Linus (The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl)

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“I’m gonna burst your bubble, ‘Dream Boy.’”

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 just another generic “middle school bully” who has pleasure in tormenting Max and making fun of his dreams due to his use of his so-called “dream journal” book (that he ruins later on).
2. He also has no character development and personality and mostly consists of being a liar, a foul mouth, and a stealer.
3. He feels like a rip-off of Scut Farkus from A Christmas Story, with a similar bullying persona, being a teenage boy, while Linus lacks the thuggish persona that Scut does have.
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) which is never addressed at all. Instead, he seems to just be a bully for the sake of being one of the film’s villains and needed some redemption.
5. Despite being the main antagonist before Mr. Electric was the “real” one, he is arguably the worst character in that film.
6. As mentioned above, he constantly bullies Max over his “dream journal” and tried to kill his “dream friends”, Sharkboy and Lavagirl.
7. His dialogue is painful to the nerve whenever he encounters and mocks Max like when he‘s outside of school, he tells him that they can be “imaginary friends”, meaning that he’ll pretend that Max would never “exist” and also threatens to “burst his bubble” (an appropriate quote of wanting to beat him up), by calling him “Dream Boy”.
8. He steals Max’s dream journal and ruins it as a “revised edition” and tries to lie to his teacher.
9. His infamous line: “I did not! Mr. Electric, send him to the principal’s office and have him EXPELLED!”.
10. Speaking of his infamous line, he unfairly tries to get Max sent to the principal’s office to expel him and nothing else.
11. He talks way too much like most villains and just only wants to ruin Max’s life and nothing else.
12. Speaking of his dream counterpart, Minus, he is still the same as him as his goal to take over Planet Drool and ruin Max’s life makes no sense at all.
13. His dream counterpart’s clothing is laughable and cheap as it looks like it came from a middle school play, a Halloween costume, 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.
14. 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 getting a minus means for Linus.
15. His redemption from Max is extremely forced as he had not done anything valuable to redeem himself and only exists just to shoehorn Mr. Electric into being the “actual” main antagonist while also in order to convince that bullying Max is wrong but wanting him to be good friends.
16. 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.
17. Just like Max, Mr Electricidad, and Marissa, He is quickly forgotten in the film’s direct sequel, We Can Be Heroes, but no wonder Linus changed his behavior became a 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.
3. His dream counterpart actually does have some great sinister energy behind his lines. Like Nostalgia Critic once said, he could easily pass off as a James Bond villain.