especially if you find out that
36:29
your friends are having a party without you, like, oh, that's
36:32
brutal. That is horrible.
36:36
That would be rough. Yeah, but yeah, then I'm fine
36:40
with skipping ahead to the Phantom Zone because that's
36:46
that's the other. Well, I don't want to say I
36:48
dislike it because I I do like it.
36:51
It's just at the same time I'm like, we have such a great cast
36:56
of villains. It's so weird that we now have
37:00
to pull villains from other franchises in order to keep this
37:05
movie going. I honestly, I honestly would
37:11
probably put that up to the fact that there's kind of a limited
37:18
amount of really recognizable bad guys of Batman where you
37:25
want them to do more. Like all of Batman's villains
37:30
are people sized. And yeah, Batman.
37:34
Except for Clayface and Mr. Freeze.
37:37
Yeah. And Bane.
37:38
Yeah, I think. And Crock.
37:40
Having the bigger bad guys makes it.
37:45
I don't know. I I think the stakes are
37:47
appropriate for for convince me that Batman will lose without
37:53
help. It makes sense for this movie in
37:56
particular because Batman literally defeats his entire
38:02
roster of villains at the beginning of the movie, and then
38:06
they all turn themselves in and and, you know, the next what
38:09
just happened? Meaningful scene.
38:11
Yeah. So it does make sense that you
38:14
got to kick things up a notch. My other this one is a
38:18
legitimate beef. The large characters, the sea
38:22
monster and King Kong in particular.
38:25
There are a couple of times when they do close-ups and they're
38:29
not made of Lego, they are made of Minecraft blocks in my head
38:34
like they are. These are just clearly CG
38:37
rendered characters. They didn't even have the
38:40
courtesy of putting the Lego bricks in them anymore.
38:45
And so, and that might just because I've watched this movie
38:48
too many times and so when I see those characters up close, I'm
38:52
like, that's that's not actually Lego anymore.
38:57
I guess I didn't see him that up close, but I didn't watch it
38:59
like on a big screen. I just.
39:01
Yeah, I was watching it on a fairly large one.
39:04
I. Was like yeah mine was just
39:07
regular home screen computer screen.
39:12
Regular home screen too. It's just, you know, I'm like
39:15
big enough. It's a normal size.
39:20
Yeah, it's NIT picky. It's it's not one of those
39:25
things that should impact a score, but the last movie did
39:29
such a good job of really incorporating the brand of Lego
39:35
into the design that when this one kind of cuts corners in
39:40
places, to me, it stands out like now that we've watched
39:43
these back-to-back, if I had waited three years like I did
39:47
the first time I watched it, I never would have noticed.
39:50
I would have been like, this is brilliant, this is amazing.
39:53
But I'm watching these week by week and I'm like, hey, some of
39:57
these things aren't Lego anymore.
39:58
They're just. Modeled the look like Lego.
40:02
What, you run out of fake Legos? Yeah, like you, you can
40:06
literally just put the the circles on top of them and
40:09
Congrats, you've turned them into Lego.
40:14
Like, well, I applaud your attention to detail.
40:21
My nitpickiness, but I'm going to say something that I'm
40:26
noticing that that really blows my mind.
40:30
Kate, I'm going to say her name, her last name wrong.
40:33
I think it's Micucci. She's a comedic singing actor.
40:39
Oh, I think I know, Yeah. Yeah, she had ATV show for a
40:43
while that I didn't really watch, but I've always kind of
40:47
thought she was very pretty to look at.
40:49
She's the voice of Clayface, and I never would have guessed that
40:54
in a million years. That's the most shocking voice
40:57
in this whole movie is that she is Clayface, because I was just
41:03
like, oh, Clayface is silly in this movie.
41:06
It's it's really well. Well, it's a comedian that I
41:11
love. And then Eddie Izzard is
41:12
Voldemort was another one that surprised me.
41:16
I like Eddie Izzard stand up. So I was pleased to see him as
41:21
Voldemort, Eddie. Izzard.
41:26
Yeah, if you have not watched any of his stand ups, I don't
41:29
want to, I don't want to give it away.
41:31
But there there's a very good one from like the mid aughts
41:38
that one of the best things about it is he does an encore
41:43
where he he redoes a section of the stand up that you just
41:49
watched. But he does it in a different
41:51
language, both to show off that he can speak more than one
41:56
language, but also to show that his type of comedy, even if you
42:00
don't know the language, you're still going to have a good time.
