Super (2010)

IMDb plot summary: After his wife falls under the influence of a drug dealer, an everyday guy transforms himself into Crimson Bolt, a superhero with the best intentions, but lacking in heroic skills.
Directed by James Gunn. Starring Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, and Kevin Bacon.

(Spoilers ahead.)

I absolutely get the strong ambivalent response to this movie. It walks the finest of lines between lambasting the violent, irresponsible actions of our heroes and celebrating them, and I'm not sure it ever truly reaches either goal. This makes it easy for each side to see either what they want to see or what they *don't* want to see, but I think it's clear that all these contrasting elements are here. Frank is seen as the more moderate hero in response to Libby's more sadistic urges, but over and over again the movie hints that he's not really the good guy either. We just want him to be because he embodies our rage at the unfairness of life and the desperate hope that we have some sort of special destiny to carry out.

I really don't think this is the kind of movie for which I can just dash off a review and go about my business. I have a feeling I'm going to be mulling it over in the following days and weeks. I think it's *worth* mulling over -- I think there's enough substance in this movie to provide food for thought for awhile.

Let me just add that in addition to all the deep questions this movie has drudged up for me, it's also tremendously funny in places. Frank is such an inept superhero and Libby such an obviously *wrong* one that as they fumble their way through, we laugh, sometimes comfortably, sometimes uncomfortably.

I'm not really even sure how to rate this, as I feel like I'm nowhere near done thinking about it yet. So I'll be basing my rating *entirely* on what Flickchart says my chart ranking is equivalent to in stars, which turns out to be...

4 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Super > Bunraku
Super > Argo
Super < Breaking the Waves
Super > Kiss Me, Stupid!
Super < Glengarry Glen Ross
Super < Easy A
Super > Regarding Henry
Super < Bruce Almighty
Super < Edge of Tomorrow
Super > The Fault in Our Stars
Super < The Muppet Movie

Final spot: #419 out of 2354.