Thursday 31 January 2013

Kill all them superheroes!

This is... an odd movie. Superhero movie, and yet... it doesn't have superheroes in it? Probably to make it easier for filming. Probably it's really about four people and their relationships, and what they do when they are being themselves.

Rickshaw has taken over a town, which is quite an impressive feat. He has kidnapped four superheroes, taken away their powers, and now getting them to run all over town to save innocent citizens by facing fatal challenges. (Why didn't he just straight up kill them? Because where's the fun in that?)

By not having their powers, this raises questions about if this is a superhero movie, because there aren't superheroes, there are just people dressed up in wacky costumes with ideas about being do-gooders. (One of them looks a little like Phoenix Jones, not sure if that is intention and this is then a statement about that.)

Anyway, the whole supervillain (and sod it, let's call him a supervillain) plan is completely incidental, as it is just a way for the four people with a 'history' to come together and be forced to work together again, and thus those old issues come up. And those issues are pretty generic 'relationship fail' and 'jealous of being in the shadow', etc. Even the superhero coat of paint doesn't make them any more non-superficial.

Jason Trost does a good turn as the lead actor, although goes over in intensity more than once. That's what happens when the writer and director don't reign the actor in... especially when they are all the same person. Lucas Till and Sophie Merkley don't quite come up to the same standard, and James Remar (Dexter's dad) is just going for the 'having fun' mania acting style (which now makes me think Joker while I'm writing this, but he doesn't come off as such on screen).

A drama masquerading as superhero dramatics, it's a decent enough character piece, but nothing that innovative.

[END]

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