42:04
And I think part of it is that you know what he's talking about
42:07
because you just heard that particular segment.
42:11
It's just a repeat, but it's in a different language and it's
42:14
shocking that you can understand it.
42:18
If I, if I can remember what it's called, I'll send you the
42:20
link to it. It's it's a fantastic stand up
42:24
special. Well, let's see he Batman ends
42:31
up in prison, but he did allow Robin to come with him 'cause I
42:36
do enjoy them. That Robin is convinced that
42:39
Batman and Bruce Wayne are just like roommates, so they they
42:45
share a landlord. Essentially people.
42:48
Like, oh, he's actually your dad as well, and as one of your
42:51
dads, I approve that you can go on this fighting excursion so.
43:00
I love that in prison they let Batman keep his cowl.
43:03
So he's still Batman even in prison.
43:09
It works. It's so it's where comedy makes
43:13
it, like anything can really work.
43:17
And there is one Joker joke that that also tickles me to no end.
43:24
And it's, it's an old joke at this point.
43:28
It's become an obvious joke at this point.
43:30
But I, I don't, and I don't even know if this is the one that
43:32
originated it, but he asks Sauron, where is the bat cave?
43:38
And they're like, it's under Wayne Manor.
43:40
And does that mean Joker's? Like are you telling me that
43:45
Batman is Bruce Wayne roommate? It works well, it's fun and but
43:55
yeah. Time to time to get out of
43:57
prison. Let's see, I'm looking at the
44:01
wiki because I'm like, there's, we kind of missed the whole
44:05
adoption, Bruce Wayne talking right through all the costumes.
44:09
But it's really funny. I think it's OK to say this will
44:13
be a highly enough rated movie. If you haven't watched it
44:17
because you don't like Batman, give it a shot.
44:19
Because yeah, it may be less of a Batman Batman movie and more
44:24
of just a, what do you call it, Batman finding healing, which is
44:33
I appreciate. I like it.
44:37
It is cool to see any character going through a a healing
44:41
moment. And this movie, it takes him a
44:43
long time to have any sort of character development 'cause
44:49
even even when the Joker breaks out of the Phantom Zone and
44:53
brings all of the villains with him, even when Barbara and
44:58
Alfred come to the prison to let him out and help him get back in
45:04
action, he still doesn't want help.
45:08
And he builds a jet and stuffs everybody in.
45:12
And Barbara's like why are there any more seats?
45:15
And he's like, last time I checked, I've only got 1 butt
45:19
I'm just, it's so funny. But like all the way to 3/4 into
45:25
the movie, he's still the biggest jerk in the world.
45:29
He is, He's not. He hasn't allowed himself to
45:36
say, yeah, I do love these people.
45:39
He he recognizes that he wants to keep them safe and but he
45:43
doesn't trust them not that's the.
45:44
Closest we get to any kind of character development, like
45:48
after that big action sequence where they all have to work
45:52
together, he's like, I'm going to send you guys away.
45:58
He still can't accept anyone else to help him.
46:03
And, and we almost think maybe that's the character
46:06
development. He is caring about three people
46:10
enough to send them away to safety.
46:14
But that's not the growth that Batman needs.
46:18
And we're still like 20 or 30 minutes away from his actual
46:24
growth. And I, I do love that.
46:26
I love that we get such a slow burn for this character.
46:32
I think it works pretty well. I mean he gets the captured and
46:37
sent to the phantom zone. And that's where he his whole
46:42
thing screams bad guy. Yep, he learns that, oh, maybe,
46:49
maybe all this vigilantism that like the Batman newest movie is
46:55
kind of going through like you're, yes, you are fighting
46:59
crime, but it's just at the edge of of you are not the Riddler,
47:06
but you sure could be if you just, you know, we're not trying
47:11
to do the not killing people thing.
47:15
I was gonna say you are one murder away from being just as
47:19
bad as the bad guys you're fighting.
47:22
And I do like that it takes the, IT takes Phyllis in the Phantom
47:27
Zone essentially saying like you're you're not a good person,
47:32
you're bad. Yeah, look in the mirror and
47:36
make a change, yeah. We had that whole quote at the
47:40
beginning. I do enjoy when movies kind of
47:45
set themselves up when it's done comedically.
