Some evil geniuses have tailor-made crews of Minions to do their bidding; others have to hire their help the old-fashioned way. Imagining the working-class frustrations of a heroes-and-villains world, Adam Wood’s “Henchmen” centers on a kid who, until he can realize his dreams of evil grandeur, has to pay his dues by mopping up other bad guys’ messes.

Thomas Middleditch plays Lester, an orphan who, even as a boy, wondered why the bad guys always had to lose in comic books. Now ready to enter the workforce, he notices the call of the Union of Evil, whose Army recruitment-style ads promise glory to henchmen-for-hire. Who will he be serving? Who knows: There’s a new gimmick-driven maniac every week in this world, all living peacefully as neighbors in a hidden metropolis called Supervillain City.

Sadly, Lester doesn’t have the physique to qualify for a job like the one held by beefy Biff (Rob Riggle), the right-hand dude to Baron Blackout (Alfred Molina). As a Class 3 henchman, he’s hardly on a career ladder toward his goal of true supervillaindom. He’s paired with James Marsden’s Hank, who urges him to pursue a more ordinary line of work. But Lester lives for the romance of comic-book action, and the script has a little fun showing us the world through his eyes.

He tries to stay out of trouble, but Lester soon finds himself trapped inside an Iron Man-style armored suit he can’t take off. The suit’s controlled by his emotions, so, naturally, erratic havoc ensues.

While Baron Blackout shows off a weapon that turns people to sludgy zombies, and the good-guy Friendly Force Five fail to rise to the occasion, Hank and a few buddies try to figure out how to harness Lester’s new powers to save the world. It’s as if they all simultaneously forgot which side of the good/bad divide their bread was buttered on.

Overall, the cheap-looking animation meshes well with the film’s aesthetic; and the design of movement, while generic, works fine. But faces, and the hair framing them, needed much more attention from animators.

It would be tough looking into so many pairs of dead eyes if not for the character-rich voices of cast members like Craig Robinson and Nathan Fillion. None of the actors does anything special here, but even agreeing to a quick soundbooth paycheck date represents a big favor to Wood’s not-so-evil adventure.

(SD-Agencies)