Henchmen - Film Review

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With a runtime of 1hr 21 mins, Henchmen is a story by Jay D Waxman and Adam Wood, and based on original characters by Waxman. It's written and directed by Adam Wood and stars Thomas Middleditch, James Marsden, Rosario Dawson, Alfred Molina, Will Sasso, Nathan Fillion, Rob Riggle, Jane Krakowski, Craig Robinson, and Bobcat Goldthwait. The film will be in cinemas 9 December 2021.

Proudly Serving Evil from 9-5, in a world of super-villains, evil schemes and global domination, someone has to take out the trash. Welcome to the world of Henchmen, third class. When a fresh-faced new recruit joins the Union of Evil, he is assigned to a motley crew of blue-collar workers led by fallen Henchmen Hank. But when The Kid accidentally steals the super villain's ultimate weapon, Hank must break his risk-nothing code to save the boy he's befriended, even if it means becoming the one thing he has always avoided being: a hero


Young Lester is an orphan who loves comic books, especially ones about the villains. He cannot understand why bad guys always lose. He finds that frustrating and figures if he were a bad guy, he'd win every battle! Ten years later, the Union of Evil Henchmen are recruiting, and you guessed it, Lester is there for the interview. He doesn't quite make it into Henchmen 1st class because he's just not built. Awkwardly, he fails miserably at Henchmen 2nd class as well. In the end he is vacuumed into the rubbish shelter as Henchmen 3rd class. There he is assigned to Hank, a baddie who's really not that bad at all.

This is not the department where exciting things happen. You literally take out the trash, yet - Lester manages to cause chaos as he bumbles along, and finds himself trapped in a suit that causes no end of damage and devastation because he hasn't quite mastered controlling it. This leaves his mentor Hank, leaping to the rescue.


How you feel about this film depends on your age group. If you're 10 and under or thereabouts, you'll probably love all the action, and the speed the film travels at, from the get-go. Otherwise, you might have a few things to says about it, and it may not all be positive. Firstly, peeling the onion from the outside in; in a world where animation has reached heights of excellence, this one seems a little below par and has settled on mediocrity. It's not particularly inventive or exciting visually or from a story perspective. Even the superheroes are a little lacklustre. Go a little deeper into the next layer and for the first part of the story, it's pretty bland and uninspired. It does get a little better as you get familiar with the characters, but none of the characters are developed enough to have the power of being memorable. Even the relationship between Hank and Lester is hit and miss, with missed opportunities to make it really heartfelt.

Yet, none of it is all bad and a lot of it works for the younger audiences, even if a lot of it does not make sense. However it is wasted potential with such big name stars performing voice-overs aka voice acting. You may not be familiar with Canadian actor Thomas Middleditch who voices young Lester, but certainly the better known Alfred Molina (Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man: No Way Home; Chocolat), voice of Baron Blackout, Rosario Dawson (Men In Black II) voice of Jolene, Nathan Fillion (TV series Castle) as Captain Superior, and Jane Krakowski (30 Rock; Ally McBeal) voice of Jane. The most interesting and clever thing about the movie for me that eked a little smile out of the corner of my mouth, was that in a community of villains, there was only one rule. There's no crime allowed!





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