47:47
If it was like a serious like add a quote to the front of like
47:52
Gladiator and then close it with like that quote reversed, it
47:56
would be ridiculous. So I enjoy it for that manner.
48:05
He has to beat up all the bad guys, but he doesn't have.
48:10
We finally get a moment of character change and I got to
48:14
shout it out because I love the designs of it.
48:17
His character change comes from everybody else's bat signals
48:24
where he he hits a button and creates a a Batgirl bat signal
48:30
and a Robin bat signal and an Alfred bat signal.
48:34
And then he flicks it a bunch of times and gets all of the
48:36
villains to have their own bat signals and, and like I love
48:42
those designs in the sky. I love pausing it on the villain
48:46
one to see what their bat signals look like.
48:50
I feel like it's a a movie for artists because I'm sure that
48:54
those whoever had to design stuff had to do all of this.
49:00
Because they know there's going to be people like me who pause
49:02
it and want to look at all the designs.
49:09
But yes, now we can get to the final battle, which is is quite
49:13
spectacular, quite good to look at.
49:16
And the he doesn't get to the bomb in time.
49:20
I'm like, they fight because they're about to lose.
49:25
Batman convinces Phyllis to send him back so that he can save him
49:31
and become better. He promises to come back.
49:33
And it's like, you know, I believe Batman, he's he's
49:39
selfish. But like I imagine in this
49:42
world, he also hasn't let anybody die like he.
49:45
Yeah, I imagine he's still honest, even if he's weird.
49:50
Yeah, I'm like, Yep. It's like, I actually do need to
49:53
save this, so I will come back and he does afterwards at the
49:57
end. And but maybe this fight is more
50:00
for the resolution of the Joker's conflict and the
50:07
resolution of Batman's letting people help him and be part of
50:12
his family. I feel like it's, if anything,
50:19
maybe it's too nice of a wrap up to everybody.
50:21
The villains get to keep on living and the good guys win it.
50:27
It feels like the. I'm only going to push back on
50:33
the so he he does have the bomb threat and he has, as you said,
50:40
he's not good enough to stop it. And it does blow up the city and
50:44
bring everyone apart. I do love when they all stack on
50:49
each other's heads and they all go to reach and they still fail.
50:55
Batman's speech to the Joker where he's like, I wake up at
50:59
2:00 in the afternoon and get absolutely ripped and all of
51:04
these things that he does specifically because of the
51:08
Joker. It's, you know, it's, it's a
51:11
pretty, it's hilarious, but it is still filled with a lot of
51:16
heart. And I love that speech.
51:20
I really do like, yes, it is funny.
51:22
It's so funny. And the fact that everybody has
51:26
to do the, you know, the hardest crunch they've ever done really,
51:30
you know, work on those ABS. And we get the thing I love from
51:35
the last movie, a, a wide shot that's like a miniature version
51:39
of the big thing. And it just coming together
51:42
really quick and just snapping together uneventfully.
51:47
And I, I love it. I I genuinely love that as a
51:52
conclusion because it's so funny and yet still so good.
52:00
Yeah. It's a really solid ending.
52:05
If it feels a little like when Toy Story Andy plays with toys,
52:10
like we're going to come back to fight another day.
52:14
But in this one, there's no humans.
52:17
We're just kind of playing the Legos.
52:20
They're doing it themselves, so I don't have any issues with it.
52:24
I think that might be the only minor minor gripe.
52:34
OK, so you were getting to Batman sending himself back to
52:39
the Phantom Zone. What?
52:42
What did you think of Batman essentially revealing himself to
52:46
all of Gotham? I know that only the Bat Family
52:51
sees it, but surely, surely somebody had followed Batman on
52:58
to the dock to see him take his mask off.
53:05
I think his rules are less stringent than the Mandalorians.
53:11
Yeah, especially in this universe.
53:15
I think you if you want to go that route like Alfred is a
53:24
Batman signal now like that's. True.
53:28
It it's yeah, I'm less concerned with whether a citizen of Gotham
53:33
saw him take his mask off. I do love, I do love Robin's
53:40
little speech when he's like, my 2 dads are actually one dad, but
53:46
now I'm losing them. Like, like that is a nice little
53:52
thing. Like it is.
53:53
It's still funny, still very funny, but this movie does a
53:57
great job of threading the needle of being funny and
54:01
impactful at the same time. It's really interesting.
