Review of American Hero (2015) by Quincytheodore — 12 Dec 2015

Closer-to-life version of Jean Grey and Professor X.

It may be strange that a mockumentary crew follows a random underachiever guy who just lost custody of his son and sent to community service. After a while it turns out he has special power, a straight up X-Men material also accompanied by his best buddy in wheelchair. The movie later follows his squandered life, which is quite identifiable because he struggles with daily problems even with his superpower, although the cycle of his drug abuse can be monotonous at the end.

Superheroes movies usually opt for mix of fantasy, using outlandish power, and connection to the character, displaying their flaws to humanize them. American Hero clearly leans towards the latter as Melvin (Stephen Dorff) stumbles even on ordinary problems, let alone crime fighting. He looks stoned and disheveled almost the entire time. There's a good quality in his character, though one must look deep enough.

I remember Stephen Dorff from Blade as the cool named antagonist Deacon Frost, as Melvin he's the complete opposite, albeit ironically still with super power. Melvin is talented and smart even without the gift, yet he’s using the telekinesis power to grope women with random objects and score drugs. The movie invests so much on establishing that he's a screw up, it has repetitive party montage for a good portion of the runtime, which tends to get stale after a while.

Eddie Griffin as Lucille, the sidekick in wheelchair is also Melvin's moral compass. He's a charismatic comedian, cracking jokes and having tendency to flirt with women, but he presents good brotherhood relationship for Melvin. It's also nice that the movie adds some interviews with supporting chars to establish heroic or mundane atmosphere as well as adding slight realistic flavor.

This is in heart, a comedy drama, not an ambitious use of super power like Chronicle. It does have solid special effect for some sequences, but it's still limited and might not look superbly authentic. The ones that work better are those seemingly happen out of nowhere and its use of mockumentary serves these tricks well.

American Hero might not be as grand as the title or premise suggests, but it brings more connection with the characters than larger sci-fi or action movies. Melvin is not the hero we deserve, he's the one we will have to make do.