The superhero send-up is nearly as old as the genre, stretching from Ma Hunkel's turn as the Red Tornado back in the 40s and including The Inferior Five, the Great Lakes Avengers, Howard the Duck, the Freshmen, and Mystery Men, who made it to Hollywood.
The buzz on the latest, starring Will Smith, has been somewhat less than super. Has anyone here seen it?
It wasn't stellar, but it wasn't what was advertised, either. It starts out as a drunk bum of a super hero, but that last all of thirty minutes or so into the film, and there's a few twists that happen after that. I don't want to say anything because it kind of depends on you not expecting the weird turn it takes.
But the wife and I enjoyed it, and don't consider our $10 wasted.
This movie is a bit of a roller coaster. The running time is short, and it moves from Comedy to Action to Drama just as quick, and that can be a bit jarring. I can see where some people might dislike the dark turn the movie takes. In some ways it compares to The Break Up in its mode shift from "dark Comedy" to "dark drama". If you just sit back and set aside expectations (and ignore a few of the filmmakers conceits) I think you will enjoy the ride.
I really enjoy Will Smith doing his thing. As a result I enjoyed most of this movie. But honestly, and I have to dip into MAJOR spoilers here...
What the hell? I mean, how am I supposed to have any sympathy for Theron's character at all? Let's see, she sorta wants to have the cake and eat it too...she doesn't want to just be a mom; nope, she wants to be a soccer mom who's *still* immortal and badass (but no-one can know). To that end she abandons her guy with amnesia, takes off, and then tosses him through her own house wall and blames that on him, then goes into almost-full-on-super pycho villain mode and tears up town?
...whaaaaat?
Seriously, the drunk bum superhero thing was fine and fun and refreshing. The attempt at redemption was cliched but okay. But please...either give us a backstory or just avoid doing so altogether; don't give us one that looked like somebody pulled it out of their left ear during a panicked script rewrite. 'Gods' and 'pairs' and 'others but they're long gone' and...whatever.
Finally, the 'bad guys' were the most pathetic thing I'd ever seen. Even for a comedy. They were too weak to be thrilling, too grim to be funny, too magically on the spot to be believable...pfeh.
The last third of that movie ruined the whole thing for me.
To close, why is defacing the Moon cute and okay? Seriously.
