Superhero Media: Lego Batman - DC Superheroes Unite

No, this film has nothing to do with The Lego Movie, it is actually a tie-in for the Lego Batman series of video games, specifically Lego Batman 2. Lex Luthor gets the brilliant idea to team up with the Joker and the pair enact a plan to use modified Smilex to brainwash people into electing Luthor as President. Naturally, the Joker betrays Luthor and the Justice League has to take down a giant clown robot before it can destroy the city. As a piece of cinematic drama, Lego Batman - DC Superheroes Unite doesn't deliver, but as an extended trailer for a fun video game franchise, it's pretty good. Yes, it's just a bit of fun for the kids, but it's well done and entertaining enough that I've sat through it twice now; once because it was on before I started doing these "Superhero Media" blog entries. 

I'm struggling a bit with this one because the film was pretty much bang on average, not too many good bits and not too many bad bits. Robin's constant insistence that Batman call the JLA is rebuked in a very Batman fashion for very Batman reasons, Superman is so goody-goody that he borders on annoying and Cyborg is forgettable. One day I'm going to do an entry on why Cyborg's promotion to Leaguer was awkward tokenism, but for now enjoy him failing to be at all interesting. There's also a great callback where Robin thinks Batman's kryptonite hording habit is a tad paranoid, but Wonder Woman thinks it's a great idea. Also, no one seems to like Green Lantern very much, which I'm not sure isn't a reference to the terrible live action film or just a continuation of the joke from The Lego Movie. 
 

If you need something to get the kids into superheroes, or just want something on in the background while you paint, give this a go. It's not great, but there are a few laughs to be had and it's certainly better than most live action DC releases of the past few years. There are a couple of sequels and I may get to them at some point, but the media backlog still looms pretty big, maybe if they show up on Netflix.