Henchmen proves floor is the limit

★ out of 5 Cast: Nathan Fillion, Rosario Dawson, James Marsden, Alfred Molina Director: Adam Wood Duration: 1 h 29 m It’s a nifty premise; in this age of superhero movies and action franchises, why not a story about the bad guys’ lackeys, flunkies and lieutenants? Why not Henchmen? Granted, Minions already has that covered, but if you can make two live-action-but-computer-generated Jungle Books — Disney’s in 2016 and Netflix’s Mowgli, available now — then there should be room for another story about underlings. Trouble is, Minions wasn’t very good. And Henchman only proves that the floor’s the limit. Directed and co-written by animator Adam Wood, and featuring such they-should-know-better celebrity voices as Alfred Molina and Nathan Fillion, Henchmen is the story of a 16-year-old orphan named Lester (Thomas Middleditch), who longs to be a supervillain — and yet we’re supposed to root for him? His plan is to start as a henchman and work his way up the culprit ladder. Fortunately for him, there’s a union, a job fair and a whole evil city where villains hang out and hire workers. Lester falls in with fellow henchman Hank and gets a job in the local museum, where a still-working exhibit basically falls on his head and gives him mighty powers. Hank is voiced by James Marsden, who can act. And yet his character can’t; the last time I saw such a one-dimensional, poorly drawn animated figure it was hawking cereal with a prize in the box. The only time Hank displays any emotion is around museum curator Jolene (Rosario Dawson), and then it’s so intense it just comes off as creepy.