Possibly one of the best movies I have ever seen, it follows the story of evil villain Billy/Dr Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) as he tries to successfully join the 'Evil League of Evil' and defeat his nemesis Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion), the self centered superhero, whilst also trying to woo their shared love interest, Penny (Felicia Day), a simple, caring girl who wants to build a homeless shelter.Spread out in three acts of 14 minutes each, it is a tragicomedy web series directed by Avengers director Josh Whedon. Released in 2008, it is filled with jokes and singing and beautiful characters.
A theme that I found could be tied to this movie was that though ambition is important in achieving your goals in life, one must remember to not overlook the things that were once - or still are - important to them.
The way the story is told is untraditional in the way that it is told from the perspective of the bad guy. This leads me to the problem of using terms as protagonist and antagonist. From the traditional taught-by-my-third-grade-teacher perspective, protagonist is the good guy, antagonist is the bad guy. Done. End of story. However, in this case, the protagonist is very well Dr Horrible, aspiring super villain and not Captain Hammer, jerky jerk-faced self important super hero. Got it? Good. So, to understand how I came to that theme rather than something along the lines of through ruthlessness, you can achieve any goal (which is a liable theme though, in my opinion, not the one best suited for this particular story), we need to go into our protagonists mind (quick reminder here, protagonist is Dr Horrible). He begins the story with one single goal -which would be to become part of the Evil League of Evil - and a vague I-want-this-to-happen idea -making Penny fall in love with him. But, as the story progresses, Penny clearly becomes of higher and higher importance to him, so much so as he risks his projects for her. This, however, changes when she begins to hang around Captain Hammer. So you'd think that his priorities would change back to world domination right? Well then, you are a robot who clearly hasn't ever had a school girl crush on someone.
It doesn't change with the flip of a switch. So, even though he puts on the facade of needing only to join the League, deep inside, he truly cares for Penny. When he kills her, his feelings of dread and sadness and loneliness make for a empty victory. This is made all the more evident when he makes his final vlog in which he is dressed as himself (Billy) and not Dr Horrible. This is because he has gotten all he thought he would ever need as Dr Horrible and yet still feels empty without her. His feelings of accomplishment are squashed by the weight of the cost. (This is referred to as a Pyrrhic Victory)I love this movie because the acting is beautifully done, the story is amazing and the singing is perfect.Though there are a lot of songs, none feel out of place or overdone - though I will admit that almost all of them are cheesy on some level. The beats are good, the lyrics add to the story and they're catchy. I've been singing the Bad Horse Letter and Phone Call at school nearly non stop and everyone's annoyed with me.
Simply put, thank you Josh for making such an engaging, hilarious, cry out loud movie thaat I have watched way too many times.
Another movie analyzed by me
-Kimzy
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