Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Update: Dr. Horrible's soundtrack is now the #2 album on iTunes. I suggest grabbing it!

First, there's the audacity of making a film whose protagonist and point-of-view character is also the villain. This is difficult to do and even harder to make sympathetic. Whedon and team succeed famously, here. Dr. Horrible is a sympathetic and flawed character who the audience really wants to learn more about. He is clearly a hero who went down the wrong path. This is also a good place to point out that Neil Patrick Harris does a phenomenal job as our leading man. More on him in just a bit.

Next up is the further audacity of making a musical superhero film. What was Whedon thinking? Hasn't he seen the Batman trailer? Doesn't he realize that superhero movies have grown up and need to be serious? Well, here's two points to change that perception: this manages to be a serious if whimsical musical and it's re-writing the rule book when it comes to how popular a Web film can be. As far as the quality of Dr. Horrible as a musical goes, it's outstanding. Whedon is really starting to feel out the medium of musicals and while Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Once More With Feeling was a well crafted musical, Dr. Horrible is on another level with every other song in 2 or 3 part counterpoint and songs that range from fluffy to hard-rocking, it's not surprising that Jos has hinted at wanting to do a Broadway version of the show. So what of the singing? Neil Patrick Harris is phenomenal. In fact, if anything, there's a risk that he raises the bar just a bit too much for the rest of the cast. Nathan Fillion does an acceptable job, though the difficulty of his role will be discussed later. Felicia Day has an excellent voice for the part, but her songs don't have the range of Harris's so they don't give her the same chance to shine. Probably the best thing one can say about a musical, however, is that I expect the soundtrack to sell an embarrassingly large number of copies.

To quote one fan from the Digg Web site:

I hate musicals.
I loved this.
Awesome. -Pulledteeth

So then there's the hero. Nathan Fillion has the unenviable task of playing a completely stereotyped, cardboard bully-turned superhero: Captain Hammer. There's nothing in his role to redeem him, and that's a hard role to play. Fillion steps up and delivers the role with gusto. His Captain Hammer is unabashedly despicable and shallow that you can't help but want to see him beaten.

The negative: I'll avoid spoilers, but the film ends where fans won't expect it to. It leads you up to a certain set of expectations, mostly based on the routine films and comics of this genre. It dashes them. In the end, it's a better story for taking the road less traveled, but it's perhaps not quite as enjoyable. Will fans appreciate this? I have no idea. I know it tempered my enthusiasm, but one need not be enthusiastic to have loved a film, and I'm not sure I'd want to see this changed. The very worst I could say about this film is this: It's an extended pilot and there's no guarantee that the rest will ever come.

At the very least, this film has hyped Whedon's work so much that I'm certain it will have a positive impact on his upcoming projects, including the Fox series, Dollhouse. I know I'll be watching!

Updated: I've heard from a lot of people who've said that they didn't watch this because it's a musical. I'm getting tired of this. Are you also refusing to see A Scanner Darkly because it's a cartoon? Do you tell people about the funny jingle you just heard in a TV ad? Most folks don't think about how pervasive the musical format is in our culture, and Americans especially are prone to confusing genre with medium or format. Dr. Horrible isn't for everyone. It's a light comedy with some darker overtones. All I ask is that you assess it on that basis, not on the basis of the presence of songs (though if you don't appreciate the music, that's another thing entirely).