54:07
I really enjoyed this movie. Joker makes Batman say I hate
54:14
you. OK, I don't think there's any
54:21
sort of reveal for a second Lego Batman movie like the Duplo's in
54:28
the first one, but. Well, you brought it up.
54:34
It's it was never in the movie. This is a tragedy of just
54:39
following the news. I don't remember who bought the
54:45
Lego Film production company, but it wasn't Warner Brothers.
54:49
If I remember correctly, someone else bought them and that meant
54:56
that The Lego Batman Movie 2 was cancelled.
55:00
It was in development. It and I I've since forgotten
55:06
because apparently it had a script that was finished and
55:10
everybody was excited for it because it was going to continue
55:15
telling these stories of learning how to trust and
55:18
learning how to have a family. This time it was going to focus
55:22
on Robin and I you know, I'm not remembering everything
55:27
perfectly. I just remember that when the
55:30
details of the script were revealed, I, I thought, holy
55:35
crap, we missed what would have been an incredible sequel, and
55:40
it's gone. It's gone forever.
55:43
I'm thankful that this movie doesn't hint at a sequel, but
55:47
there was one in production and it's dead.
55:52
It's a dead movie now. That's unfortunate, could have
55:55
been super fun. It really could have, but you
56:00
know, I, I love how this movie ends.
56:03
I love the closing credits. I love the bat family coming
56:06
together. And I'm glad, I am genuinely
56:10
glad that this movie ends, that it, it doesn't leave anything up
56:17
for a sequel. It doesn't hint that there's
56:20
more story to tell. It has a beginning, middle and
56:23
end, and it's satisfying. And so I I do love that.
56:29
Yeah, it's a nice complete show and that's why I rate it.
56:35
I was about to say, let's, let's get into it.
56:38
On this podcast, we do ratings, not grades.
56:41
In the primary difference is where you find the average.
56:44
In a grade, the average is a 7 out of 10.
56:47
That's so everything feels better.
56:49
Everybody feels good about their grade.
56:51
And when you have something that is graded poorly, you might
56:54
raise it up a little bit to get it closer to that average.
56:58
But we say no, no, we do ratings.
57:02
And in a rating, we say A5 out of 10 is the middle.
57:05
That is the average. So if we give a movie A5 out of
57:08
10, that doesn't mean it's a bad movie, it means it is average.
57:12
So with that said Justin, please tell me what you give this movie
57:17
on a scale of 1 to 10. I don't know that I can just
57:22
give it a flat out 10 because I I feel like I need to nitpick
57:27
something but I went with 9 because it's so funny and worth
57:36
it. I think maybe if you're not a
57:39
fan of comedies they then maybe it won't match what you're
57:44
looking for because it if you don't care about Batman at all,
57:49
well maybe it's a fun little movie to watch anyway. 9 is, if
57:57
anything underselling it but. I was going to say, that might
58:01
be the highest score you've ever given a movie.
58:03
I think so. I enjoyed it more than the first
58:07
movie, Lego Movie, and I gave that an 8.
58:12
It's I don't know that it would come to first thought to like,
58:17
what's your one movie that you love?
58:20
Like, I think this movie is really, really, really, really
58:23
funny. Yeah. 9 Simply because it's
58:32
great. I think that's fair.
58:35
I think that's fair. I genuinely thought that you
58:39
were going to make this your first perfect movie.
58:41
I thought you were going to hit us with a 10.
58:44
So I'm, I'm shocked. I'm going to tell you my
58:47
nitpicks on this movie while they are there.
58:52
They are what keeps this from a perfect movie for me.
58:56
But I'm also at a nine. I think this is, as I said at
59:00
the beginning, this is the best Batman movie.
59:04
Well, this might be tied for the best.
59:06
We'll have to see if we ever get to that franchise, but The Dark
59:10
Knight is my other, like, favorite Batman movie of all
59:15
time. Just so happens that both of
59:18
these movies have the Joker as the main villain.
59:23
And I yeah, so I, I genuinely love both those movies together.
59:31
But this movie is so unique and so interesting that it really
59:37
does stand on its own as a fantastic Batman movie.
59:40
But it's also a great children's comedy.
59:44
It's a great Lego movie. I've got small nitpicks and
59:48
those are just because the last movie set such a high bar that I
59:54
I can't look past some of these nitpicks.
59:57
And then I just got personal beef with with Zach
1:00:01
Galifianakis. It's not his fault.
