One day, Billy/Dr. Horrible is attempting to remote control a car in order to get a critical piece to his invention. In a bizarre turn of events, this is the exact same moment Penny finally approaches him requesting signatures for her petition to get a house for the homeless. Because of his distraction the car gets away from him and almost hits Penny! Thankfully someone else steps in and pushes her out of the way; unfortunately for Dr. Horrible that person is Captain Hammer.
The movie progresses from there dealing with feelings of despair, anger, and love all while breaking out into random, harmonic melodies. The songs are catchy and upbeat (for the most part) but very random.
This movie is too unbelievable for me. As a fan of musicals I held high hopes which were dashed at the first song. Besides the random choruses of mustached mariachi singers, called “The Bad Horse Chorus”, the songs were thrown together almost like an afterthought.
The dialog also seemed forced and unnatural. Overacting seemed to play a large part in the qualifications for the actors. They spoke loudly and with strange contorted facial expressions. There were funny bits of dialogue here and there but it was usually the actor’s comedic timing or the inflection of the voice that made the moment humorous.
Another problem is the lack of chemistry between both Penny and Dr. Horrible as well as the absence of chemistry between Penny and Captain Hammer. Captain Hammer is in love with himself entirely too much to ever consider loving someone else and Penny just seems….awkward the whole time. Not to mention the fact that in real life Neil Patrick Harris is gay so seeing him “in love” with a woman is just weird.
Overall, this is not on my list of top movie musicals. Give me Chicago, Phantom of the Opera, or even The Wizard of Oz any day. It was a good try, but like Dr. Horrible’s original freeze ray, it failed.
1) supervillain not superhero
ReplyDelete2) You're not making a convincing argument. How can the songs be "catchy and upbeat" and "thrown together almost like an afterthought" at the same time?
3) Could have used more hyperlinks.
4) You do make some good points, though I think it's unfair to compare "Dr. Horrible" to "The Wizard of Oz" and some of the other musicals you mentioned. "Dr. Horrible" was created in the brief span of the writer's strike; they only had 6 days to shoot it. Comparing it to big-budget Hollywood blockbusters seems inappropriate.