Superhero Movie Blu-ray offers solid video and audio, but overall it's a mediocre Blu-ray release
After being bitten by a genetically altered dragonfly, high school loser Rick Riker develop
superhuman abilities like incredible strength and armored skin. Rick decides to use his new
powers for good and becomes a costumed crime fighter known as "The Dragonfly." However,
standing in the way of his destiny is the villainous Lou Landers. After an experiment gone
wrong, Lou develops the power to steal a person's life force and in a dastardly quest for
immortality becomes the supervillain, "The Hourglass." With unimaginable strength,
unbelievable speed and deeply uncomfortable tights, will the Dragonfly be able to stop the
sands of The Hourglass and save the world? More importantly, will we stop laughing long
enough to notice?
You may fail or you may fly, all that matters is that you do it for the best of reasons.
Finally, there is a new parody film without the infamous influence of the writer/director
tandem of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, those responsible for the films that often find their
way onto the
Internet Movie Database's list of the 100 worst films as voted on by
the
users of that site. Nevertheless, Superhero Movie, written and directed by Craig Mazin
(who
does share a pair of writing credits with Friedberg and Seltzer for the last two Scary
Movie
films), shares many of the same angles, attributes, and absurdity as the most heinous of the
Friedberg/Seltzer specials, including the critically panned and practically universally loathed Meet the Spartans
and Disaster Movie. So,
how does Superhero Movie fare against the competition? Not too badly, thankfully.
Unfortunately for Superhero Movie, however, most anything looks good against the duds
heretofore named. Such a comparison is like judging a bad baseball team, say the Pittsburgh
Pirates, based on a single spring exhibition game after beating the living daylights out of Manatee
Community College. Things look bright for a brief period of time, but come July, the Pirates are
back in the cellar, looking way up at the big boys. No, Superhero Movie is a pretty
lackluster movie, but taken in the proper context, it's at least watchable and, most importantly,
pretty funny in many places.
Before 'Dragonfly,' Rick Riker was 'Drinking Fountain Man.'
Taking its cues primarily from the first Spider-Man film,
Superhero Movie follows the origins and early crime-fighting career of the Dragonfly,
known better to the world as school nerd Rick Riker (Drake Bell). On a field trip, Rick is bitten by
a genetically-enhanced dragonfly and soon discovers he possess improved reflexes, heightened
strength, and the ability to scale walls. As he slowly morphs into a hero, he remains fixated on
his crush, the beautiful Jill Johnson (Sara Paxton), receives "support" from his best friend, Trey
(Kevin Hart), knowledge from his uncle, Albert (Leslie Nielsen), and help on how to be a better
superhero from Professor Xavier (Tracy Morgan). Meanwhile, the diabolical and terminally ill Lou
Landers (Christopher McDonald), CEO of Amalgamated Pharmaceuticals, searches for and
discovers a cure to his disease,
a
cure that will result in the deaths of
thousands of innocents. His plan in full effect, Landers dons his archenemies costume as the
"Hourglass" and prepares to become an immortal at the expense of thousands -- and only
Dragonfly can stop him.
Aside from the absence of the names Friendberg and Seltzer among the list of credits,
Superhero Movie actually does feature one or two positives. Superhero Movie
manages more genuine laughs over the opening credit sequence than Meet the Spartans
earned in the entire length of the film. Yes, this film retains plenty of raw and crude toilet
humor, with even the characters themselves often making a gag reflex in response to some of it,
but it never sinks to the absolute lowest common denominator as do other recent parody movies.
Even if it is hit-or-miss, the film does seem to have at least a passable grasp on comedy,
occasionally offering a legitimate funny scene or line of dialogue, rather than randomly tossing
movies and celebrities into a blender and pouring the results onto a reel of film. Sure, there is a
mention of Britney Spears somewhere in the movie, and poor Stephen Hawking takes quite the
beating here (though his scenes are arguably some of the funniest in the film), but most of the
humor makes at least a slight bit of sense in the context of the
narrative. Speaking of, Superhero Movie does indeed feature an actual plot. It's not all
that strong of a plot, ripped directly from Spider-Man, with a
touch of X-Men, Batman, and The Fantastic Four
thrown in for support. Finally, Superhero Movie benefits greatly from the presence of
comedian Leslie Nielsen, himself a longtime veteran of what is widely considered two of
the better parodies around, The Naked Gun and Airplane!
