Catching up with 2011: Super

If James Gunn’s (who made the pretty good Slither) Super had maintained the same tone as its opening five minutes, then the film would have been something. Sadly, however, Super is a hodgepodge of tones that never work. Its best elements – a great supporting performance by Kevin Bacon* as a slimy strip club owner being chief among them – seem like they belong in another movie. Rainn Wilson is fine as sadsack Frank who has a vision from God to tell crime to, “Shut up!” Wilson is a talented actor that always has a way of making the most outrageous things humorous because he keeps them grounded in a semblance of reality. Of course, this is evident in a lot of Dwight Schrute’s behavior on “The Office,” but in Super, there just isn’t any kind of thread that connects the darkly absurd elements together. Consider the scene where Frank dons a fake beard to get information for his first outing as The Crimson Bolt (the superhero he thinks God wants him to be)…this seems like something that is wholly Dwight Schrute and not the character Frank in this film. One of the main problems with the film – aside from the varying tones that never click – is Ellen Page. Here, Gunn seems to think that – much like the bizarrely graphic violence – having Page over enunciate her profanity (as if to show that she’s the anti-Juno or something) is somehow funny. I’m not averse to profanity, it can often make a scene funnier, but I hate it when filmmakers think that characters swearing, especially crassly and in front of kids or having characters go against type by swearing a lot, is just funny because it somehow it is “edgy” (look, there’s a reason why Kenny Powers works as a character on “Eastbound & Down” and the fact that he swears so much isn’t part of the reason).


 

Super can’t decide if it wants to be a parody of fanboy fantasizing, superhero movies, a dark comedy about seriously unstable people, or Christianity. Super reminded me of the horribly uneven Observe and Report; however Jody Hill is far more adept at the absurd than Gunn is. Gunn introduces all of these targets and sets them up to be satirized only to forget about them 10 minutes later. When Frank gets his vision from God after watching an episode of “The Holy Avenger,” I thought  the film was going to be a comic parody of the goofy TBN shows “Bible Man;” however, instead that story thread is kind of dropped for a more conventional approach to dark comedy that just never clicks. One of the problems is the movie isn’t funny outside of the film’s highlight: Frank’s montage when he first starts fighting crime (also, the opening of the film with Kevin Bacon commenting on how good Frank’s eggs are is a highlight). It has the right tone that balances the goofy and absurd with the dark elements the film so badly wants to dwell on. However, that feels like a successful short film Gunn made; something he couldn’t stretch out to 90 minute movie. Another problem is Gunn’s utter lack of style or visual competence as director. The film is dreary and nihilistic, so I understand the look he’s going for, but then why litter the opening of the film with cheesy 60s Batman graphics and punk rock music?

So, Wilson and Bacon’s performances are for naught as Gunn’s inability to make a film with a coherent theme and tone is the undoing of what should have been a nice little indie dark comedy. Instead, the film just left me feeling sad for wasting Wilson’s talent as a comedic actor. When Frank whacks a man and woman in the head for cutting in line, Super lost me for good. It wasn’t shocking enough to be darkly funny and it wasn’t dark enough to be disturbing; it was just odd and stupid. And, man, Ellen Page was just beyond grating in the film. However, the one thing the film did do for me was want me to see more of Wilson on the big screen. “The Office” is in a creative funk right now, and the time is right for Wilson to break out as a comedic movie star; however, he needs material better than this because the man can only do so much to elevate Super’s script above complete drek.

* Michael Rooker also shows up as one of Bacon’s henchman and is awesome in his brief appearances; it’s always good to see The Rook continue to get work.

Labels: 2011 Movies, Horror, Rainn Wilson