Super (2011)

SUPER  (2011)  ¢ ¢
    D: James Gunn
    Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler,
    Kevin Bacon, Michael Rooker, Nathan Fillion
When his beloved but zonked-out wife leaves him for a ruthless drug dealer, a severely depressed short-order cook decides to get even by reinventing himself as a superhero called the Crimson Bolt. This is sort of like "Kick-Ass", or the first part of "Spider-Man", where the superhero isn't really much of a superhero, and his costume doesn't look all that impressive, either. And reality keeps cutting in. Like when you're a crime fighter hiding behind a dumpster waiting for a crime to happen, and nothing does. Or when you're wearing your superhero mask and somebody figures out your real identity right away anyway. Or when you realize that without any actual super powers, you're going to need some real weapons to avoid getting stomped or killed, like a heavy-duty pipe wrench and some guns. There's plenty of potential for humor in this, and in the way the action skews toward real-world violence and not the romanticized, comic-book kind, but the formula's familiarity and Wilson's unsympathetic performance prevent it from being more fun. The main attraction is Ellen Page as the live-wire bookstore clerk who talks her way into becoming the Bolt's kid sidekick. Once she puts her costume on, the energy level picks up considerably.