Super

You know the realization during a movie you get when you know exactly why it came out, with no fanfare, and have difficulty finding it in theatres, only to see it pop up randomly on home video or PPV randomly? That feeling where there's plenty of star power, but the studio - for one reason or another - just doesn't back the movie up? That moment came fairly early on in Super, where Rainn Wilson's character Frank, dressed up in a cheap super-hero outfit begins his first night out as a crime fighter. The brutal way in which he dispatches his foes makes everyone in the room lean forward, opening their hands and mouths in disbelief and shock. It is brutal, and it takes you by surprise.

When first approaching the movie, you get the impression it's going to be quirky and independent, in that special way that Ellen Page and Rainn Wilson bring themselves to these little projects. But then the hardcore violence starts, and it doesn't really let up. I'm perfectly fine with this - taken aback with a bit of shock at first, sure, but I understand. It has to be this way.

Frank loses his wife to the drug war, and falls into a deep depression. He tries to get her back but she seems brainwashed, and after a fairly weird vision, Frank decides to fight back. It's good for him, to stand up for himself but as the plot summary points out, his fight deals real damage: he becomes a real vigilante inflicting grievous harm upon people who yes, are criminals, but no, probably don't deserve everything that comes to them. We're quickly reminded of the movie Kick-Ass, where regular people take up the hood and do real violence to protect themselves and innocents. While Kick-Ass features "real" people, it certainly takes place in a fictional, cartoony world, whereas you never get that indication in Super: this is a real town, real people and terrible repercussions. There is no stretch of truths here. Frank is presented as depressed, then motivated and quite frankly, seems mentall unstable.

Frank becomes a hero of sorts in the news and whatnot - of course, and gains the attention of Libby (Ellen Page). She desperately wants to join Frank, and become his side-kick: she is lost in the comic book store she works at, not really realizing the seriousness at hand here. To her, the Crimson Bolt is an invincible comic book hero (as all comic book heros are), come to life in her home town. What better chance for adventure, fame and excitement to become a comic book side-kick? Perhaps she hasn't read enough comics: side-kicks don't always get the best treatment, and are not impervious. Her ignorance of Frank's mental condition and the reality she lives in results in one of the most brutal, surprising moments I've seen in cinema for a while now. Brutal, because you get caught up in the reality too: Frank's pipe wrench is no match for a squad of goons armed with guns: the suddenness and finality of what we see on screen is unsettling and rips you off your seat. But then the movie keeps going.

Super is one of those films I barely heard about: perhaps I downloaded a trailer a long time ago, mentally stored it and forgot it. Of all the places to be reminded of it, it was in Hawaii last May that my friends and I saw it listed in the pay-per-view hotel lineup. It would be a night of shocks, the first one being that it was here to begin with. A few dollars later and we would be watching it, shocked at each moment as it went by.

Super is a good movie; it's dark, and if you can get past that, I think you'll appreciate it. Plus: Ellen Page.