"Mystery Men" is the story about seven people who have the desires and the talents to be heroes but must live under the shadow of an existing superhero. The premise is good but the movie is hampered by poor execution. In short, "Mystery Men" is a very good-looking bad movie.

The movie started out well enough with an arial view of Champion City. At least one thing is apparent right away; they didn't skimp on the special effects and set design. Everything looks good and promising. Then, it goes downhill.

All sort of ugliness becomes apparent after I got used to the eye-candy. The pacing is slow. The movie spends most of the time on character introductions and "self-discoveries" than anything else. Let's say the group started out with three members. We get an introduction to them and they make their little introduction speech about themselves and their powers. Then when they meet someone new, they introduce themselves and their "special powers" again. Rinse, lather, and repeat.

Another problem is that I never got the feeling that Champion City is a "living city." The movie never showed what the place is really like - there is no tour of the city. As a result, it appears the characters are moving from one set to another. When the villain Cassanova Frankenstein got free, there's no reaction from the city; when he blows up a building, there's no reaction from the city; when notorious criminals enter the city, there's no reaction from the city. Hello, is there anybody living in this city?

Of course, you know what this means. This movie depends solely on the strength of the writing and the performance of the actors. This movie has a great cast with Ben Stiller (Mr. Furious), Janeane Garofalo (The Bowler), William H. Macy (The Shoveler), Hank Azaria (Blue Raja), Paul Reubens (The Spleen), Kel Mitchell (Invisible Boy), Wes Studi (The Sphinx), etc, and their performances are great. Unfortunately, the material they have to work with leave much to be desired. The jokes range from not funny at all to only marginally funny. I was bored by the movie. How can a movie with so many comedians not be funny? Director Michael "Blow 'em Up" Bay made a cameo. All I have to say is that he shouldn't quit his day job. Maybe that's the problem, he's on the wrong side of the camera.

After the movie, I can't shake the feeling that there's a better movie in "Mystery Men" somewhere. There's so much potential - great set designs and costumes, great casts - unfortunately, the script is MIA.