Dr. Horrible is here...

Everyone that knows me even remotely well is probably aware that I have an unhealthy obsession with Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. I watched it 4 times in the first 24 hours after discovering it. Sadly, my discovering of this movie actually arrived pretty late on the scene (as in, last week), and all the cool kids had known about it for months already. What can I say, I'm out of the loop.

My new fixation on this movie, combined with my many many watchings of it, has lead me to start analyzing it in my head. I have a tendency to do this with movies, TV shows, and books that I like. Perhaps even to the extent that I find meaning that isn't really there. But on the other hand, isn't the search for meaning part of what life is all about? Let me just say (as a shoutout to Tom Peterson) that this movie definitely speaks to me. I guess part of my over-analysis was to find out exactly why.

WARNING: The following contains HUGE SPOILERS. (haha... I've always wanted to write that in a blog.) If you have not seen Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, what the heck is wrong with you!?!! Go watch it (unless you are my little brother because I need to edit it for you first), and don't read this until you have.

The first thing I noticed, and one of the things I still love, is how at the very end of the movie, we see Billy sitting at his computer in his regular clothes. Previously, he is always decked out in Dr. Horrible attire. But this time he's just sitting there looking almost defeated. Interesting, considering that he has just achieved his biggest dream of getting into the ELE. But maybe that wasn't really what he wanted, even if he thought it was. It brings up some interesting questions such as what do we really want out of life? can something we think we want get in the way of what we really want? will a quest for fame and fortune or other people's approval/respect end in losing what is really important to us? (or would all of us mediocre people just like to think that... sour grapes, if you will) Was Billy playing Dr. Horrible for himself, or was he doing it to try to win the respect of Penny? Or other people in general. Did he really even want to rule the world?

Another thing I found interesting is how remarkably similar Penny and Billy were. They were both kind of lost, maybe had been a little depressed, and obviously single and alone (please note that "single" does not always equal "alone," but in this case it certainly seemed to equate). However, their responses to their situations were completely different. While Penny turned to saving the world by helping the homeless, volunteering, etc, and trying to find the good in humanity, Billy decided to become an evil supervillian and take over the world. He decided, perhaps rightly so, that the world was a mess {"and I just need to... rule it!"}. However, it's blatantly obvious that Billy/Horrible himself is not evil. In fact, he's actually more innocent and less corrupt than most people. And he wants social change.

This part also yields some interesting questions like what is evil, really? does everyone have a potential for both evil and good inside them? {"... evil inside of me is on the rise..."} What makes a person "evil"? This is actually a similar question to the one asked by the musical Wicked, which I also love. How does someone become wicked? Are they born that way or is it something that happens to them?

It's obvious that Captian Hammer is the real jerk--a typical middle school bully that picks on Horrible mercilessly. However, he is the one that gets put in the spotlight, gets all the media attention, gets the girl (temporarily), etc. In society today I think we also have a tendencey to put people up on pedestals that really shouldn't be there, that don't deserve it, that have done nothing to achieve it, and that aren't really the best heroes or role models. Why do we do this? Are we blind, or just in denial?

The movie does a good job of illustrating that there really is no black and white where you can say "he is good and he is bad." There is a huge spectrum of gray instead. Bad people can still do good things, and people that are inherently good can still screw up, or become bitter and hardened. It also kind of made me wonder if Superman is really a closet jerk, as he reminded me the most of Captain Hammer. I mean, yeah, we all love the nerdy Clark Kent, but maybe that was all just for show. Maybe it's not right the way we worship Superman as a pure, moral, perfect hero (and yes, I know that he doesn't really exist...). Why would having superpowers automatically make you so selfless and good? I see no reason why they should.

Dr. Horrible reminds me more of Batman, with no inhernet powers of his own, but lots of toys. I've always liked batman, perhaps because I have no superpowers either. He gives me hope that someday I could put on a mask and a cape and go out and save the world anyway.

Last but not least, the movie got me thinking about Hamlet. Not because there is much similarity--though now that I think about it I can see quite a few parallels between Billy and Hamlet--but because every time I read Hamlet I always wonder if he wasn't perhaps a little off his rocker, and maybe it was all in his mind. I don't know what Shakespeare intended, but it is an interesting idea. The same could be true in this movie. Maybe the only reality is that Billy dresses up in a dorky lab coat and sits in front of his blog every day and makes videos, goes to do laundry twice a week and swoons over a girl he's too afraid to talk to, and dreams of becoming something big and powerful that will impress people--specifically her. Maybe the rest is all his imagination. Maybe there really is no Evil League of Evil, no Freeze Ray, and Captain Hammer is just some jerk that beats him up all the time and steals his girl. So maybe he invents the whole Evil Leauge of Evil thing so that he can convince himself that it's ok that he doesn't have her because he has something bigger and better. I don't actually think this is true, but it does provide a whole new perspective on it.

Ok, I will spare you any more of my inane ramblings and not-so-insightful insights, and I will even leave out the list of references and sources, because this is getting long. But that is a short overview of a bit of my analysis of the movie. Now I need to get back to writing real papers about astronomy and stuff, so I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes.

"It was successful in that I achieved my objective; it was less successful in that I inadvertently introduced my arch enemy to the girl of my dreams and he's taking her on a date, and they're probably going to french kiss or something..."
--Dr. Horrible

hahaha... priceless. :)