1:00:03
Like I can't hold it against him.
1:00:05
I would probably give this movie an 8 if I were more vindictive,
1:00:10
but I I can't deny that my dislike of this actor.
1:00:16
It doesn't take away from the movie, it doesn't make me think
1:00:20
I don't want to watch this anymore.
1:00:21
I hate that guy. I still lovingly watch this
1:00:25
movie. If anything, the water effect
1:00:28
has more of an impact on my score than Zach Galifianakis
1:00:32
does. So 9 out of 10.
1:00:35
It's it's so close to another perfect movie.
1:00:39
It genuinely is an incredible work of art.
1:00:43
And that gives us a show average of a nine out of 10, which I
1:00:48
think is it's fair, it's very reasonable.
1:00:52
It's it's equal to what we gave collectively the last movie.
1:01:00
But it it expresses our tiny, tiny concerns with the movie
1:01:06
while also saying this movie's dope.
1:01:08
This movie's fantastic. It's.
1:01:10
Almost perfect. It works really well.
1:01:15
Well, next time we are also in 2017, but on those back half of
1:01:21
the year with the Lego Ninjago Movie, something that came
1:01:25
completely out of left field. I never would have guessed that
1:01:29
they would make a movie about the Ninjago line of toys.
1:01:33
I didn't even know Ninjago had ATV series until I watched this
1:01:38
movie. I was aware of, unaware of all
1:01:41
of that. Yeah, so like, this is the
1:01:44
Ninjago movie is one of those movies where for some people,
1:01:50
they got so excited when they heard about it because they love
1:01:53
the toys, they love the TV show. But for most people, they were
1:01:59
shocked. They were like, really Ninjago?
1:02:02
What is a Ninjago? Like a Duplo movie?
1:02:05
What is going on? Yeah, it was just so out of left
1:02:09
field, but I'm excited to get to that next week 'cause it's been,
1:02:13
I've, I've seen it a couple of times.
1:02:15
My son loved it so much that he started watching the Ninjago
1:02:19
show and I had a good time with it.
1:02:21
So I'm excited to dive back into that world.
1:02:24
But it has. It has been a lot of years since
1:02:28
I have last seen it. Well, cool well, I think that
1:02:35
mostly wraps us up everyone that's listening, we want to
1:02:38
thank you for listening to our show.
1:02:41
If you enjoyed yourself, please like comment, review, subscribe,
1:02:45
whatever your platform of choice offers, do that and help us get
1:02:49
in front of more people. We'd also love it if you shared
1:02:54
it or this any any episode with friends and family and you can
1:02:59
send us questions about this episode or others or suggest
1:03:05
future franchises. I'm always up for hearing those
1:03:08
at our e-mail Potato chippicturespod@gmail.com before
1:03:14
we and at all. Is there anything else you'd
1:03:18
like to? You know, I don't really have
1:03:20
anything. I would love to get franchise
1:03:23
suggestions that that would be my big shout out and call to
1:03:27
action as well. Whether that be through comments
1:03:30
on your platform of choice. Although I have trouble finding
1:03:34
all the comments so if anybody's left them, I haven't seen them,
1:03:38
but e-mail 100% I see those. They go to
1:03:41
mycellphonesopotatochippicturespod@gmail.com. Just send us some franchise
1:03:47
suggestions. Long short, it just has to have
1:03:51
more than one movie. That's the key.
1:03:54
So I mean, I'm sure that there are two film franchises that
1:03:57
will surprise us. Can't think of any myself, but
1:04:01
you know, before there was glass, I don't know you put
1:04:06
couldn't have put together unbreakable with split without
1:04:10
glass, not at all. Glass has to exist.
1:04:14
I would say Happy Death Day is one of my favorite 2 movie
1:04:18
franchises. You've got Happy Death Day and
1:04:22
then Happy Death Day to you with the number 2 and the letter U.
1:04:28
Those are. I love both of those movies.
1:04:30
I think they are so much fun. Interesting, I'll have to look
1:04:34
them up. Or maybe we'll just add them to
1:04:35
the list. I was going to say we could
1:04:37
just, we could just do it. And then you'll have to watch
1:04:39
them. That's how you get me watching.
1:04:43
I have to watch these. And I mean that.
1:04:46
That rounds it out so nicely because these Lego movies, if
1:04:51
they build it, we will watch it. Goodbye, bye.