PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological*
The first of two LEGO-ized versions of DC SUPER HERO GIRLS avoids one of my main criticisms of the regular franchise by concentrating on just three heroines: Supergirl, Wonder Woman and Batgirl.
Like all of the other LEGO films I've reviewed, BRAIN DRAIN is a comedy first and an adventure second. However, the jokes aren't on a par with the best humor of Lego's versions of Batman and Justice League. This may be because the writers were too narrowly following the very limited cosmos of the "straight" HERO GIRLS series, which is a little bit like the old idea of "copying the shadow of a shadow."
BRAIN DRAIN does have an intriguing opening. The three main heroes investigate a burglary and find that the culprits are their schoolmates Katana and Bumblebee. Then all three girls wake up and it seems that they just dreamed the whole thing. However, they've all lost 24 hours of time, during which they apparently committed various offenses against other students and against Principal Amanda Waller.
After this promising start, though, things soon settle down into a routine meet-and-beat. The trio tracks down the author of their troubles, Lena Luthor from the second "straight" telefilm, and she's made common cause with Eclipso, one of the two main evildoers from the first telefilm. Again, the two villains are using a combination of "open a dimension portal to gain power" and "enslave regular people and superheroes alike with a mind-control thingie." But reducing the number of super-foes down to two is also a big improvement, and Lena Luthor gets the movie's best lines.
Even though the animators here are dealing with "brick-mation" rather than drawings, the LEGO raconteurs map out much better fights than were seen in the two adventure-oriented movies. Aside from that, it's just another routine Lego-flick.
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