Starring Nic Cage and McLovin
Like the masses surely fooled by the hype and previews, I went into this one knowing it was a sort of send up on the super hero genre with an adult twist but with a cast of kids. Fair enough. What I did not know however, was that the movie was a sort of mean spirited and upsetting at times cartoon come to life.
There are moments of pure enjoyment and fantastic action but on the other hand there are moments where an 11 year old girl is being shot in the chest, many in fact.
I havent been this conflicted on a film since last years Eden lake. The plot is absolutely nothing new and in fact at times seems like a direct rip off of the first Spiderman with Tobey McGuire (especially the end).
Some points of praise are the action sequences themselves with a stellar job done by all the stunt people involved and some fancy camera work to keep things fresh.
On the other hand, this movie suffers from absolutely horrid casting, namely Christopher Mintz-Plasse (McLovin) as one of the "super heroes". This guy was great in Superbad and o.k in Role Models but the third time playing the same character is NOT the charm. He tries to take on a different persona and fails at every turn. He drives a nice car in it though.
Now onto poor old Nicolas Cage. Its almost as if after being laughed off of the big screen by test audiences years ago when he tried his hand at playing Superman, Cage has been hell bent on playing some sort of hero in movies. Whether it was Ghostrider or an almost Batman like rip off in Kick Ass he appears to have come to grips with the fact that it is his perpetually sad puppy dog look that keeps him from playing a hero whose face is not in disguise and I hope he has gotten it out of his system this time around.
Before I go, I will throw out another comparison for the rip off theme in this one and that is the movie The Professional where we have a grown man who is the hero that trains the super unlikely little girl to follow in his footsteps.
Believe me when I tell you that I liked this movie more than the review will suggest but based on all of the flaws, I have to give this one a low grade
Rating 1 1/2 terrible performances out of 5
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The biggest flaw in the movie was the trailer. It sucked people in thinking they were going to get something more along the lines of Mystery Men, but what they got was a mix of Sin City and Wanted.
ReplyDeleteHaving been mildly familiar with the comic, it was a less jarring experience for me once the ultra violence started, but for my female companion, not so much. She was expecting a comedy of sorts with McLovin running around trying to be a superhero. What she got was an 11 year old girl committing stylized mass murder. Not what she was looking for and from the comments I overheard after the movie, she was not alone.
Had the trailer prepared the viewer properly for what they were about to experience I think people would have braced themselves a little more or at least known what they were getting in to.