Super: A Movie Review

Super, directed by James Gunn (Slither, Dawn of The Dead, Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed), is a dark comedy and superhero satire. Is that a warning? Well, if you watch Super because it has Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page in it and you automatically assume it’s a comedy, then boy you’re barking on the wrong tree. Some scenes can be violent, they make you question the point of this movie: is it to entertain or to disturb you? Perhaps it’s a cross breed, sort of, between Watchmen and Kickass. It has the satirical feeling that Kickass represents, the superhero cliche, that any of us can be a superhero, defender of living crooks. It also gives you that dark ambiance Watchmen has. Combined the two and voila: you got Super.

Starring Rainn Wilson, widely known as Dwight Schrute from an award winning TV series The Office, he now plays as Frank, a loser with an alter ego: self-acclaimed superhero called The Crimson Bolt. Devastated as his ex-addict wife, Sarah (Liv Tyler), cheats on him with a drug dealer Jacques (Kevin Bacon), he desperately tried to win her back because he knows well that she doesn’t want to go back to jail for drugs. That, and because Sarah was his only luck in life, a hot girl that he was eyeing shyly, she ends up become his wife. He needs Sarah for his own confidence, to confirm his existence, to assure himself that life isn’t that bad, that he’s not an all time loser. Gunn really focuses on Frank’s personality, he’s fragile, he has been through a lot of humiliations all his life, there’s even one scene where Frank was praying and asking God why he was bad looking. So when Sarah cheats on him, he convinced himself that Sarah was kidnapped and he decided to go to the police. Of course there’s nothing that police can do.

So as he’s figuring out how to rescue his Sarah, one night he found his calling when he watched a christian TV series The Holy Avenger (played by Nathan Fillion), Jesus was portrayed as a superhero in yellow and blue tight suits saving teenagers from sex, alcohol, drugs, and porn. Groovy. Sad thing about this movie is the satirical Jesus-superhero is a much more interesting point of this movie. After watching The Holy Avenger religiously, whoop pun intended, Frank strongly felt he has to be a superhero especially after he dreamed that he has been touched by the finger of God where God gave him an idea of his own mask should he choose to be a superhero. He also met The Holy Avenger in his dream, explaining how Frank is one of the chosen fews to save the world. Frank bought The Holy Avenger’s comic books in local comic book store where he met Libby, the shop employee played by Ellen Page. With red costume and red mask, The Crimson Bolt has born, punishing all kind of bad people from drug dealers to people who but in line with his signature weapon, a pipe-wrench, brutally attack and viciously punch them with it. He also shouts his varied mottos depending on the crime, “Shut up, crime!”, “Don’t molest kids!”, “Don’t butt in line!”, and “Don’t sell drugs!”. The disturbing scenes don’t end there, Libby decided to become his sidekick, Boltie. Libby’s superhero fetish and her manic personality makes Frank like a normal person albeit his own messed up personality. The two join forces to rescue Sarah who now lives in Jacques’s mansion, they made their own bombs, guns, you name it. Can they rescue her or do the superhero limelight consume their ego? That’s for you to find out yourself.

Bear in mind that this movie is a low budget movie, the A-list star Gunn pulled made the movie interesting. Rainn Wilson’s awkwardness ressembles Dwight Schrute, but Ellen Page is the one who, despite her crazy character, stands out. Seeing her playing as a normal girl on the outside but so twisted on the inside, not to mention her evil laugh, is really something. Kevin Bacon playing a coward small time drug dealer and Liv Tyler as a drug-addict compelete the cast. This movie, albeit the madness, will give different insights from the existed superhero movies. How far the length that you will pull to save you loved one? How far will you let your idealism rule you? Most importantly to which extent will you satisfy your ego in the name of, your personal point of view, justice?