The LEGO Batman Movie (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)
Two years ago, one of the dumber, bad ideas came to fruition: The LEGO Movie. Sure, really young kids would go and enjoy, yeah. But, they can deserve better. Low and behold, it was BETTER and one of the best films of the year and animated films of the last ten years. Everything was awesome! One of the scene stealers in the film was Batman, and so, logically, they gave him a spin off. While slapping a big LEGO logo on it, it did prove you can have multiple Batmen and Batman movies in pop culture at the same time. And yeah, there may be darkness and no parents, but the film was loaded and became a big box office hit. LEGO is now building a quality animated brand with a unique touch to their humor. I had no desire to see a LEGO Ninjago movie (I don’t even know exactly anything about it other than…Ninjas?), but I’m on board and that trailer was pretty hilarious. Here now, lets look back at The LEGO Batman Movie, coming June 13th to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray.
Film 
In the irreverent spirit of fun that made “The LEGO Movie” a worldwide phenomenon, the self-described leading man of that ensemble—LEGO Batman—stars in his own big-screen adventure. But there are big changes brewing in Gotham City, and if he wants to save the city from The Joker’s hostile takeover, Batman may have to drop the lone vigilante thing, try to work with others and maybe, just maybe, learn to lighten up.
The LEGO Batman Movie continues the humor of The LEGO Movie, but adds its own spins and twists on it, primarily hanging out in the Dark Knight’s residence. We continue more of Will Arnett’s take from the previous movie, but dive deeper with his Batman both being ridiculous, yet never taking it to far. He’s joined by damn near every Batman character ever at least getting their due in cameo form. Its a film about family, being able to both sulk and move on, and mixing serious with fun.
Batman fans, while its poking fun, this film was made for you. What I love about it, is that ANYTHING and EVERYTHING Batman is taken in as continuity. Take that canon/continuity snobs. This makes for a lot of fun. There are great surface jokes and in-jokes throughout (Billy Dee Williams finally gets to play Two-Face!). The Dark Knight has had a rich, colorful history of successes, mistakes, cultural impact and more, and this one says its okay to love all of it just the same. And while there is a lot of jokes and parody, it still manages to pull out a significant true to the character arc out for the whole thing.
I mentioned voice casting, and this thing is stacked. We all know Arnett is great. Zach Galifianakis also proves to be a much better joke than Jared Leto and while he’s no Mark Hamill, he’s up there and way better than a lot of them who came after. Rosario Dawson gets to be Batgirl, but I kinda feel for her as she’s always been a part of voicing comic book stuff and being a part of the cast of it in live action, but nobody has given her an honest to god live action comic character. Let the girl get her due already. Michael Cera’s Dick Grayson is one of his funniest and best roles in a while. My one wish though, is that we got a little more of Jenny Slate’s Harley Quinn as she’s a perfect fit for that kind of character.
LEGO has made yet another triumph in its sophomore theatrical effort. They’ve also done something crazy and made one of the best Batman movies of all time. The film is full of fun, inventive choreography and action, laugh out loud humor, dissection of the caped crusader and has a lot of heart. Its a film that truly runs a wide gamut and feels like 5 minutes have passed. Every age, every Bat-fan will love this movie. Proof that Batman isn’t all just darkness and no parents, there’s room for the sun to shine on Gotham as well.
Video
Encoding: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Layers: BD-66
Clarity/Detail: The LEGO Batman movie comes to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray with a pretty good step up from its Blu-ray counterpart. This one is really crisp and sharp and does feature a better look at the details on the LEGOS like the finger smudges, wear and tear, scuffs and the like. The image is confident and movies just as they did perfectly do with that stop-motion appearance. Its really impressive with its HDR in the usage and presentation of its darks and saturation of blacks. I’m sure beauty is going to be in the eye of the beholder (As seems to be with this new format), but I think this is a solid uptick.
Depth: Good dimensional work here as character all feel good and spaced from one another. Backgrounds feature great clarity and definition. Movements are of the sort of choppy variety by design, but look good and clean, with confidence and no blurring or jitter.
