Linus (The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl)

Linus is a secondary antagonist of The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl. He is a bully and school archnemesis of Max who picks on him at school. He also has a dream counterpart named “Minus”.

Why He's More Minus than Linus

 * 1) The problem with Linus is that he is a generic middle school bully who has no personality outside of tormenting Max and makes fun of his dreams due to his use of his so-called “dream journal” (that he ruins it later on) and hopes he “never exists”.
 * 2) He also has no character development and only has 4 scenes of just focusing on mocking Max (such as having his class throw things at him, steal his “dream journal”, and tries to get away from what he did to his “journal”) and while his dream counterpart, Minus has 2 scenes of just talking too much about the generic “taking over the world” and “ruining people’s lives” cliches). Also, he ruins most of the pacing of the film in order to show that Linus has no heart or good-willing.
 * 3) He feels like a rip-off of Scut Farkus from A Christmas Story, with the similar bullying persona, while lacking the thuggish persona.
 * 4) The film also doesn't bother to give a reason or backstory as to why Linus became a bully (i.e. if he has low-self-esteem, was bullied himself in the past, or is having a rough life at home, which are common reasons as to why bullies act the way they do). Instead, he seems to just be a bully for the sake of being one of the film’s villains, even though Mr. Electric (Mr. Electricidad’s dream counterpart) is the “real” main villain at the climax of the film in order to shorten the runtime to focuse more on Max, Sharkboy, and Lavagirl.
 * 5) As mentioned above, he constantly bullies Max over his “dream journal” and tried to kill his “dream friends”, Sharkboy and Lavagirl.
 * 6) His dialogue is painful to the nerve whenever he encounters and mocking Max like when he ‘s outside of school, he tells him that they can be “imaginary friends”, meaning that he’ll pretend that he “doesn’t exist” and also threatens to “burst his bubble”, calling him “Dream Boy”.
 * 7) He steals Max’s dream journal and ruins it as a “revised edition”.
 * 8) His infamous line: “I did not! Mr. Electric, send him to the principal’s office and have him EXPELLED!”.
 * 9) Speaking of his infamous line, he unfairly tries to get Max sent to the principal’s office to expel him and nothing else.
 * 10) He talks way too much like most villains.
 * 11) Speaking of his dream counterpart, Minus, he is still the same as him as his goal to take over Planet Drool and ruining Max’s life makes no sense at all.
 * 12) His dream counterpart’s clothing are laughable and cheap as it looks like it came from a middle school play and a talent show as it’s just his normal purple and black shirt (after Max wanted him to return his “dream journal at school) with a minus symbol instead of the “L” with the inclusion of a cape in order make him look like a tyrannical ruler.
 * 13) He also does not receive any repercussions for his behavior and bullying of Max, other than getting “minuses” from his teacher.  To make matters worse, the film does not elaborate on what’s getting a minus means for Linus.
 * 14) His redemption from Max is extremely forced as he had not done anything valuable to deserve it and the redemption only exists just to shoehorn Mr. Electric into being the “actual” main antagonist and Linus/Minus into the role of secondary antagonist in the middle of the film.
 * 15) After Minus/Linus makes amends with Max at the climax of the film, he is very useless to stop Mr. Electric and all he does was just…try to go near him until he shocks him out for trespassing.
 * 16) Although he is the secondary antagonist, Linus and his dream counterpart cause way more damage and problems than the main antagonist as Linus was extremely cruel to Max and his dream counterpart was depicted as a tyrant with Mr. Electric serving as his second in command.
 * 17) He is quickly forgotten in the film’s direct sequel, We Can Be Heroes, but no wonder that he be good classmate to Max.
 * 18) Jacob Davich does a rather poor job portraying him as his performance is childish and over the top.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) As mentioned above, he at least redeems himself at the end of the film and starts being nicer to Max even though that particular redemption is forced and undeserving.
 * 2) Despite this, his performance and delivery is so over the top that it’s entertaining and hilarious.