Shut up, crime!
The idea of ordinary folks becoming costumed crime fighters isn't a new one with the two most recent entries in the subgenre, Defendor (with Woody Harrelson) and Kick-Ass, seeing release in 2010. If you think loonies dressing up as superheroes in real life could never happen, just take a look at Mr. Extreme in San Diego or Phoenix Jones of Seattle. Let’s hope these kooks don’t imitate the ultra-violence perpetrated by the characters of James Gunn’s Super, which bears a superficial resemblance to Kick-Ass.
Rainn Wilson from The Office is perfectly cast as Frank, a short-order cook with a strong faith in god. God's existence is practically proven due to the fact that Frank is married to Liv Tyler as Sarah, a beautiful waitress and recovering addict. Frank's conviction is shaken when she has a relapse and falls into the arms of a slimy drug dealer named Jacques. After an extremely bizarre vision, Frank is literally touched by the finger of God (voiced by Rob Zombie) and creates the superhero identity of The Crimson Bolt. Armed with a mighty pipe wrench of justice, Frank gleefully dishes out brutal punishment to dealers, muggers, and child molesters. He even splits a man's skull open for cutting in line at the movies. Every good hero needs a sidekick and Frank finds one in Libby, an unhinged young woman working at the local comic book store. Libby fashions her own costume to become Boltie, whose first act as crime fighter is to nearly bludgeon a man to death for possibly keying a friend's Jetta. Even Frank (with an obviously tenuous grasp on reality) balks at Libby's gleeful disregard for human life.
Super is pure, low-grade shlock. Not surprising coming from a picture written and directed by a filmmaker who started out with B-movie purveyors Troma Entertainment. Gunn’s previous directorial effort was the underrated horror-comedy, Slither, with Super acting as something of a kindred spirit in terms of violent content. Whereas Slither was consistent in its attempt to create a throwback to early Cronenberg, Super is wildly uneven, shifting from tone to tone on a whim. Super opens with a cutesy animated title sequence (set to Tsar’s “Calling All Destroyers”) while the Crimson Bolt’s initial forays into vigilante adventures feature Three Stooges-level slapstick. That’s after the first few days when Frank spends entire nights sitting behind a dumpster waiting for crime to happen. His most exciting encounter being a cardboard box blown along the street. He vows to pick it up later. Shit gets real once we start seeing gaping wounds and gushing blood. After jumping from slapstick to dark comedy, the movie becomes just plain dark with a finale right out of Taxi Driver.
Gunn is hardly a subtle filmmaker and he tackles the film’s themes with the same blunt force trauma as the Bolt’s pipe wrench. Just as the masked protagonist continues to beat on his opponent long after he has been incapacitated, Gunn beats and beats his points and labored eccentricities. The “finger of God” sequence would have come off fine had it simply ended with a luminous shaft of light peering down on Frank. Instead, Gunn goes overboard in order to include hentai tentacles (badly rendered in CGI) clutching at Frank’s limbs while pulling his scalp open to expose his brain. There’s also a creepy scene involving Boltie seducing an unwilling Frank that’s supposed to symbolize the fetishistic sexual undertones of costumed superheroes, a topic already covered more deftly in Watchmen. When Frank inevitably kills someone, comic book style graphics pop up ala the 60’s Batman show as a further perversion of innocent iconography.
The fact doesn’t completely fail is in no small way due to the cast. Rainn Wilson is excellent as the sad sack hero, able to give a somewhat unsympathetic character a tragic edge. Every great hero needs an equally memorable villain and the Bolt does indeed have one in Kevin Bacon, who is hilarious as the smarmy Jacques. It’s true, everything is better with Bacon in it. Nathan Fillion is pure Nathan Fillion as a Christian TV superhero named the Holy Avenger, who serves as a muse for the Crimson Bolt. Without a doubt, the performance Super will be remembered for is Ellen Page as the homicidal anti-Juno. It’s a change to see Page play someone who isn’t the smartest girl in the room, but her part could have been better served with a little restraint.
The film also features cameos from Linda Cardellini, Zach Gilford, Steve Agee, Troma co-founder Lloyd Kaufman, and William Katt from Greatest American Hero.
Super is a little behind on the times when it comes to deconstructing the superhero mythos. This is a movie desperately searching for a consistent tone, funny one minute and appalling by the next.
Rating: ** (*****)
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