Gene Meh

Note: Not to be confused with Gene from Wreck-It Ralph.

Gene Meh is the main "protagonist" of the critically panned 2017 film mh:awfulmovies:The Emoji Movie.

Why He Sucks

 * 1) Gene is nothing more than just another overused cliched "odd one out misunderstood protagonist".
 * 2) He is a badly written protagonist that makes protagonists like mh:greatcharacters:Emmet Brickowski from mh:greatestmovies:The Lego Movie and mh:greatestmovies:Wreck-It-Ralph look bad.
 * 3) He is unfunny, unlikable in some ways, and clumsy.
 * 4) He looks rather like a Mike Wazowski or a Pac-Man reject.
 * 5) His relationship with Jailbreak is just forced, bland and dull.
 * 6) One of the main complaints with The Emoji Movie is that Gene is supposed to be the main protagonist, but he caused more damage than the main antagonist, almost got everyone killed and deleted, and somehow, we are supposed to root for him.
 * 7) * Speaking of which, the writers did a very awful job representing the characters' roles in the movie. Smiler is depicted as the villain even though all she wanted to do was to protect the Emojis world while Gene, despite being the protagonist, was the one really responsible for all the troubles that happened in the movie, he even caused the death of many characters such as the trolls and the Just Dance girl and almost caused the entire phone to almost have its data deleted. Basically, the movie tries to force viewers to like the protagonist and to despise the villain without giving the usual proper characterization to them as a reason to do this.
 * 8) The way he saved Textopolis was rather cheesy and predictable: Gene used his other emotions to make an animated emoji (many emotions into one emoji) to convince his owner Alex to send one last text before going to the prom.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) At least he redeemed himself by saving Textopolis by being an animated emoji showing that Alex loves Addie.
 * 2) The only reason Gene is a misunderstood protagonist is that his father was also diagnosed with the malfunction that he has.
 * 3) He does care about other people around him, including his friends. He even explains this to Jailbreak right after Hi 5 goes into the phone's recycle bin.