The Good: Linda Cardellini!
The Bad: Script, Plot, Lame attempts at humor, Ridiculous acting and poor characters
The Basics: In a just terrible adaptation of the animated series, Scooby-Doo and company journey to an evil island to reconcile their differences. Predictable, not funny and bland.
Some people don't realize how good they have it. That's my theory of Hollywood. If people realized how good they have their lives and careers, NBC would not have canceled Freaks And Geeks and Sarah Michelle Gellar would not resist being a cult t.v. heroine and the idol of millions and rejected further work on Buffy The Vampire Slayer in favor of getting movie roles. However, Gellar was a diva and NBC was piloted by idiots and this is the type of schlock you get: Scooby-Doo.
Scooby-Doo follows the breakup and reunion of the classic crime solving quintet led by Fred. Fred is basically a poser, backed by the brains of Velma and worshipped by the pointless diva Daphne. The group is rounded out by the addle-brained Shaggy and the dog Scooby-Doo. Reunited on an island to solve a mystery of the malevolent force that is taking over young people, the group soon finds themselves falling victim to their old resentments and then learning the greatest lesson of all, which is how each of them contributes to the group to make them the best solvers of mysteries ever.
I still don't get what the point of Daphne is outside looking good. She doesn't really solve the crimes and it becomes evident early on that she is more of a liability than an asset to the group.
That said, the real victim of this movie, outside the audience - which is subjected to an hour of lame humor derived from dogs and urination and possible pot smoking -, is Linda Cardellini. Cardellini is a young actress who has amazing potential that she clearly illustrated as the star of Freaks And Geeks. Here, she is stuck in the role of Velma, which she plays well, but we have to ask how did her movie options get so bad so quickly? This is a young woman who has acting talent, looks good and can handle presenting difficult dialog and genuine human emotions. How does someone like that end up as an appendage to a computer generated dog?
Scooby-Doo, the actual dog, illustrates yet another example of how CGI creators need a good dose of reality. The dog looks like he is computer generated, sticking out in every frame just as sure as he was a cartoon in a live-action movie. He is often lit completely wrong (i.e. in a room lit from above, his underbelly has the same shades as the top of his head) and moves in a completely inorganic way. Sure, he's a talking dog (if you can understand what he's saying), but the point of using computer generated effects is to put into reality those things which are not, while making them seem like they are. Scooby-Doo fails to convince us he is a talking dog surrounded by people who accept that and not a poorly-written computer program designed to deceive us.
Outside Cardellini, the acting is terrible. Poor Rowan Atkinson, whose brief cameo in Scooby-Doo made me seriously depressed. Matthew Lillard, who plays Shaggy, was well cast for his body-type and sound of his voice, but beyond that he has no screen charisma. Sarah Michelle Gellar plays a diva no different from how she plays Buffy the vampire slayer. That is to say that she seemed here like Buffy gone bratty, like the few outbursts Gellar portrayed Buffy having at the beginning of the second season, and as a result Daphne seems like more of a withered appendage to the group.
The real loser is Freddy Prinze Jr. He plays Fred as a preening, self-assured egoist who seems confident he could have any woman he wants. That's Fred's character, fine. It's also how Prinze Jr. appeared on the talk shows and such while promoting this movie. In the end, he comes off as just another pretty face trying to make good at acting. He has less charisma than the CGI dog.
There are no deeper messages in this movie, no redeeming morals to make this anything but a waste of time. In fact, if anything, maybe it has just the opposite. As I write this, it occurs to me that maybe Daphne's sole purpose is to be the damsel in distress for Fred. Who needs a movie like that, where the hero is a jerk who puts everyone on his team down and needs one of them in a position of inferiority in order to enhance his standing? Not me. And not you, either.
For other works with Rowan Atkinson, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
Love, Actually
The Lion King
Blackadder
1/10
For other movie reviews, please be sure to visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2012, 2004 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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