#bizzaroleague

OK, let’s get a few things out of the way. This is a Lego movie for kids. It is not the super cool Lego Movie. This is more like TV Special than anything else. It is for kids plain and simple. Maybe you think that is a good thing, maybe you think that is a bad thing. Good guys are good because they are good. Bad guys are bad because they are bad. No back story. Lego is a company that licenses its style out to companies that have a built-in audience.

My fear walking in.

Bizarro is a character that runs on reverse logic. This is pretty cool when sprinkled over a story arch in comics. However, the more and more focus is place on the character and other Bizarro characters, the harder it is for writers to maintain that logic. If this was comic writer Geoff Johns handling this, I would not worry. But in the hands of cartoon writers, I was worried that it would be an issue for them to tell a story for kids using reverse logic.

Plot.

Ever changing. This is problem as you can imagine.

Bizarro has nothing to do, no place to go and no place to live. Superman shows him “Bizarro World” which is a square planet that has certain effects on the it’s non- Bizarro inhabitants.  There is some type of gold rock that is a conductor of energy there as well. 

Bizarro , with a ray gun, purposely creates the Bizarro League. They all are supposed to the reverse of the League member that the Bizarro ray touch, but this is not the case at all. Bizarro doing this was following normal logic. Some of my fears are coming true.

The Bizarro League goes back home to Bizarro World and find that something or someone is taking all the gold rocks from his planet.

DARKSIED'S BEHIND IT ALL! 

After a misunderstanding, the Justice League teams up with the Bizarro League to fight Darkseid who shows up around the ½ point.

Bizarro feels that he has no place in the whole wide world or even Bizarro World. This being a kid’s movie, Bizarro does find his niche and both teams defeat Darksied, of course. Something with setting up another movie comes in at the last 10 seconds then roll to credits.

Characters. Heroes.

Flash, Green Arrow, Plastic Man, and Hawkman are only part of the trailers. If you seen those, you have seen their role in the movie. Pathetic!  Flash and Green Arrow have successful TV shows now, at the very least, Arrow should have had some more time. NO Bizarro creations for the mentioned heroes. Lame.

Cyborg, Wonder Woman, Guy Gardner Green Lantern have minor roles. I did like how they made Guy an asshole without pouring in on too much. Cyborg’s “humor” got annoying even at a little kids level. Wonder Woman said little, did less. Same can be said about their Bizarro versions. Well, in terms of what they could have done, it was pretty unsatisfactory. All the Bizarro League members failed to do things in reverse.

This is the League we get. Cool but wanted more than this.

Two examples standout. B. Cyborg and B. Guy are supposed to have some type of opposite traits that Cyborg and Guy have. They kinda do, I think. But this happens on Bizarro world where normal Cy and Guy have the powers in a funk to being with. So it’s like we have 2 Cyborg’s and 2 Guy Gardener’s. B. Batman and B. Wonder Woman did nothing and were not even funny unlike……

Batman. I get annoyed that Bat is placed so high on all things DC. However, this is was refreshing take on the character. Instead of him knowing everything and it being cool with the League, namely Superman, Bat is portrayed as a paranoid dick that is quite funny. I love all the internal dialogue Batman had. Good Stuff.

Superman character arch has a purpose in the film and that is why I like him. The bulk of the movie he is trying to explain why is not like Bizarro but the actions in the film make him see why just putting Bizarro on a planet by himself is not in anyone’s best interest. 

Bizarro. Like I said, having a character like him be the focus of a movie for kids is hard because you have to follow the logic all the way through for him to truly work. The film say’s “Fuck that” and starts using normal and reverse logic in the same scenes from time to time. That is very jarring. I was expecting more comedy from him and his League but it fell flat. This is keeping in mind all the slap stick humor stuff as well. 

Characters. Villains….if you can call them that.  

Gorilla Grood. Had my hopes up, then it was a melee fight with no consequence to the story. It introduced characters then just left them there. Deathstroke, The Penguin, and Captain Cold don’t do anything interesting.

Lex Luthor.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------waste.

Darkseid. Coming in after the ½ point with no set up, it was hard to care about what he wanted to do. I knew that he was going to be defeated easily but fuck man that was horrible. 

LEGO-ness.

Really disappointing. There are no interesting constructs. The Lego video games do a much better job and I’m talking about the ones from 2008! This is more like a Green Lantern: The Animated Series in block form rather than a Lego movie. You get me?

Overall score. Changing plot focus and little Lego imaginative things going on, I am going to have to give this a 5/10*. The humor is only good in the half. It’s like DC/Lego paid the funny writers only half the check.