It is with extreme happiness that I type the following: for three weeks in a row, The Lego Batman Movie was at the top of the box office charts, beating out Fifty Shades Darker by millions of dollars in revenue. I feel so much pride in the fact that sometimes our childlike joy wins out over adult pleasure.

The Lego Batman Movie tells the story of (obviously) Batman, a notorious loner and butt-kicker. He has the entirety of Gotham fawning over him, a huge mansion on an island, and some really neat gadgets. In fact, the only thing he doesn’t have is friends.

Therein lies the source of conflict. Batman detests relationships so much that he won’t even admit to the Joker that the villain is his arch-nemesis. This hurts the Joker, very deeply. In an attempt to prove to Batman once and for all that he is worthy of the hero’s attention, the Joker hatches a plan that will change his life, and Batman’s, forever.

Will Batman be able to defeat some of the most evil villains in existence?

This movie teaches a valuable lesson about the value of friendship and respect, as moviegoers watch Batman realize that, in order to save Gotham from danger, he will have to learn to work as a team with other people, including Robin, Barbara Gordon, and his trustworthy butler, Alfred.

As the most avid Batman fan that I know of, I absolutely loved this movie. Hidden in every minute was a reference to the comics, or just a situation so absurd that I knew they were making fun of the overdone drama of previous Batman movies. (Batman and Robin, anyone?)* It was hilarious.

On the other hand, my mother, who had been hoping that The Lego Batman Movie would be as funny as its predecessor, The Lego Movie, was disappointed. The unfortunate fact is that she knows squat about Batman. This movie relied so heavily on references to the comics that she understood next to nothing. So, if you don’t know much about Batman, I wouldn’t expect too much from this movie.

While some parts of the movie clashed with my understanding of the Batman comics (e.g. originally, Barbara Gordon is Robin’s age, and thus not a potential love interest for Bruce Wayne; the Joker is such an awful person that the results of the movie would be entirely unrealistic), I had a very, very good time watching this movie. Sometimes, you just need to watch something Batman-related without having to deal with the gore and weird costumes, and this movie hits the spot. I highly recommend it!

*Check out the Honest Trailer for Batman and Robin if you’d like to see what I mean. Link is here.

Image Source: http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/790997-lego-batman-movie-characters#/slide/1