Black Levels: Here’s where things impress very well. Blacks are deep and well saturated, looking as natural as can been and retaining all the detail they can.
Color Reproduction: Strong, bold colors that really pop without being crazy vivid or bleeding. Things like Batman’s eyes have a really nice glow to them that do jump out. Yellows, greens, purples…all of them really are strong, but the star of this is the blacks.
Flesh Tones: N/A
Noise/Artifacts: Clear
Audio 
Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, English 5.1 DTS-HD MA, English Descriptive Audio, French (Canadian) 5.1 Dolby Digital, Italian 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish (Castilian) 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish (Mexico) 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish (Columbian) 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese (Brazil) 5.1 Dolby Digital, Catalan 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital, Russian 5.1 Dolby Digital, Hungarian 5.1 Dolby Digital, Romanian 5.1 Dolby Digital, Thai 5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Italian SDH, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin Am), Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese, Russian, Hungarian, Romanian, Thai
Dynamics: The LEGO Batman movie features a great Dolby Atmos track that really unearths a good amount of traveling sound with good precision. Sound effects are layered with tremendous depth on their foley. In a few spots things get a little monotone mixing with score, and vocals but those are few and far between. For the most part, each get their due and are able to share the spotlight. Sounds are crisp and clear and the film definitely feels to epic, tentpole proportions even though it is a little animated film.
Height: This track features some good stuff floating overhead like jets, flipping and flying characters and other action beats.
Low Frequency Extension: Explosions, destruction, blasting things, crumbling things and more get a good rumble from your subwoofer. Also, Batman’s vehicular stereos bump.
Surround Sound Presentation: This is a fun time. There is stuff everywhere in this mix. As you watch the screen, every character, every bit of action or just ambient background going on is accounted for and takes appropriate placing and movement with great accuracy.
Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are crisp and clear, with good attention and clear depiction of actor diction captured very well.
Extras
The LEGO Batman Movie comes with the standard Blu-ray edition and an UltraViolet digital copy of the movie. Aside from the commentary, all bonus materials are featured on the standard Blu-ray disc.
Audio Commentary
- Director and Crew Commentary
Blu-ray Disc
Animated Shorts (HD, 7:30)
- Dark Hoser – Is Batman Canadian? Features Superman, too.
- Batman Is Just Not That Into You – A Dr. Quinn talk show digs into the relationship with Joker & Batman.
- Cooking With Alfred – Title says it all.
- Movie Sound Effects: How Do They Do That? – Villains try making foley effects.
The Master: A LEGO Ninjago Short (HD, 5:23) – A little promo short for the upcoming film.
Deleted Scenes (HD, 7:00)
Featurettes
- One Brick at a Time: Making The LEGO Batman Movie (HD, 16:10) – A nice little look at the mentality behind both the story of the film and the actual craft of making the CG animated LEGO characters and environments.
- Rebrick Contest Winners (HD, 2:47) – Fan made shorts that were from a contest held in promotion of the movie. Hosted by Will Arnett.
- Inside Wayne Manor (HD, 2:36) – Batman gives a little tour of the mansion.
Promotional Material
- Trailer 1 with Will Arnett Intro (HD, 1:59)
- Trailer 2 (HD, 2:39)
- Trailer 3 (HD, 2:34)
- LEGO Life Trailer (HD, :40)
- Follow Me Online (HD, :31)
- Don’t Skip (HD, :21)
- Happy Holidays Jingle (HD, :25)
- Batsby New Year’s (HD, :24)
- Team Cutdown (HD, 1:53)
- Comic-Con Panel (HD, 2:55)
Summary
LEGO has done it again with The LEGO Batman Movie. You pair this up with Wonder Woman and it appears DC properties are on a roll at the theater. This 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray gives a fantastic audio and video presentation of the film with good colors, sharpness and a crazy amount of traveling sound. The extras look like a lot, but many of them are just kinda silly and dumb. Pick this up pretty much for the movie, but this is one that’s worth Day 1 price even if it were bare bones.
