No No No No No No No No - LEGO Batman!

The LEGO Batman Movie! I saw it, and my comments on it are below. Be forewarned, there are spoilers. So many spoilers. If you haven't seen it yet and don't want to hear about all of the awesome pop culture references, then go watch it and come back and read this post. You really should go see it. And don't tell me you'd rather see 50 Shades Darker instead (for shame).

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The LEGO Batman Movie Poster

LEGO Batman was AWESOME!

OK, yes silly reference to the first LEGO movie, but it comes with the territory. And I actually think The LEGO Batman Movie was better than The LEGO Movie.

First, the song in the opening seen -- best Batman song ever! "Who's the Bat(Man)." It's on my list to buy. ;)

Onto the serious stuff? Nah, not yet. But I have to say, I really did enjoy this movie. And not just because the toddler sat through it entranced instead of making a scene in the theater. I was literally laughing out loud through most of the movie, and for me that's great. Everyone needs to laugh. It's good for the soul. Honestly, it was nice to see the Batman/DC franchise poking fun at itself, among other things.

Let's see, some of my fav lines... Barbara Gordon: "Batgirl? Can I call you Batboy?" Oh, and when Sauron tells Joker the Bat Cave is under Wayne Manor. Joker: "You mean to tell me Bruce Wayne is... Batman's roommate?"

Part of the humor, though, was in the pop culture references. When Joker goes to the Phantom Zone, it's filled with so many bad guys from a lot of other movies and books. Voldemort, The Eye of Sauron, Godzilla, King Kong... but my favorites were the Gremlins and the Daleks! I'm likely dating myself with the Gremlins, but I got all giddy when I saw Spike right away in the Phantom Zone. And you have to love the Daleks and their infamous line: "Exterminate!"

There were so many Easter eggs and references in this movie that I'd have to watch it a couple more times to catch most of them -- and I'd probably still miss some (because let's face it, I haven't seen and read everything, so some stuff may have gone over my head). Siri is Batman's computer! Too funny.

With so many references stuffed into this movie, I'm actually a bit overwhelmed and not sure what others to mention!

I'll move on then and get a little more serious. Not too serious. Promise.

Not only does The LEGO Batman Movie have great humor, it actually has a solid story arc and character growth.

Batman has relationship issues. Right from the beginning he doesn't even want to claim Joker as his main villain (and the Joker's face when he's rejected is priceless). This stems from the loss of his parents, and you see him struggle with this throughout the movie and eventually overcome it and start to let people in. Which then ends with him finally admitting to Joker that he's his main villain. Great arc and a funny one at that. Not the normal "love" story which we see so often in most Batman movies.

Actually having a good story arc and the character growth at the end just strengthened the humor of the movie for me. I was expecting to laugh, but I didn't expect a great story to go along with it! Seriously well done.

Oh, and the last bit I have to mention: Harley Quinn. How can I not? She's one of my fav villains. I loved it that they kept switching up her outfit to reflect the many looks of her character through the years.

If you want a laugh, make sure to watch The LEGO Batman Movie! And if you've seen it already, there's no reason you can't see it again, right?

Suicide Squad - Fun But Could Have Been Better

No catchy title this time. I think that part of my brain may be on vacation. Sorry about that. Anyway, here's your warning.

Warning, warning! *turns on the flashing red light* SPOILERS ahead!!! If you haven't seen Suicide Squad yet and don't want it ruined, don't read on. If you don't care, well, dive right in.

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Suicide Squad (2016) Movie Poster

I could probably go on and on about a lot of things in this movie that could be improved, but I'll try to keep this post under novel length. Promise. ;)

First, I do want to say that I don't think Suicide Squad is a horrible movie by any means. It was fun to watch (though my poor husband missed nearly half of it because the toddler decided she wasn't going to be cooperative in the theater), but it's not one I'm crazy, excited about to see again.

I was looking forward to this movie. But I was also scared they were going to botch things up. Personally, I was mostly looking forward to Harley Quinn - forget all those other bozos. Heck, this should have been a Harley movie (and I hope we get one in the future, as long as they take some lessons on the mistakes of this movie to improve on their delivery). And Harley was fun. Best part of the movie, of course. Margot Robbie played the roll well (which is why I'd love to see her in her own Harley movie).

That said, I think there were several things that could have been improved. I have a pretty long list, too, which I think I'll have to shorten for this post!

The beginning. Oh, the beginning. It was a bit too disjointed for me and contained massive info dumps. Why couldn't they have done briefer story flashbacks as they were pulling the team together? I think the beginning suffers from the Started the Story Too Early Syndrome. The story really starts when this band of misfits is pulled together. Kind of like with Guardians of the Galaxy. Guardians wove the backstory into the movie (aside from the brief beginning when Star Lord was nabbed by aliens), instead of dumping it all at the beginning. And when they were taken to the prison and had their dossiers read, it was brief. Suicide Squad was long-winded with the backstory. Not to mention they told rather showed. It's a freaking movie - we should see more, not just have it all fed to us!

Another thing that bugged me is that none of the characters clicked well. At the end they have this big thing about how they're now a family. Diablo says, "I already lost one family. I'm not going to lose another." Aside from that being overly melodramatic and a tad cliche, I didn't feel it. These characters still felt like merely individuals forced to work together. That little "bonding" scene in the bar wasn't enough for me to make them feel like they were family or worked well together. Not like by the end of Guardians (yes, I'm a Guardians fan girl - I can't wait until the next one). I wanted to see them mesh better, but they just didn't.

Oh, and the whole Slipknot thing (you might be asking yourself, "Who?" - I don't blame you). How was it not clear that he was going to be the example for if they got out of line? They plop him in with no backstory at the beginning like all of the others. I mean, really? You knew his head was going to be blown off rather quickly.

I know some people didn't like the villain in the movie much. Honestly, I didn't think she was that bad of a villain. I liked her as a villain. What I didn't like were her zombies. And you can say all you want that they aren't zombies. They are - mindless creatures intent on killing (you don't need a thirst for brains to be a zombie). I did enjoy the fight scene at the end with Enchantress though. That was fun.

Now, I mentioned I loved Harley. Sadly, her backstory with Joker wasn't done enough justice. It could have been much better. The way they presented it all was very disjointed. The best scene though was when Harley jumped into the chemical vat and Joker followed her. I loved that scene. It had a lot of emotion in it and it showed people not only how much she loved Joker but also how much he loved her. But. You knew there was a but coming, didn't you? That scene was horribly out of place. It's triggered when she looks down a stairwell because she thinks of the drop to the chemical vat, but the placement still felt off with what was happening before and after in the movie.

I'll leave this review on a positive note, though. Or maybe a positive bullet? Heh. Oh, I'm not funny? Fine, then. I loved Harley's revolver. At the end when Deadshot uses it, you see the LOVE and then the HATE etched on the cylinder. I thought that was awesome. Sometimes you just got to smile at the small touches.