Review of Super (2010) by Nilkad_Naquada — 19 Jul 2013

This movie honestly surprised me. I went in expecting a quirky and fun nerd movie in the vein of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, which is exactly the opposite of what I got until it wasn't, at which point it was exactly what I got, until it wasn't that either.

Perhaps that requires some clarification. Keeping it spoiler free, this movie starts off as a mixture of bleakly depressing and ball-twistingly awkward, but at the same time somewhat endearing for all that, before a somewhat drastic change of pace with an intentionally amateurish title animation set to Green Day-style 90s grunge.

After the intro it wallows in pity for a little bit longer before buckling down and being legitimately funny and clever while still keeping up the incredibly awkward subtext. This culminates when our hero decides that his weapon of choice shall be a pipe wrench, graphically beating people in a short montage which seems for all the world as if it's being played for laughs, and which ends with him dropping a cinderblock on a criminal's head from a fire escape.

However, shortly afterward there's a complete tonal inversion as it goes from quirky and lovable to serious and almost frightening within the space of a few minutes, and suddenly it seems as if that little comedic montage was not as funny as it first appeared.

From that point forward the movie flits back and forth between gritty horrific delivery of its message, somewhat humorous stylization, and some honestly disturbingly psychotic moments that I honestly don't know if I was frightened or amused by.

The movie really gets serious right near the end, when it simultaneously has a moderately impressive action scene, delivers a cuttingly real portrayal of what would actually happen if random people decided to be vigilantes, takes a hard look at morality and fanaticism while cashing in on the allegories to organized religion that have played a small part throughout the movie, and still manages to be somewhat funny at times throughout all of this.

The ending feels simultaneously satisfying and like an absolute tease. All in all this movie has a lot more to it than I bargained for, and while I'm sure more than one of you will interpret everything I've said as the movie just seeming schizophrenic, I honestly think it melds together quite expertly in a way which is near impossible to explain.

It's certainly worth a watch, because while I can't say with any certainty that you'll like it, I can say that you'll never see anything else like this movie and it deserves a view simply because of how astoundingly unique and intriguing it is.