Horrible Turn

I stumbled across another Joss Whedon-related item a few weeks ago and I finally took the time to check it out. One of the things that really "turned me on" to Joss Whedon's creations was Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog. Before that point, I had heard of the man. I had watched a few episodes of Buffy (mostly because of a girl I wanted to be dating at the time). I had heard of Firefly but never checked it out. But when I heard about Dr. Horrible, I knew I had to see what this was about. Doogie, a singing bad-guy? A fullblown musical, filmed for and released on the Internet? What's not to like? And, as it turned out, it was something that I loved. And because of it, I had to check out Firefly. I had to watch Dollhouse.

So when I read on Entertainment Weekly's website that a group of people had actually put together an almost full-length Dr. Horrible prequel, I had to check it out.

Here's the trailer for Horrible Turn:



The whole thing is about an hour long, so budget your time appropriately if you wind up watching it.

I went in, uncertain of what I was going to see. Obviously it wouldn't quite have that Whedon-spark. I mean, not many people can turn a phrase like Joss and the music in the original is truly inspired. The music in this one is okay, for the most part. Nothing that struck me as worthy of getting stuck in my head all day. The actors did their level best with their characters and, for the most part, did okay.

But the guy who played the nascent Captain Hammer bugged me. His whole manner was too affected. I mean, I know that Nathan Fillion played Hammer with a smirk and a certain odd lilt to his voice, but the Hammer-wannabe overdid it.

The plot also seemed a bit . . . off. I don't quite know how to explain it, but it could have had more. I expected something different. I wish we could have found out more about what Johnny Snow was up to. And I think Billy's motivation to become Horrible should have been more . . . well, horrible.

Now, having said that, I did enjoy the movie. I loved the way they crammed in nods to other Joss Whedon projects, such as Buffy, Firefly, and Dollhouse. The camera work was great and, given the fact that they didn't have a lot of experience on their side, their achievement was incredible. I would love to see what this team could do on their own instead of creating a film that shoots high but falls a bit short.

At least I can look forward to Dr. Horrible 2. But in the meantime, enjoy this related silliness: