Super (2011)

Writer and Director: James Gunn

After the breakaway success of James Gunn’s debut feature film Slither, he returns to his first script, Super, a violent and esoteric look on the concept of superheroes as applied to real life. Conceived back in 2002 but quickly falling into production hell, Super suffers grievously due to irrelevance, finally seeing the light of day in an era of superhero fatigue, and shadowing a much more high-budget Kick-Ass. For the rare few who actually witnessed it however, it provides a rather unique and stunning piece of cinema, with a much more blatant and disturbing agenda than Kick-Ass ever intended.

Fast food cook Frank (Rainn Wilson) has only ever had two perfect memories in his life. The first was when he married his wife Sarah (Liv Tyler), recovering from a terrible drug addiction. The second was when, as a child, he directed a police officer in his pursuit of a fleeing robber. These two events have been transformed into crayon drawings that Frank has hung over his bed in order to wake up to them each day.

Frank returns home one day to find his wife has left him for cult-leader-like Jacques (Kevin Bacon in a warm-up role for X-Men: First Class), a charismatic strip club owner, who has initiated her relapse into drugs. Distraught, Frank becomes a wreck of a man, resorting to daytime television. Whilst watching hardcore Christian programming, he witnesses The Holy Avenger, a masked Nathan Fillion smiting teen pregnancy and peer pressure-provoking demons in an American High School, complete with an inspirational message about the triumph of good over evil, invoking nostalgic memories of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. It is here that he proclaims to have been touched by God, if God can be described lucid visions of tentacle rape and a lobotomy.

Donning the homemade mask, Frank becomes the Crimson Bolt! A superhero without powers, brutally clubbing people to death with a wrench. Commit a crime? Crimson Bolt will stop you! Molest a child? Prepare to meet your doom! Cut in queue? Smash your face in! Together with his 22-year-old kid sidekick Boltie – sadistic comic book store clerk Libby (Ellen Page), the Crimson Bolt vows to fight crime, get back his wife, and foil Jacques’ drug circle.

The realism in Super is both gruesome and compelling, setting the film apart from any other superhero story so far, even the ones that claim super realism like Kick-Ass and Watchmen. With no real abilities, Frank initially struggles to defeat anyone, until he begins his sneak-attacks, embedding his wrench in people’s skulls multiple times beyond their deaths. The Crimson Bolt and Boltie unleash judgement without mercy or restraint, breaking spines, smashing glass eyes, immolating people, and ramming a thug against a wall with their “Bolt-mobile”, leaving him to slowly writhe in agony until death. Their motivations are clear: Frank because due to his ineptness and social retardation, he doesn’t know any other way to get his wife back; and Libby because she enjoys it, laughing sadistically as she lacerates an already-dead thug’s body with homemade Wolverine claws.

Super also alludes to what happens “between the panels”. Kick-Ass stirred up a storm with its portrayal of underage kid sidekick Hit-Girl. Super goes beyond, and although Boltie is 22-years-old, wearing her costume during her rape of Frank as The Crimson Bolt, proclaiming that this is now what she needs to get off, comes off as disturbingly paedophilic in nature.

Super is a unique take on the now mundane concept of what it would be like to be a superhero in real life. However, it sets itself apart by going further than any other similar film, not shying away from what it could be like to kill someone with a homemade weapon, or the psychopathic and sociopathic thoughts that might drive a modern-day vigilante. Its low-budget nature means that it doesn’t have the luxuries of other blockbuster superhero films, but this charm parallels nicely with the homemade nature of The Crimson Bolt. “Take that crime, you shit!”

4 / 5

Super 8 (2011)

Writer and Director: J.J. Abrams

There are those films we saw growing up that captured our hearts, and the hearts of children everywhere, inspiring a wave of children to become filmmakers. Films like E.T. and The Goonies made entire families come together for an experience they would never forget, all thanks to Steven Spielberg’s genius storytelling. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a family film of the same calibre that can capture that special kind of magic, where relatable kids can overcome their issues, fight the government and save the day. Super 8 by J.J. Abrams attempts to reclaim this magic for a new generation of children. With Steven Spielberg producing, the night sky is filled with lights, kids solve mysteries on bicycles, and an alien fights to return home, very much channelling the magic that happened in the early 80’s, whilst updating it with modern-day production values.

1979, suburban Ohio. After the accidental death of his mother, 12-year-old Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) assists his intense friend Charles (Riley Griffiths) in creating a zombie film, shot on a Super 8mm camera, for the local film festival. Keeping it a secret from his single father, Deputy Jack Lamb (Kyle Chandler), because that’s what all filmmakers do, they scout for locations, improve costumes and break numerous lines to create their masterpiece. The beautiful Alice (Elle Fanning) is roped into playing the femme fatale, but goes so far as to steal her drunken father’s car to drive the crew to their location, the train station. When Charles hears a train coming, it’s all hands on deck to get the shot in the bag, for expert “production value”. As they’re taking the shot, a truck merges onto the tracks, heading straight for the oncoming train. The film continues rolling during the massive explosion which flings carriages and debris through the air, to land inches away from the fleeing children, and causing more explosions in the climactic chain reaction. In the aftermath, the children find the gun-toting brutalised body of the truck-driver, their biology teacher. He warns them to never tell anyone about what happened that night, and their interview is cut short by the arrival of the U.S. air force, to clean up the mess and any witnesses.

