Duper

Before any Guardians or Squad, there was the Crimson Bolt (Unmarked Spoilers)

Frank Darbo (Rainn Wilson) is a troubled man whose wife, Sarah (Liv Tyler), is “stolen” by a drug lord named Jacques (Kevin Bacon). Subsequently believing himself to have been given a mission from god, Frank becomes a superhero, the Crimson Bolt, to rescue his wife and fight evil. His weapon of choice ends up being a wrench, perfect for splitting heads open.

Super is one of several films that asks what superheroes would be like in the real world. The answer it comes up with is basically Travis Bickle by way of Dwight Schrute. He also has to deal with several things usually not plaguing superheroes. After he gets shot, even with a bulletproof vest, he’s visually winded and needs time to recover. Or how Frank’s super suit isn’t that good a disguise.

Det. John Felkner (Gregg Henry) ends up recognizing Frank as the Crimson Bolt from a police sketch. Except he rushes over to Frank’s house alone, presumably without telling anyone. So when Felkner gets killed by Abe (Michael Rooker) and Jacques’ other henchman, Frank ends up off the hook. The biggest sign that this is, in fact, a movie is how Frank never gets caught, despite the ample evidence pointing in his direction.

Along the way, Frank meets Libby (Elliot Page), the funniest character in the movie. She eventually becomes his sidekick, Boltie. Libby also ends up developing an attraction to Frank. She tries to seduce him, which culminates in something so unambiguously rape, Frank repeatedly tells her ‘no,’ and so not funny.

Despite briefly acknowledging its wrongness, the film proceeds to gloss over said sexual assault. Compare that to Jacques passing Sarah out like a party favor to a drug lord he’s trying to impress, with the film driving home that both these guys are scumbags. Then, when Libby dies, the film treats it like something tragic. I suppose it is, insofar as Frank is clearly heartbroken by her death when he probably shouldn’t be.

Jacques makes a point of telling Frank he’s no better than him. Frank’s voiceover says the audience is probably expecting him to realize the same thing. I concede that Frank’s not a good guy per se, given his brutal crime-fighting methods and partly selfish motives, but compared to the people around him, Frank can still claim the moral high ground.

Whatever his intentions are, they’re still way nobler than Jacques. While fighting evil is a secondary concern for him, that doesn’t mean it’s ingenuine. And while Frank put two people in the ICU for the “crime” of butting in line, he was against Libby killing a guy for keying her friend’s car. And that’s even before she says that she’s “pretty sure” she got the right guy.

If there’s a big problem with Super, besides the rape scene, it’s that tonally, it’s all over the place. The movie starts depressing. A lengthy but amusing opening credits sequence aside. Then it gradually gets more and more hilarious. Then at the very end, it goes back to being depressing, though in a more bittersweet manner. And even when it’s funny, the violence in this film is disturbingly realistic. 

Super is similar to Ready Player One in that I liked it, even if my review doesn’t give that impression. Wilson turns in a great performance as Frank, and I think this might be my favorite Elliot Page movie. It’s the only thing I’ve seen him in where he’s not just a complete mope (NSFW). It’s not as good as director James Gunn’s later superhero movies, but it was still worth my time.