I’m really hesitant to recommend ‘Super’ to anyone. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked the movie a lot; the performances are all great, from Rainn Wilson’s painfully awkward, possibly mentally ill superhero to Ellen Page’s fantastically creepy amoral turn as a sidekick who’s just fine with crushing bad guys’ legs with a car to Kevin Bacon, who plays wonderfully against type as a drug dealer who’s really more interested in doing drugs and making money than in being any kind of “criminal mastermind”. The plot unfolds with a strange, horrifyingly logical progression that never stops being believable even as it turns into a big action-packed shootout between superheroes and drug lords. The jokes are…ahh. Well. Yes. That’s where I hesitate to recommend it.
Because if you have a really sick, twisted, perverse and disturbed sense of humor, ‘Super’ is really, really funny. If you think that someone getting beaten with a pipe wrench for cutting in line is comedy gold, or that you can have a funny scene of someone getting shot in the leg, or that brutal, entirely realistic violence can somehow be presented in such a way that makes you laugh as much out of surprise that someone would actually put this on film as any other reason, well…then you will love ‘Super’. If you’re um, sane, well-adjusted and a generally decent human being, then maybe not so much. It’s not that you won’t find anything to like, here. James Gunn does a really good job of portraying Liv Tyler as a realistic, interesting, complex drug addict who isn’t just a prize for Rainn Wilson and Kevin Bacon to fight over, and there’s a lot of material in there about the ethics of using violence to solve complex societal problems. But there’s also a scene where a woman slices up a guy with fake Wolverine claws and cackles madly as she murders him, and some of you might not be up for that.
So, um, ‘Super’. If you like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you’ll like. If you don’t, consider this fair warning now. Because if you watch it based on my recommendation, and you wind up absolutely hating the movie and everyone involved in its creation and me by extension, well…I’d rather not have it get around that I inspired the protests, okay?
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“Sane and well adjusted?”
Never been prouder not to be sane or well adjusted.
I wouldn’t have liked the film if it weren’t for the great ending. Instead, I love it. Still very rough around the edges though.
Shut up, crime!
In the costumed-avenger movie sub-genre, “Super” is more intelligent and profound than “Kick-Ass”, and more dark comedic and over the top than “Special”. Unfortunately, “Kick-ass” wasn’t trying to make you think, and “Special” wasn’t trying to make you laugh or shock you.
That said, it’s still well worth a watch for the performances (although I’d recommend “Hard Candy” and “The Woodsman” for fans of Page and Bacon respectively). And Nathon Fillion has an amusing couple of bit scenes.
When my friends and I watched it, I summed it up as ‘Kick-Ass’s Watchmen.’ I still like that description.
I don’t know whether I will ever watch it again, bit I am glad I watched it.
If you can’t enjoy the violence as comedy in this film, fuck you, pussy. Go back to knitting and Readers Digest.