Review of Super (2010) by John S — 10 Aug 2012

Super is emotionally and physically affecting, disturbing, exhilarating, inspiring and disgusting. And it's superb.

What's really great about Super is that it's not afraid to take risks and it is delightfully refreshing. It achieves an absolute perfect balance of dark and comedy to make one of the most brilliant dark comedies in recent memory. There are loads and loads of absolute hilarity and the way it mixes with the dark undertones is really impressive. It's this contrast between serious drama, absurd humor, and appalling grit that really smacks you in the face and makes it impossible to look away from the movie at any given moment.

It's difficult not to draw comparison between Super and Kick-Ass, but if they were to be compared, Super feels like the movie Kick-Ass should have been. Super is far more gritty, real, and introspective while Kick-Ass was just a fun blockbuster. In the end, Super feels like the Kick-Ass for mature (though not too mature) adults. This is ironic as Kick-Ass was already seen as a "mature superhero" film. Super takes this to a whole other level.

Super succeeds over Kick-Ass because it is far more complex. The intricacies of Super are really astounding and they play off the miss-mash tone of the film brilliantly. One of the best surprises of the film is also the performances. Ellen Page taps into an unexpected psychotic persona that is extremely interesting, funny, and sexy. Rainn Wilson is just brilliant. His ability to shift to intensely menacing, ridiculously awkward, and strangely bland is really wonderful.

Super is fresh, exciting, funny, and shocking: everything a dark comedy (or any film) should be. It is just a fantastic film that is effective and enjoyable in nearly every way possible.