Writer: James Gunn
Starring: Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon
Released: 2010
Released around 6 months after Kick-Ass, and suffering because of it (it wasn't compared favourably and didn't do very well at the box office), Super features Frank (Rainn Wilson), whose recovering addict wife (Tyler) leaves him for a drug dealer (Bacon). After getting a vision, he decides to become a superhero named The Crimson Bolt, with the ultimate aim of "saving" his wife, and fighting crime along the way.
Meeting psychotic comic book shop worker Libby (Page), who discovers his identity, then joins him as sidekick Boltie, he sets out to get his wife back, now on drugs again.
The first thing to say about Super is that it is a lot darker and more adult than Kick-Ass. The violence is more brutal and simpler, and a lot less choreographed; The Crimson Bolt basically justs hits people he thinks have done wrong (including people cutting queues at the cinema) in the head with a wrench. As a result, the violence is a lot more realistic.
Made on less than a tenth of the budget of Kick-Ass, and filmed in just 24 days, the film has a kind of bleak look to it, which only adds to the grimy realism. The film also doesn't really explore the media reaction to The Crimson Bolt, save for a brief news snippet, though it does mock the notion of superheroes not being noticed when in costume; several people recognise Frank when he is The Crimson Bolt.
This is a very good film in its own right. The comparisons to Kick-Ass are obvious to see, but this is kind of like Kick-Ass's darker, older, weirder cousin. The cast are all excellent, especially Wilson and Page, and the film is very funny, especially when Page is onscreen. I can see how people get unsettled about the film, mixing comedy with swift, brutal, realistic violence is an odd combination, and the joy Ellen Page's character gets from beating and hurting people is obviously not going to be to everybody's tastes, but I enjoyed it a lot.
Rating: 4/5
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