When The Lego Movie was released by Warner Bros. in 2014, it was a surprise hit. Who could have imagined that a movie based on plastic building blocks would be so successful? Once it was clear that audiences and critics loved the original, the studio wanted more—a lot more. In fact, there are several Lego movies now in development, and the second one in the franchise—The Lego Batman Movie—opens in theaters this weekend, including a version graded in Dolby Vision HDR with an Atmos immersive soundtrack playing in Dolby Cinemas.
The star-studded movie is a playful take on the Batman story in which the Caped Crusader (voiced by Will Arnett) saves Gotham City from the Joker (Zach Galifianakis) and his band of villains—again. Batman is lauded by Gotham’s citizens, but he is in deep personal conflict; he’s a self-absorbed loner, yet he yearns for a family beyond his faithful butler Alfred (Ralph Fiennes).
When Police Commissioner Jim Gordon (Hector Elizondo) retires, his daughter Barbara (Rosario Dawson) takes his place and pledges to make the city safer by working together rather than depending solely on the masked vigilante. At Commissioner Gordon’s retirement party, Bruce Wayne is smitten with Barbara just as orphan Dick Grayson (Michael Cera) asks if Bruce would be willing to adopt him. With his attention firmly on Barbara, Bruce absentmindedly agrees.
Shortly thereafter, the Joker and his cohorts crash the party—and immediately surrender to the new commissioner. Could this be the end of crime in Gotham? Or is it part of the Joker’s evil plot to finally rule the city? Will Batman and his new ward be called upon to save the day once again? And how much lobster thermidor can be reheated in the microwave?
I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It has many hilarious moments and tons of fun references to all the various incarnations of the Batman story, all the way back to the TV series in the 1960s starring Adam West. Other notable bat-characters include the Riddler (Conan O’Brien), Bane (Doug Benson), Two-Face (Billy Dee Williams), Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz), and Poison Ivy (Riki Lindhome). Lots of other comic-book and fantasy characters make appearances as well, including Superman (Channing Tatum), Harley Quinn (Jenny Slate), King Kong (Seth Green), Sauron (Jemaine Clement), Voldemort (Eddie Izzard), Green Lantern (Jonah Hill), and The Flash (Adam Devine).
The Dolby Vision HDR presentation is superb. In fact, the opening shot is a full black screen with Batman providing a voiceover: “Black. All great movies start with a black screen.” And in Dolby Vision, it was indeed true black, not gray as I’m sure it is in conventional cinemas. (I didn’t have the opportunity to slip into a conventional showing for comparison.) Once the movie gets going, the image has all the contrast and pop I’ve come to expect from Dolby Vision, with super-deep blacks and rich, vivid colors.
Interestingly, the movie ends with a full white screen, under which Batman says, “White. All great movies end with a white screen.” It’s a rare opportunity to see a white full-field for more than a moment in a Dolby Cinema, and I was somewhat surprised that the uniformity was far from perfect. Also, it didn’t seem to be as bright as 100 nits, Dolby Vision’s peak brightness in a commercial cinema, though I can’t be sure without measuring it. Had I known what was coming, I would have brought my Minolta LS-100 light meter. Maybe I’ll see the movie again just to measure the luminance of that white screen. If so, I’ll try to sneak into a conventional showing to see what the difference is.
The Dolby Atmos soundtrack takes full advantage of the hemispherical soundfield. There’s lots of action overhead as aircraft fly around, and the musical score is mixed deep into the surround and overhead speakers. I found the soundtrack to be very engaging and immersive, just as Atmos promises.
The levels were quite reasonable, though a few explosions were pretty loud: Leq (average RMS level over the entire length of the movie plus trailers) = 91.1 dBZ (flat), 81.3 dBA, 89.5 dBC; Lmax (maximum 1-second RMS level) = 116.9 dBZ; L10 (level exceeded 10% of the time) = 92.4 dBZ; L50 (level exceeded 50% of the time) = 81.3 dBZ.
I highly recommend The Lego Batman Movie; it’s fresh, clever, funny, and touching all at the same time. The humor is much like the original Lego Movie—what I call obviousness as parody—which I believe arises from the youthful sensibilities of its creators. But the generation gap between them and me was no impediment to many hearty belly laughs. If you live near a Dolby Cinema—for a list, click here—I strongly encourage you to see it there. You will be rewarded with a superb audio and video experience as well as a super-fun movie.
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