And while superhero movies have seen their fair share of spoofs and satires, the idea of real-life superheroes with no abilities and no expensive gadgets has proven fruitful for some filmmakers. It brought us Blankman and Orgazmo in the '90s, along with Kick-Ass and Defendor within the last few years. And among the recent crop of satires is Super, a small independent film with big ambitions. And though this is a really bad pun, Super actually is a pretty super movie.
The story focuses on Frank Darbo (Rainn Wilson), a short-order cook whose life since childhood has pretty much been one depressing moment after another. The only thing that brings him happiness is his wife Sarah (Liv Tyler), a recovering addict who Frank is hopelessly devoted to. So when Sarah falls off the wagon and leaves him for a local drug dealer named Jacques (Kevin Bacon), Frank hits a psychological brick wall at 100 miles an hour. He grows more and more despondent, unable to accept that Sarah left on her own volition.
And then one night Frank has an epiphany. After a bizarre dream about "The Holy Avenger" (Nathan Fillion), the star of a cheesy show on a religious TV network, Frank believes he's been called by God to become a superhero. With a little advice and input from an excitable comic book store clerk named Libby (Ellen Page), Frank creates a costume and becomes "The Crimson Bolt." He hits the streets to fight crime, using a pipe wrench to bash in the heads of everyone from pedophiles to drug dealers to people who cut in line at the movies.
But a misguided attempt to rescue Sarah from Jacques's clutches ends with Frank limping away with a bullet in his leg. He's taken in by Libby, who puts together that he's the Crimson Bolt while patching him up. Overjoyed that she knows an actual superhero, as low-rent as he may be, Libby convinces Frank to let her become his sidekick, "Boltie." And while it left him injured, Frank's bloody encounter with Jacques proved to be a learning experience for him as well. Knowing now what they're up against, the dynamic duo of the Crimson Bolt and Boltie arm themselves to the teeth and take another shot at Jacques.
Although it's been compared to Kick-Ass by more than one reviewer, Super is a quite different creature. Their stories do have some vague parallels, but they differ wildly in their overall styles and tones. Super is far rougher around the edges and boasts a darker, less whimsical sense of humor. It's dark to the point of making the movie really uncomfortable to watch. A lot of times I didn't know whether to laugh or cringe or do both. And if you go in unaware of this, it can actually become a distraction. Its dark tone can take you right out of the movie if you enter it with the assumption that Super is just another lighthearted farce in the vein of Kick-Ass. But Super still manages to be a wickedly amusing flick regardless of that.
Super was written and directed by James Gunn, his first feature-length effort since he brought us Slither in 2006. Super is a far different movie than Slither, but Gunn definitely knows what he's doing. His direction is slick and stylish despite the presumably modest budget. It especially shows in the dream sequence, where Frank imagines tentacles from Japanese hentai cutting open his head so the literal finger of God can touch his brain. This sequence is not only weird almost to the point of being disturbing, but it's also very imaginative and surprisingly well made. Gunn's homages to the "Biff! Bam! Pow!" elements of the '60s Batman TV show are also really cute a fun little shout-out to the king of corny superhero storytelling.
Gunn's screenplay is also quite good. Although Super is often compared to Kick-Ass, the movie's tone hovers between Kick-Ass and Defendor. Gunn writes the movie as a thoroughly black comedy, making it both very funny and off-putting at the same time.
As far as the characters go, Gunn paints Frank as psychologically disturbed yet sincere and genuine. Frank's grip on sanity is obviously fragile, but the way Gunn writes him, you can't help but root for him all the way through. Libby, on the other hand, is a total live wire. She's decidedly crazy and is having the time of her life being that way, which makes her all the more fun to watch.
It helps that the characters are played by an incredibly talented cast. In the lead role is Rainn Wilson, who is fantastic as Frank. He plays the role as awkward, naïve, but staunch in his convictions. He actually struck me as being similar to Rorschach from Watchmen, only less angrily psychotic and more innocent. It's a fun but of acting that I enjoyed a lot.
Ellen Page is also a lot of fun in her role. The character of Libby is impetuous, quick to violence and poor judgment. Buts he's also full of life and an intense amount of energy, and Page has no problem bringing that to the table. She's far from the cool, laid-back snarker from Juno, and delightfully so. Page's performance is very, very entertaining and engaging, and the character probably wouldn't have been the same without her.
And as our resident villain, Kevin Bacon is great as Jacques (or "Jock," as Frank is prone to calling him). Bacon's performance is full of cockiness and bravado, but also a sliminess that makes him a villain worth disliking. He doesn't play Jacques with the same viciousness he brought to Sebastian Shaw in X-Men: First Class, but Bacon doesn't need to. He plays Jacques just right, which is all I can ask for.
I wasn't for sure what I was getting into when I first sat down to watch Super. But I will gladly call the movie an entertaining piece of business. James Gunn and his cast and crew have built a heck of a movie that fans of superheroes and black comedies can both enjoy. Super isn't an effects-driven, mile-a-minute blockbuster thrill ride like The Avengers, but it's still worth a rental or catching on cable. Thus, the movie gets three and a half stars on my usual scale. And if I may quote Super's main character, "Shut up, crime!"
Final Rating: ***½
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