Super (2010)

Hello and welcome.

Since this is my first post, I'll start with something relatively easy: the morality of vigilantism. Yesterday I went to the theater to see Super, a strange movie about a man losing his sanity. The man, Frank (Rainn Wilson), can't stand when his girlfriend Sarah (Live Tyler) leaves him, so he begins smashing heads with a wrench to relieve the pain. His very first victim is a drug dealer on a street corner. The short assault is shot in a comedy style from what I remember, squishy sound effect combined with a cut away from the gore.

This first assault is about when Frank lost my sympathy. I think it's earlier than writer-director James Gunn intended. All I had to do was imagine what the man's girlfriend or best friend would think upon seeing his crushed in skull at the morgue. Frank's incredible violent vigilante acts continue throughout the movie, during which public response is shown using sensationalized news story acting as a filter. The special effects don't pull any punches though, and each time someone is maimed, dismembered, or cut up by glass we see all the gory details. It's pretty fun.

The highlight of the film is Ellen Page as Libby, a deranged young woman who works at a comic book store. She joins up with Frank after he reveals his secret identity to her, and becomes his sidekick, 'Boltie.' Her performance is really funny but also can be unsettling. A good example is the ways she laughs while driving away after crushing the legs of a murderer with Frank's car. The relationship between Frank and Libbie is odd and in some ways terrible, but for me was the highlight of the film. Two disturbed people reaching out to each other through comic book characters.

The film's climax is a bloody revenge scenario, which is mostly excellent but left a somewhat bad taste in my mouth. I would've liked to see Frank get a little of what he deserved. All in all, I'd say worth seeing.

-Avery