"SUPER"? Or A Story Heard Several Times Before

Although the stories of Spider-Man and Batman remain as popular as ever, there has been a new movement towards the 'everyday superhero': the man without any special powers, no special gadgetry, fighting evil with primitive weapons and a plethora of courage. The newest installment of this Superhero genre is James Gunn's SUPER, which recently made its debut at this year Toronto International Film Festival as part of the Midnight Madness program. SUPER follows the story of Frank, played by Rainn Wilson of 'The Office' fame, a middle aged burger flipper, who decides to take up being a superhero to fight all forms of wrong no matter how big or small. Some days his actions are as noble as attacking small time drug dealers in the street and other days the battle is as insignificant as beating up those who butt in line at the movies. While these small time heroics help "The Crimson Bolt," his Superhero alter ego (pictured above), create local fame, Frank's ultimate goal remains the same: defeating the town's main druglord (Kevin Bacon), a man who stole Frank's wife (Liv Tyler) away from him by subjecting her to drugs after years of her attempts at a recovery. Along the way Frank meets Lilly (Ellen Page), a comic book shop clerk, who Frank uses as a resource tool in creating his costumed hero, which helps her grow into eventual role of The Crimson Bolt's sidekick, Bolty. The movie offers many moments of pleasure, from the the silliness of the homemade outfits being worn, to the pure excitement in Lilly's eyes (and the audiences) when she finally beats up the bully who keyed her friend's car. But one cannot help but feel that the story of 'The Crimson Bolt' is one that we've all heard before.


One of this past summer's blockbuster hits was the adaptation of Mark Millar's graphic novel Kick-ass. Directed by Matthew Vaughn, Kick-ass is the story of Mike Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), a skinny nonathletic teenager, who takes up being a superhero because, simply enough, he's bored and looking for some excitement. And as anyone would expect, a skinny teenager fighting local drug dealers would get his ass kicked, and the audience is treated to many beatings on our poor hero.

Another installment of this 'Superheroes Without Superpowers' genre made its debut exactly one year prior at the Toronto International Film Festival: ­Defendor. This first feature length movie by Peter Stebbings tells the story of Arthur Poppington (Woody Harrelson), a mentally challenged adult who lost his mother to drugs, or as he's told: the captains of industry. With that, Poppington transforms himself into Defendor (seen here) whenever he puts on his homemade all-black outfit with a "D" on the chest; sporting a baton, bags of marbles, and vials filled with bees as weapons in hopes of one day meeting and defeating the local druglord known solely to him as "Captain Industry".

The similarities between SUPER and Defendor are stark. We have a lead hero living a day-to-day life without purpose, who decides to take up arms against local druglords using household items as weapons. Both movies feature young Canadian women, Ellen Page and Kat Dennings, respectively, in the main supporting roles. And both movies feature awkward, yet perhaps more realistic fight scenes where the hero doesn't come in and beat up everyone with relative ease. Unfortunately for James Gunn and his new feature, parts of his movie have a 'been there, seen that' feel to them. He mentioned that he wrote the original screenplay in 2003 and, therefore, nothing should be taken away from Gunn's creativity in writing SUPER. It is, however, very unfortunate for Gunn that it took him so long to finally get the people in place to make this movie. Instead his original script is diluted by that fact that this story has been told several times before (especially so recently) and the primary appeal driving the movie is essentially unchanged in comparison with the aforementioned Kick-ass and Defendor. Audience members who have seen either of these movies will feel as though there is less to be found in SUPER, while those who have yet to experience this new take on the traditional superhero genre will enjoy its honest and playful retelling of the classic story of good versus evil.