The next day, the gang discovers mysterious goings-on all throughout the town. The Sheriff is missing, replaced by the Deputy; the cars at a sales lot all have their engines vanished; a shop is missing twenty microwaves. The adults are slow on the uptake, as they always are, but the children are on the case. After getting the footage of that fateful night developed, they uncover what was really on that train, and why the Air Force is trying to wipe the town clean: an alien, stranded on earth, captured and experimented upon by the government, trying to build a ship to carry it home.

For the first hour, this film is brilliant. It perfectly unites a team of fantastically-acted and emotionally ripe children (including a next generation Sean Astin), and conjures up brilliantly the nostalgic feel of E.T. and The Goonies. Shooting their film on an obsolete camera adds to the effect. But then somewhere in there, Cloverfield happens. Super 8 quickly becomes E.T. without the loveable Extra Terrestrial, replaced by a mysterious and illusive monster, preying on hapless victims from behind. The heart is replaced by terror, and bloodshed. There is a surprising amount of violence for something meant for children. The alien works on the less is more theory, the audience glimpsing shadows, the occasional arm, and the standard flash-frame as it lunges towards its terrified victim. Such a dark contrast to the previous scenes leaves a disconnection between the two worlds, and they never really mesh.

There is also an extreme amount of lens flares in the film, no doubt left over from Abrams previous film, Star Trek. Almost every second shot is adorned with a blue streak stabbing across the frame, including flares from lights that don’t even exist. There is an appropriate time and place for flares. A time where they are not appropriate however, is when the lead character descends into a pitch black series of underground caves, where there is absolutely no possible light source, ergo no possible flare. But there one is, gracing our screen with its majestic presence.

Nevertheless, Super 8 remains a quality film, nostalgic for a style that has long since been left behind in favour of big stupid blockbusters. True, the film does have some blockbuster elements based in it, and these tend to detract from the magic, but they’re well made up for by the emotional depth to the characters. It looks and feels identical to a Spielberg film of three decades ago, which inspired a generation to become filmmakers. Hopefully this film will do the same.

The end credits are the highlight of the film, showing the results of the crew’s hard labour, complete with line breaks, jump cuts, and crash zooms.

3½ / 5

Doctor Who - A Good Man Goes to War

Director: Peter Hoar

Writer: Steven Moffat

The Doctor travels throughout space and time raising an army, an army to reclaim Amy and her newborn child, Melody, stolen from her husband and the Doctor by the mysterious Eye-Patch Lady. The raging Time Lord calls in the favours due to him by Sontarans, Silurians, Judoon and a blue Jabba the Hutt, infiltrates the Headless Monks' base at Demons Run and defeats the Order and General Manton’s Cleric Army. But was it too easy? Eye-Patch Lady has one last trick up her sleeves. And what does all this have to do with River Song?

Finally. This is what we have been waiting to see. After three years and oh-so-much build-up, we finally get the pay-off. Steven Moffat, you clever, clever man. River Song has been the subject of so much speculation over the last few years. Viewers have formed a love-hate relationship with the afro warrior; Love in that her charms and chemistry with the Doctor weighed perfectly against the mystery surrounding her, always carrying the story onwards; and hate in that nothing about her made sense, with more and more riddles to deduce after every appearance. There are still plenty of riddles left, and more created by this episode, but her character arc has received a generous update. And the Doctor’s reaction to this is just pure genius.

This episode more than made up for the dreadfully average episodes this Series, The Curse of the Black Spot and The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People, tipping the balance well in favour of good. It simply got almost everything right. Even though the entire episode was building up to the great twist at the end, it was still incredibly entertaining. Through its lyrical montages, and constant build-up, it gave Moffat a chance to explore a different side his characters. 

The Doctor terrifies with his newfound rage, first glimpsed briefly aboard the Starship UK in The Beast Below. His flawless disarmament of his helpless foe makes his downfall all the more devastating, as he becomes what he denounces and is forced to pay the consequences.

Rory takes control, finally standing up for himself and not letting anyone get in his way. His character finally reaches greatness, silhouetted by the Doctor’s chain exploding of an entire Cyberman armada. His beta status to his wife is finally inversed, as Amy becomes Mrs Williams, a distraught mother, a far cry from her strong female persona.

The side characters too are a joy to watch. The unfortunate and humiliating situations Sontaran Commander Strax finds itself in are progressively less honourable, climaxing with the long fall to wet-nurse. The innuendo-fuelled adventures of Silurian Madame Vastra and her “man”-servant both confound and entice (particularly the notion of a poison-tongued cunnilingus). Is everyone in the future homosexual? It seems Moffat is intent on making it so.

One problem though was the lack of development in the Headless Monks. What are they exactly? How do they sustain themselves without a head? What are these Ringwraiths after? Why do they feel the need to have both a lightning sword and lightning balls? Surely one will suffice. Brandishing their broadswords with menace only to exude a puny ball of energy comes off as a disappointing anticlimax. Their lack of depth resulted in them appearing more comical than scary, paling in comparison to the host of much meaner scum and villainy appearing in the episode. Their silence only functioned to highlight the evil that their human counterparts were partaking in.

Finally, Doctor Who has wafted through the string of lacklustre episodes of the Series, and everything is coming together. Years old mysteries are coming to fruition, the fanservice is flying high, and the tension is becoming close to breaking point. Whoever thought that it would be a good idea to split the Series in half? Waiting another three months for a resolution to this stunning cliff-hanger is torturous. Until then we’ll just have to make do with this:

and KBO.

4½ / 5