R, 1 hr. 36 min.
Directed by: James Gunn.
Release Date: April 1, 2011. DVD
Release Date: August 9, 2011.
A friend of mine, one who needs to start playing
WoW again in the near future if he isn’t already so he can tank for me,
recommended I check this out. It had
been on my “movie calendar” in early 2011, back when I was watching a movie a
day and when I originally realized that I was going to have to SCHEDULE that
movie a day crap, otherwise I was either going to miss a day or I’d watch the
same movie twice by accident. But, I was
once again foiled by geography, and Super
never seemed to appear at my local theaters… or those theaters within the
2-hour drive time I occasionally considered reasonable to see a movie of high
interest.
I didn’t love this movie, but it did have one
performance that I enjoyed thoroughly:
Ellen Paige’s. For a “superhero”
movie that walked the line between light and dark for quite some time before
the shit quite literally hit the fan, Paige’s performance being equal parts
insanity, rage, and humor were really a sparkling high point. In theory, Boltee was a hero, but you’d never
know that from anything she says or does, and her very presence in costume
seems to encourage escalating violence.
If it wasn’t for her performance, I probably would have given up. Because she was the only thing here that
occasionally made me smile.
At some point, I wonder if Mr. Gunn just decided
that he’d done enough violence and that was when the movie ended. It felt like that. The movie continued, wavering between the
pathetic glimpses into the life of Frank, played by Rainn Wilson, and the
senseless, possibly humorous violence against small crime brought to bear by
Frank’s alter ego, the Crimson Bolt. I
also wonder if this was ever intended to be a comedy. Certainly the presence of Wilson and Paige
(at least, for those folks who think Wilson is funny) suggests a comedy, but
there was little I found to be genuinely funny.
There was a variety of events that elicited a stunned gasp; the sort of
noise I make when something might be considered funny, but I’m more shocked
than amused. Kevin Bacon’s overwrought
performance as the local drug peddler and stealer of Frank’s wife (Liv Tyler –
which reminds me, I need to talk more about that later) also suggests an
attempt at humor, but it wasn’t funny so much as sad. I also had trouble having much faith in an antagonist
who seemed completely uninterested in doing ill himself, rather preferring to
let other people do bad things in his immediate vicinity. Oh, and Nathan Fillion was totally wasted in
a cheap bit part.
Which I guess brings us to Liv Tyler. When the movie first starts and we’re
introduced to her as Rainn Wilson’s wife, I think time stops. Just for a minute, but still. I spent at least five minutes wondering in
what Bizzaroworld the two of them would have married until they explain her
flaw. I’m sad to report that as soon as
that weakness is detailed, my first thought was: “Oh!
That makes more sense.” Which
probably says some horrible thing about me, but I’m willing to accept that
about myself. The character spends about
half the film as in a drugged out haze while serving as Crimson Bolt’s kryptonite, and it
wasn’t well done. It wasn’t even
moderately done. Liv Tyler thrashes her
way through the role in marked counterpoint to Kevin Bacon’s “good ole bad guy”
impression.
So, other than Ellen Paige, there wasn’t much
here I liked all that much. The rather
explosive and graphic violence in the final scenes helped not only keep my
interest, but keep this from sinking in to a pit of suck from which it
otherwise would not have escaped. It was
an interesting attempt at a counter-culture superhero flick, something that was
probably supposed to serve as a beacon to the counter-superhero movie movement
that is becoming popular, but I’d sit through a Green Hornet – Thor – First Class – Green Lantern – Captain America
revival multiple times before sitting through this one again.
