Super

Released: 1st April 2011

Directed By: James Gunn

Starring: Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon

Certificate: 18

Reviewed By: Matthew Coates

I hoped that ‘Super’ would have lived up to its name, but it didn’t. Probably a more fitting name would have been Mediocre, Weak, or Uninteresting.

Although Super incorporates many of the classic elements from superhero movies, it does so in anineffective and often disturbing manner. It’s a shame that its best moments were short, and although tender, come just at the beginning and end of the film. Everything in between is just one big case of mind melt, an experience we wish will be easily forgotten. As great and lovely as the ending was, I wish I could say that they made the rest of the movie watchable, but they didn’t. Super was a weird black comedy, but it had its cute and sweet moments. The story of Frank experiences as a boy, how he met his wife, and the ending were very well-done.

Frank D’Arbo (Rainn Wilson) is an everyday guy who’s just lost his wife Sarah (Liv Tyler) to a group of unscrupulous drug-dealers lead by Jacques (Kevin Bacon). Deeply disturbed by these events he creates an alter-ego for himself so that he might defeat the evil who stole her away and bring her back. Working at the local comic book store when Frank frequents is Libby (Ellen Page), a young girl who yearns for adventure beyond the glossy books she sells. Together these 2 are a force to be reckoned with, or are they?

As much as I’d like to believe that the average person can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and become a vicious killer with no inhibitions, it was a bit far fetched coming from Frank. Yes he lost the most important thing in his life to him and that is a motivating factor, but to see him hurt people who have merely been socially inconsiderate with others crosses the line and works against his And yeah, ok, I secretly laughed when he tackled the criminal while crashing into the lady in the wheelchair.

There are several scenes that are unusual for unusual’s sake (the scene where Frank is “touched” by God or the unnecessary and weird sex scene), tried to be funny or clever and weren’t (Frank’s rambling prayers) . Many things happen in which we see Frank, aka the Crimson Bolt, avenge the culprit, and you can’t help but to feel bad or guilty watching this, because these aren’t the real bad guys, rather people who just try to do things the easy way. Inbetween the oddness was alot of boredom, which mostly stemmed from the scenes that were too long and those that felt like filler. The only part of the movie which had some decent action sequences or what I would consider thrilling, was the final hurrah into the antagonist’s home, in which lots of people die. Super could have done without all the knockoff action sequence captions, which seemed to be a ripoff element from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

Rainn Wilson’s performance was earnest and sincere, and the chemistry he had with Liv Tyler was believable. The emotional connection they established was not only powerful, but helped us empathize with what Frank must have been going through, having the only thing he truly loved pulled out from underneath him.

Ellen Page was cast as the same character I’ve seen in previous films, the girl who’s not afraid to speak her mind and has plenty to say. In those films she was adorable and quite likeable, in this one just plain annoying. The movie managed to take her and make her overly-obnoxious, which is quite a feat in itself. Her attempts at being sexy came out of left field and just seemed overdone.

One of the few highlights of the movie was the scene where Frank and Libby talk about being “inbetween the panels”, that space of comic book characters’ lives you don’t see in the book. It was a refreshing insight that action figures do things besides just fight crime, it’s just that it isn’t in the public eye.

Nothing new with the bad guys, all classic soulless and unintelligent thugs with no depth or believability. Bacon was ok, but we’ve seen him better at the bad guy role (X-Men:First Class).
Super is a lazy attempt to cash in on ‘Kick-Ass’s’ recent success, with less than interesting characters, an underdog plot we’ve grown accustomed to, and a screenplay that doesn’t move us much.