Movie review: Igor

Reviewing is fun, but I never come up with enough to say to be a real critic, despite repeated pleas from friends over the years that I take it up somehow. I can say what I want to say in few words; the rest would come from discussion.

I was excited about this movie because of the premise: in the land of Malaria, one strives to be an evil scientist, unless one is born with a hunchback, in which case they are sent to Assistant school and gain the moniker of Igor for life. The movie is about one such Igor (John Cusack, who nails the lispy rasp the Igors are supposed to use in the presence of their masters) who sets out to be an evil scientist himself in the face of generations of protocol. There is something clever and awesome about the evil genius genre; I read Evil Genius with high hopes, but the "evil" never really came to fruition and I have consequently avoided the sequel. In the same vein, this movie had a lot of promise and some clever moments but overall failed to capitalize on the idea. For that I blame the fact that it was intended as a family-friendly animated movie with a happy ending. Something with a little more freedom could have been downright kickass.

Steve Buscemi voices an immortal rabbit (one of Igor's creations) with a death wish, so he constantly attempts to kill himself only to be reanimated. As a gag, it could have worked well throughout the movie, but after the first 15 minutes or so it's mostly forgotten and the character even begins to want to live during the climax, which makes him rather unnecessary. What killed the movie for me is that the main character, whose sole purpose in life is to create the most evil invention of all time so as to be recognized as a true scientist and not just an Igor, never really seems all that evil, and in fact does a good job of being quite good. He swerves to avoid hitting a deer while driving; generally one would find that a noble gesture, but Igor is trying to create life embodied in a horrifyingly destructive monster, so such goodness really plays poorly. After the monster is created and accidentally is brainwashed into an aspiring actress rather than the all-powerful weapon she was intended to be, too many cliches combine to drag the movie down from its opening perch. Eddie Izzard is, in my opinion, wasted as the villain, as he has a few throwaway lines and nothing that really defines him in a way that any other actor could not have pulled off, which is hugely disappointing. I could have rooted for him, but the most evil guy in the movie is still the villain - once again making it hard to understand what the real point of trying to push the evil qualities early on was supposed to be.

The best parts of the movie involve two scenes with blind orphans, and Buscemi-rabbit's early attempts at bunnycide. The movie at least ends on a high note, with the disabled children singing "I can see clearly now" in a pun that also refers to the changes brought about in the land of Malaria. Ultimately, the concept is one that could work better, and has, in something like a video game, where there is no need for linear storytelling and the player is free to be as evil as they want. With Overlord 2 on the horizon, it may be a better fix for the inner mad scientist in all of us than this unfortunate attempt.