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(PG) 104 minutes
We all know Hollywood is moving in ever-decreasing circles, but the idea of a feature-length parody of Batman seems particularly redundant. Wasn't this done on television around 50 years ago?
Of course, there's a difference between the famously campy Batman TV show and the new LEGO Batman Movie. Where the show presumed that a masked crimefighter in spandex was innately ridiculous, the movie treats Batman as an icon so universally revered he can stand a degree of good-natured ribbing.
Directed by Chris McKay (Robot Chicken), this is a spinoff of the vastly successful LEGO Movie, again set in a miniature universe made from computer-simulated LEGO bricks.
Will Arnett returns as the voice of LEGO Batman, who's even more of a sulky man-child than his live-action equivalents.
Despite the toy town setting, this is hardly a children's film, given the cultural literacy required to get three-quarters of the jokes.
The depiction of Gotham City's would-be saviour as an anti-social blowhard shielded by his wealth carries an unavoidable topical subtext, which ceases to be subtextual when police chief Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson) trots out a version of Hillary Clinton's "It takes a village" line.
But the satire - if that's what you'd call it - backs away from the initial suggestion that Batman-style mavericks do more harm than good (it may or may not be relevant that the current US treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin???, is a credited executive producer).
As in The LEGO Movie, mockery is ultimately subsumed by "sincere" emotion, though I was unable to summon much interest in the question of whether LEGO Batman would learn to love.
What's missing is any trace of 1980s-style punk cynicism to underpin the pop playfulness; instead, there's a complacency which is death to humour.
Like The LEGO Movie, the film trades on the incongruity of combining characters from different fictional worlds, with a climax featuring a rogue's gallery of villains including Sauron, Voldemort and King Kong.
Even the Daleks score a cameo, but somehow the effect is not at all the same as when Joe Dante had them show up in the background of his 2003 Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
Dante's trademark in-jokes have always been bonuses thrown in to please himself and his fellow geeks.
By contrast, the makers of The LEGO Batman Movie seem intent on rewarding the general public for brand loyalty, while jumping on as many bandwagons as they can.
