I think the movie was great in genereal (drama, gore, funny, action)...the story of a regular guy becoming a superhero its not bad...but the idea of his crusade was to rescue his wife and after all she left him anyway was sad because in the way libby actually cares about frank and had a tragic death.

GoodA piece of art is either Good or Bad. A Yes, you would recommend it to others or a No, don't waste your time

I've been a fan of James Gunn since 2006 when I first saw Slither and when I saw how complete it felt, I thought right then that the director had great things ahead of him. Unfortunately for me that promise didn't come to fruition until 2014 when he made Guardians of the Galaxy. Both movies sent me on a mission to spread good word of mouth to everyone I knew. Both just have the same kind of feeling of perfection. They blend romance, action, comedy, suspense, everything you could want in a movie and not one of those elements misses the mark. They just seem to offer so much that I walked away from both thinking, how can anyone not like this movie?I did not feel that way about Super. Not at all. I didn't tell anyone about it, mainly to remind myself of its existence as little as possible. I'm pretty dark as a person, my sense of humor is a bit twisted, I don't scare easily... dark themes are usually more of a draw than a deterrent. Super isn't just dark... it is depressing. It focuses on one character and ends with an immensely unfulfilling ending for that character. It puts a mentally ill person on an adventure where delusions are amped up and obstacles are removed sometimes by little more than luck and randomness. Sickness thrives and becomes all encompassing... and then just for a brief moment the audience sees the potential for the character being happy, being loved by someone for who he is instead of obsessing about someone who doesn't love him back. Someone loves him despite knowing all about his illness, he doesn't have to hide it she embraces it. If he can just stop thinking about something he'll never have and just focus on what he does have, maybe there's hope for clarity and an end to the insanity that at this point is spiraling out of control. And then Super takes that hope that it just gave you and completely smashes it in the most irrevocable and horrific way possible. And in the end our "hero" ends up right back to where he was, completely cut off and alone and empty and not even his fantasies to comfort him. He still loves someone who left him and never loved him back and she still dominates his thoughts. He stares off at pictures on a wall that tell a story of the great life she is having without him while the rest of his apartment is completely empty. He has nothing. It comes across as though we are supposed to feel good about this, about his acceptance and how he must truly love her if he wants her to be happy even if it's not with him and oh my isn't that wonderful. It isn't happiness. It's loneliness. She is still obviously all he thinks about except now he doesn't even have his fantasies to comfort him. The girl that did love him, she's gone now, because of his mission to save someone who very clearly does not deserve it. She's happy, gets to have a family, and he has nothing now having given everything for her to have that. I know there are some religious overtones here, and that he has faith and all, but I must have missed the part where he decides to embody Christ himself. A horrible person gets everything they want, the hero ends up with nothing... It completely destroys the film. It felt like a gut punch. It still stands out to me today because of how depressed I was when it was over, that's what I took away from it. The Aviator and Donnie Darko are the only two films that come to mind when I think of movies that hurt me like that. Lingering pain that you take with you for awhile, that's what Super has to offer people. James Gunn is a great storyteller and I'm happy he turned out to be such a huge success. In my opinion he's given us maybe the only legitimately good film out of the entire barrage of Marvel Studios movies that have come out so far. Guardians of the Galaxy couldn't afford to be mediocre. Absolutely no one knew who those characters were. The movie had to earn the audiences respect and keep them entertained and there isn't a single scene that is wasted. It never drags on because it couldn't afford to. For a director that doesn't waste screen time when he's on his game, I'm wondering if Super was a waste of his time. If there's a message to get here, if that was the point, I either missed it, or if I am right and this selflessness IS the message... I don't know, maybe I'm weak or I'm a bad person, but that's not a message I would ever care to learn.

Super is a mixed-bag that is surprisingly complex in how it's a mixed-bag. The film actually has a lot more going for it than I would've thought. There's definitely something here to make a great film, but that gets comprised as the film progresses further along (which we'll get to later). However, the film really does start out strong. Immediately we have a well- established, dark, yet undeniably humorous tone. This tone is one of Super's strengths, as it is (for the most part) consistent throughout the whole. It allows for a lot of good comedy and drama since the characters feel real pain but the audience can still laugh at the absurdity of the events playing out. The cinematography is surprisingly competent, especially since the entire movie is shot in hand-held to give off a more vulnerable and grounded feeling to the movie. Rainn Wilson gives a very good performance, and even though he isn't an amazing dramatic actor it's very apparent that he's giving it his all. Kevin Bacon is a very fun villain that is almost the straight-man which puts a nice comedic edge to him. Liv Tyler badly played a pretty lackluster love-interest that was mainly just a plot device. Nathan Fillion was a hilarious fictional comic-book hero that had some of the best lines and scenes in the film. And Ellen Page, while she did a decent performance, played the most annoying and awful character in the entire film. She's supposed to be the over- excited sidekick to the adult superhero but the constant screaming and ignorance that came from her was annoying and even disgusting at times (which I'll get to in a bit). Now for the main point of the film: the satire. Is this a good satire of comic book super heroes? Almost. The first two acts make for a very clever, black-comedy parody of those movies. Rainn Wilson isn't a comic-book fan at all (which is a refreshing twist to this type of story), he's just a mildly-depressed, religious schlub who likes to feel useful and heroic. He gets the idea to become a hero after his wife leaves him for Kevin Bacon and he gets a vision from The Holy Avenger (Nathan Fillion) that "Some of God's children are chosen". This is a great delve into Rainn's mind as it makes him out to seem like a fairly fragile and almost insane man, making a statement on superheroes as a whole that in reality they are just immature adults with mental issues. The very graphic violence highlights this since it adds unexpected consequences to Rainn's hasty actions (like when he bashes someone's head in with a wrench cuz he butted in line and everyone is horrified). This is all great until Ellen Page gets wrapped into the story. She nearly kills the movie. She becomes Rainn's sidekick against his desire just because she wanted to. I get her being the overly optimistic and excited kid sidekick, but it was way too much here and wasn't all that fleshed out. Ellen Page's involvement almost kills the movie because her character faces barely any repercussions for her actions; going against the entire first half's point. She does nothing to help Rainn's character; she only hurts, changes, slows down, and even rapes him. But she gets relatively off scott-free. Easily the worst part of the movie. And then the film ends on a sappy, inspirational "I give hope to people" montage that every superhero movie has but feels as though it's being genuine rather than satirical; which, AGAIN, goes against the entire point established in the first half of the movie.Overall, Super had the potential to be a great dark-satire (which does show in the majority of the film); but gets brought down by Ellen Page's character and a horrifically contradictory third act. I did enjoy the film, and technically do recommend it (mainly for the first half); but I'm not sure if I'll ever see it again.