Undescribable Perfection

Purely Joyful Movie!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It is hard to rate independent/alternative films, because although I'd give this one a 10/10, it would seem unfair to put it beside movie classics. On the other hand, I totally enjoyed every second of it. The story is both bizarre and great, Rainn Wilson delivers a strangely adorable performance, and the film as a whole is original and brilliant. A cult film and definitely one of my all time favorites.

This one I like a lot. A fantastic story, some real superheros (who cares about some invulnerable dudes like Superman!?) on a rescue and revenge mission and everything spiced up with sometimes a dark, twisted humor and some slapstick, and on top we get some fine actors like Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler and Kevin Bacon in an unconventional story.James Gunn did a good work directing this one, Guardians of the Galaxy One and Two he did also not disappoint. Watch!

James Gunn is a fantastic writer and up until 2014, I thought this was his best script. With James Gunn, I've always felt like he has great ideas but can never fully serve the story with each plot point. In my opinion, there are specific moments that cross the line a bit of why? I think it's hilarious how James compares being touched by God to tentacle porn. It's fantastic. The more specific moments in which he goes overboard? Libby's Death. Her character did not need to die and I am aware that it adds to the realism of it all but realistically, Frank would've died before Libby hit the "goon" with his car. The film's goal is to look at what a realistic superhero story would look like which is something Kickass attempted to do but forgot about realism towards the end. The end of Super felt very rushed. After being raped by Libby, he decides to kill Jacques. This scene was quicker than Sarah's rape scene that would've been more effective and disturbing if just hearing the cries for help while showing Michael Rooker's facial expressions. I will admit that the last twenty minutes of the film make me uncomfortable but I'd have to say that it's because of Libby's Death. She's the most likable character in the film and I feel as if at this point, once you see her face, you stop caring about the outcome. The film tried extremely hard to be twisted when there was no twisted plot points except for Sarah's drug addiction. The opening sequence tells you exactly what's going to happen and it takes away the mystery. James then attempts to throw you off by shoving in gratuitous scenes of bloody and sexual violence almost as a distraction. Another thing that caught my eye was that for a moment there, it tried to comment on today's society with the man calling Frank a C$&t in the comic book shop in front of his son. This film was a mix of Kick Ass and God Bless America and didn't know which one it wanted to be. Every time it became unrealistic, a gratuitous scene would arrive. It didn't know how to consistently stay realistic. Realism and gratuity don't go hand and hand. The saving grace of the film was the spectacular performances all around. Overall, I think it's an entertaining film that needed a bit of work.Dorian

Super is a mixed-bag that is surprisingly complex in how it's a mixed-bag. The film actually has a lot more going for it than I would've thought. There's definitely something here to make a great film, but that gets comprised as the film progresses further along (which we'll get to later). However, the film really does start out strong. Immediately we have a well- established, dark, yet undeniably humorous tone. This tone is one of Super's strengths, as it is (for the most part) consistent throughout the whole. It allows for a lot of good comedy and drama since the characters feel real pain but the audience can still laugh at the absurdity of the events playing out. The cinematography is surprisingly competent, especially since the entire movie is shot in hand-held to give off a more vulnerable and grounded feeling to the movie. Rainn Wilson gives a very good performance, and even though he isn't an amazing dramatic actor it's very apparent that he's giving it his all. Kevin Bacon is a very fun villain that is almost the straight-man which puts a nice comedic edge to him. Liv Tyler badly played a pretty lackluster love-interest that was mainly just a plot device. Nathan Fillion was a hilarious fictional comic-book hero that had some of the best lines and scenes in the film. And Ellen Page, while she did a decent performance, played the most annoying and awful character in the entire film. She's supposed to be the over- excited sidekick to the adult superhero but the constant screaming and ignorance that came from her was annoying and even disgusting at times (which I'll get to in a bit). Now for the main point of the film: the satire. Is this a good satire of comic book super heroes? Almost. The first two acts make for a very clever, black-comedy parody of those movies. Rainn Wilson isn't a comic-book fan at all (which is a refreshing twist to this type of story), he's just a mildly-depressed, religious schlub who likes to feel useful and heroic. He gets the idea to become a hero after his wife leaves him for Kevin Bacon and he gets a vision from The Holy Avenger (Nathan Fillion) that "Some of God's children are chosen". This is a great delve into Rainn's mind as it makes him out to seem like a fairly fragile and almost insane man, making a statement on superheroes as a whole that in reality they are just immature adults with mental issues. The very graphic violence highlights this since it adds unexpected consequences to Rainn's hasty actions (like when he bashes someone's head in with a wrench cuz he butted in line and everyone is horrified). This is all great until Ellen Page gets wrapped into the story. She nearly kills the movie. She becomes Rainn's sidekick against his desire just because she wanted to. I get her being the overly optimistic and excited kid sidekick, but it was way too much here and wasn't all that fleshed out. Ellen Page's involvement almost kills the movie because her character faces barely any repercussions for her actions; going against the entire first half's point. She does nothing to help Rainn's character; she only hurts, changes, slows down, and even rapes him. But she gets relatively off scott-free. Easily the worst part of the movie. And then the film ends on a sappy, inspirational "I give hope to people" montage that every superhero movie has but feels as though it's being genuine rather than satirical; which, AGAIN, goes against the entire point established in the first half of the movie.Overall, Super had the potential to be a great dark-satire (which does show in the majority of the film); but gets brought down by Ellen Page's character and a horrifically contradictory third act. I did enjoy the film, and technically do recommend it (mainly for the first half); but I'm not sure if I'll ever see it again.