Super (2010)

You just can't get away from superhero films these days. Superman and then Batman (the originals) were huge in their day. It seems that ever since the box office success of these films people have tried to emulate them. There have been some great ones and some absolute stinkers. Did anyone actually like Daredevil or Catwoman? Thought not. The cinema seems to be drowning in a constant flood of comic book cash-ins now. I couldn't have been less excited when Captain America was advertised. Another two hours of CGI as good battles evil... again.

So when Kickass came to our screens it blew me away. It felt like that most rare of events, an original film! Super seems to want to take up that mantle of a superhero movie with a difference. Rainn Wilson plays our hero Frank D'Arbo, average looking, shy and neurotic. He is thrown from his dull existence into a world of increasing insanity when his wife, former junkie Liv Tyler leaves him for a drug dealer named Jock (Kevin Bacon).

All the elements of the typical superhero movie are here. We have a traumatic event that shapes our hero, the creation of his alter ego and his early attempts at crime fighting. But Super is different. Dark and irreverent, with some very graphic violence. I was expecting to see a comedy like Napoleon Dynamite in a Spiderman outfit. Although this is very funny at times (think awkward, random humour not American Pie or The Hangover type set pieces), it is also very disturbing in places. I would not recommend this for the squeamish or easily offended.

Wilson is excellent as poor Frank, ranging from love sick puppy to raging psychopath. Kevin Bacon also puts in a top performance but for pure craziness Ellen Page (Juno) steals the show. F*****g mental is all I can say!

I loved this film in places but did feel it lost its way a little. It starts as a dark comedy but threatens to become a little too serious at times. At the heart of the film we have a tragic love story between two broken characters. Then we have the super hero parody. Then we have the over the top violence of a film that sets out to shock. I suppose I should be grateful that it does not just sit easily into one genre. A big strength of this film is its ability to surprise. I just don't think that it will surprise some people in a good way.

If you find yourself laughing at unnecessary violence or grown men wearing red spandex then this might well be the film for you. A superhero movie for the Family Guy generation.

8/10