Superhero Movie flexes its muscles on Blu-ray and showcases an impressive, but not at all
memorable, 1080p high definition image, framed in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The film is colorful
and
bright, but the material never really pops off the screen. Detail is fairly high in foreground images,
but the movie never looks all that film-like. Grain is a non-issue, present but barely visible from
normal
viewing distances. Flesh tones often veer towards the red end of the scale, and black levels are fine,
neither truly dark and inky nor overly bright and gray. This is very average high definition material,
looking nice at a glance, but never distinguishing itself at all from most other average discs. This is
one that will be lost in the shuffle of high definition transfers, representing about the midline of
what to expect out of Blu-ray, meaning it looks quite nice, a giant leap ahead of standard definition
DVDs, but never really making any kind of visual impact to the beholder who has seen a fair share
of Blu-ray transfers.
Much like the video transfer described above, Superhero Movie's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless
soundtrack is fine, but definitely not memorable. The track is at times robust and room-filling,
certainly exciting and satisfying from the very beginning as listeners hear the film's rather cheesy
but passable superhero theme that spills out of every corner of the listening area. The score, and
the mix in general, are emphasized up front, but features a fair share of support from the back.
Bass
booms in several instances (perhaps most disturbingly during an extended flatulence sequence),
rattling the chest cavity and adding a bit of flair to the experience. There are also a few decent
directional effects to be found scattered about the entire soundstage. Dialogue reproduction is clean
and precise, never muffled, and delivered crisply through the center channel. While the overall
track rates as "good," nothing about it really delivers a memorable experience.
Superhero Movie comes to Blu-ray with a few bonus materials. First up is a commentary
track with writer/director Craig Mazin and producers David Zucker and Robert K. Weiss. The track is
far superior to the film, fun and breezy, offering plenty of background information on the film but in
a friendly, easy-on-the-ears experience. It almost makes the movie worth watching a second time.
Meet the Cast
(480p, 11:14) showcases how the "inter-generational" cast came together, looking closely at the
strengths each of the primaries brought to the film and the characters they portray therein.
The Art of Spoofing (480p, 10:35) begins by looking back at the Spoof genre and moves
into more specifics pertaining to what makes this particular film work. Also included is an alternate
ending (480p, 5:15), 21 deleted scenes (480p, 10:42), and the film's theatrical trailer (480p,
2:08). Concluding the special features is BD-Live (Blu-ray profile 2.0) functionality. Currently, the
BD-Live page features cast and crew profiles, a Superhero Movie photo gallery, movie clips,
"The Superhero Movie Blu-ray Community," and trailers for additional Weinstein Blu-ray
discs.
Thankfully, Superhero Movie rises above the dregs of the modern-day Parody genre, but
that doesn't
necessarily make it one of the best Parody films around. The movie exudes sheer brilliance
compared to Meet the
Spartans, but what doesn't? This is still slightly below average entertainment that often relies
on lewd
and crude humor for its laughs, but the smattering of several genuine moments of levity and smart
takes on the Superhero genre do allow it to stand with its head held a bit higher than the
average, well, Disaster Movie. Weinstein unleashes Superhero Movie onto Blu-ray
as a decent technical package. While both the picture and sound qualities are on par with the
average Blu-ray release, never do they distinguish themselves in the least. The studio has also
seen fit to provide several supplements to round out the package. Superhero Movie makes
for a solid one-time rental, particularly for fans of the Superhero genre.
After an exciting CES 2009 - drooling over the latest Blu-ray hardware and software advancements - we are back to reality: Blu-ray releases. The latest sales data indicates that for the week following Christmas, Blu-ray took a record 16% of the home media disc ...
The Weinstein Company has revealed that they will bring the latest in a (seemingly) never-ending stream of spoof movies, 'Superhero Movie', to Blu-ray on January 6th. Technical specs have yet to be announced for this title, and special features are expected to ...
