5-Word Review: Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog
By PoisonIvy (Chief Contributor) Tags: Nathan Fillion, Dr Horrible Dr Horribles Sing A Long Blog Joss Whedon, NPH, Neil Patrick Harris, Comics, comic book
12:30 AM
Tired of those dry, boring reviews? Get the quick, 5-word roundup on Joss Whedon's musical about a super villain looking for love here.
[Most of it is] AWESOME
Final Thoughts: I know, I know--I'm a huge nerd. But since Hector (Hi Hector!) took away my chance to nerd-review The Dark Knight (it's fine, his review is pretty awesome), I had to bring my nerdiness to something else.
For those of you who don't know, Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog is a side-project conceived by the awesome guy that brought you Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly/Serenity (which, if you haven't seen, go watch immediately) Joss Whedon during the writer's strike. Along with his brothers and sister-and-law, Whedon decided to look at the videoblog culture and ask, "What if EVERYONE could do this?"
Of course, to nerds, "everyone" means "horrible incapable supervillains that like to sing."
Sweet.
So he brought on NPH and Nathan Fillion, who worked with him on both "Firefly" and "Buffy," and created the story of Dr. Horrible, a hopelessly pathetic super villain (NPH) that just wants to get into the Evil League of Evil by beating his cheesy superhero nemesis, Captain Hammer (Fillion)--oh, and maybe get the cute girl from the Laundromat (Felicia Day).
Now, it's as fun and hilarious as it sounds, especially the first episode (called "Acts"). Act I not only has fun, enjoyable songs (like "Laundry Day" and "The Bad Horse Theme") but also awesome quotes. So, for those of you that haven't seen it-- I recommend it. Immediately. It's only 40 minutes TOTAL, and completely enjoyable.
But BE PREPARED.
Now I'm not a spoiler-person (especially after I accidentally mentioned that Bruce Willis had been dead the entire time during "Sixth Sense" in front of my brother-- I didn't know he was there, OK!?), so I won't ruin it, but as fun as Act I is, Act III is DARK. Act II seems like a fun transition piece, and has some REALLY funny lines, but Act III is just...dark.
And, I get it. It's Whedon. For those of you that don't know, Whedon can often take fun, light things, and very suddenly make them dark-- oftentimes by killing someone. The thing is, he often has a bunch of episodes or comic book issues to make that transition. Here he only has three episodes, so to do such a deep tonal shift so quickly (each episode being 13 minutes) feels...off-putting. That, and there are moments that are supposed to be silly and funny interspersed within the dark ending, so it just feels... out of place. I appreciate the darkness Whedon brought to such a fun, light-hearted story, but it sort of feels like he wrote this episode on a bad day. The songs aren't as good, and the end leaves the viewer going "uhm....WHAT?!"-- but not in an awesome, Lost kind of way.
Beyond this, the show is still totally enjoyable to watch and worth downloading for the small fee. You won't be disappointed--just perhaps a smidge confused. But hey, it's Whedon. What did you want, something easy?
Anyway, I leave on Wednesday for Comic-Con. Two of my friends are PUBLISHED this year, so I'll get to be seeing some cool stuff. I'll be sure to post for all my fellow nerds out there.
P.S. Oops, caught the counting mishap there. I'm a theatre major-- we don't need math!
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