#he's like the love-child of Aro and Aziraphael at their Extra best

[professionallyprocrastinating]

Dr Dolittle 2020 - a review

Yesterday, I managed not to cringe when the person I was acting as a Support Worker for declared that they wanted to go and see Dr Dolittle. 

Deciding that at least I could settle the debate of whether or not Robert Downey Jr is a Method Actor who flops at anything not Iron Man-related, I braced myself for two hours of retreating to a mental happy place.

While not as bad as I had expected from the reviews, it wasn’t without some serious problems. I don’t count it as a complete waste of time and money, but the actors will not be chalking this up on their “Oscar-Worthy Greatest Hits” list. Which is a shame, since the star-studded cast list and the energy most of them put in are what stopped the film from being a complete disaster.

Anyway, onto the actual review...

Not having seen Cats, I can't say if the trending meme of “Come back, “Cats” we forgive you!”, is accurate, but having now seen/been unwillingly subjected to Dr Dolittle 2020, I can say it was... confused. 

The Bad

Multiple villains were introduced and discarded just as quickly, with very little build up, despite being the best part of the film. The plot suffered from being at once too simplistic and too busy. Downey Jr's accent sounds like he was told 'Gaelic' but didn't bother with the difference between Irish, Scottish and Welsh accents, and settled on a wildly-fluctuating mix of all three That Downey Jr is method acting as Unstable, Unlikable Asshole All About The Man-pain doesn't help, and the name Do-Little has never been more accurate.  The animal characters were comic relief stereotypes, and while the voice actors were trying their best, bad dialogue turned -intended-as-witty to unintentional-cringe-humour.

The Good

On the (few) things the movie did right, the secondary protagonist, Henry Stubbins, was someone I could get behind. The animal-loving nephew of a Hunting family, his ambitions to be an animal doctor explain why he would jump onto a ship with someone everyone considers mad. Refusing to accept defeat or rejection, he makes for a main character compelling enough to stay in your seat. Michael Sheen and Antonio Banderas are at their dramatic, comedic best as the two extremely Extra main antagonists, and while they aren’t as fleshed out as they could be,  Banderas gets an interesting plot twist and the homoerotic lifting-chin-with-sword scene that I will never not love. Michael Sheen is always a win, and while his resolution is slap-dash at best, he is responsible for making me giggle more than once.

The Confusing

For someone probably intended to be and ‘Evil Mastermind’; Jim Broadbent as Lord Thomas Badgley was more of a Mr Collins. Likewise, the poisoning of Queen Victoria felt more like a side-note than a motivation. Craig Robinson is the Entire Audience as Kevin the Squirrel, convinced that the world and everything in it is out to get him. I feel you, my dude.