James Gunn's Super - Page 3

Originally Posted by gwsat 

Super is only showing on one of Showtime's SD channels now. It's not available on either of the Showtime HD channels Cox OKC carries. I have setup a wishlist entry for it on my TiVo, which should record it if and when it ever gets shown in HD again. I don't know why so few Showtime channels are available here. Cox OKC provides 4 Cinemax HD feeds and 6 more for HBO.

Originally Posted by ratpacker 

I don't really think of Super as a superhero movie. It's more of a character study. A darkly comic character study, but a character study just the same. Like Taxi Driver in a cape. As for Kick-Ass, it's the kind of balls out superhero movie.

Originally Posted by gwsat 

Last fall, when this thread was active, I said I would watch Super again and report as soon as it showed up on an HD channel carried by Cox OKC. It finally did show up but not until yesterday. I have now watched again and this is my report.

I can't say that I liked Super any better this time than the first because I hated every aspect of the film the first time for all the reasons I reported in many posts here. I didn't hate it as much this time, though, because I knew going in that it wasn't funny very often and that its attempts at drama were mostly creepy nihilism. The high point of the film, faint praise but there it is, was the Crimson Bolt and Boltie's sex scene. I thought it was weirdly erotic and kind of sweet but then Frank came back to himself and it was downhill from there. After my first viewing of Super I gave it an IMDb vote of 5 Stars out of 10 and still think that's about right.

Originally Posted by oink 

Sorry it didn't work for you....again.
Oh well, we can't win 'em all.

Originally Posted by gwsat 

it reminded me of how adorable Ellen Page is.

Originally Posted by ratpacker 

I just watched this on BR tonite, and it's just as dark, over the top and hysterical as the first time. BTW, everyone I've tuned on to this movie loves it.

Originally Posted by gwsat 

I recognize that most viewers didn't hate Super as much as I did. For example, IMIDb voters gave it an average vote of 6.8 Stars out of 10 and according to Rotten Tomatoes 48 percent of critics recommended it. Still,according to IMDb the film didn't make any money and the consensus about it seems to be that it was mediocre at best.

Originally Posted by ratpacker 

As the Crimson Bolt would say- "you don't butt in line, you don't molest little children, you don't sell drugs and you don't use online movie websites to determine what makes a good movie!"

Originally Posted by ratpacker 

Mediocre is in the eye of the beholder, and the fact that it didn't make any money doesn't detract me from enjoying it. And who cares if the RT and imdb scores are low? I don't let them dictate what I like. I know this movie has a lot of things that make some people uncomfortable, and that's part of the appeal to me. As the Crimson Bolt would say- "you don't butt in line, you don't molest little children, you don't sell drugs and you don't use online movie websites to determine what makes a good movie!"

Originally Posted by gwsat 

I fear I may have offended you but that was not my intention. If I did so, I apologize. It was obvious to me that you thought Super was better than mediocre. I understood that and should have said so. Obviously, some viewers, like you, loved it. Nevertheless, as I said in my last post, the consensus is that Super was a mediocre film, it's a fact that it didn't make back the money its investors' spent, and most critics didn't like it much. I guess our difference of opinion, plus the facts, prove the truth of the adage that if you stick one hand in a pot of boiling water and the other in a bucket of ice, you should be comfortable.

Originally Posted by gwsat 

I fear I may have offended you but that was not my intention. If I did so, I apologize. It was obvious to me that you thought Super was better than mediocre. I understood that and should have said so. Obviously, some viewers, like you, loved it. Nevertheless, as I said in my last post, the consensus is that Super was a mediocre film, it's a fact that it didn't make back the money its investors' spent, and most critics didn't like it much. I guess our difference of opinion, plus the facts, prove the truth of the adage that if you stick one hand in a pot of boiling water and the other in a bucket of ice, you should be comfortable.

Originally Posted by ratpacker 

But I think that in it's own twisted way, it's a "feel good movie".

A subversive film to be sure.

Originally Posted by ratpacker 

Nah, it takes a whole lot more than that to offend me. What I think though is that Super offended you, and a whole lot of others. But I think that in it's own twisted way, it's a "feel good movie". I'm not the most religious person you're ever going to meet, but the moral I came away with is "the Lord works in mysterious ways". And that he has a funny way of meeting out "justice". A subversive film to be sure.

Originally Posted by gwsat 

In sum, the film never made me laugh, often made me cringe, and left me wondering why anybody had bothered to make it.

Originally Posted by ratpacker 

They bothered to make it 'cause people like me need some entertainment too.

Originally Posted by gwsat 

Nevertheless, as I said in my last post, the consensus is that Super was a mediocre film, it's a fact that it didn't make back the money its investors' spent, and most critics didn't like it much.

Originally Posted by gwsat 

Super didn't offend me at all, although I was appalled by its mindless violence, which I found entirely unfunny. When I watched it again recently, I moderated my views somewhat because I knew what was coming. Even so, the sight of a rude cutter in line being viciously assaulted with a pipe wrench seemed more than a bit excessive and entirely unfunny. I confess, though, I did enjoy it when the sleazy dope dealer shot the arrogant black gangster between the eyes and also laughed when Crimson Bolt shot his projectile knife into the dope dealer's crotch. Just deserts and all that. In sum, the film never made me laugh, often made me cringe, and left me wondering why anybody had bothered to make it. That said, I loved Kick-Ass so much I bought the BD, although my daughter disliked it as cordially as I disliked Super. There is no accounting for taste, so it's never a good idea to get too stirred up over a dissenting opinion.

Originally Posted by gwsat 

I understand entirely. It appears that I am the one who is out of step with the consensus of the posters here, regardless of what the critics and broader viewing public may have thought. I understand that a lot of viewers really liked Super, I just wasn't one of them. This reminds me that an Oklahoman movie critic wrote a tribute to Roger Ebert this morning. In it, he pointed out that even the Pulitzer Prize winning Ebert didn't get it right all the time. Ebert panned both Raising Arizona and Reservoir Dogs but loved the execrable Cop and 1/2. This just goes to show that film criticism is far from an exact science. So if I was as wrong about Super as Ebert was about Reservoir Dogs I will be in good company.

Originally Posted by Josh Z 

As for the consensus that it's a mediocre film, Marvel has hired James Gunn to direct its Guardians of the Galaxy movie, which is expected to have a budget north of $200 million. Obviously, they saw something they liked in his work.

Originally Posted by oink 

I consider films like Kick Ass and Super to be strongly focused on the satirical and should be taken as such.

Can anyone truly disagree modern America is awash in violence and silly Super Hero fantasies?

Everything has a right to an opinion....but it doesn't mean everyone is right.

Originally Posted by gwsat 

In fact, in movie criticism there is no right but there is no wrong either. .

Originally Posted by Aliens 

I like the trailer, but it looks to be too violent for my wife. I may have to wait until she goes out of town next month to rent this, just like I did last year around this time when HDNet Movies aired God Bless America. Which I need to see again.

Originally Posted by Shaded Dogfood 

I sort of liked Kick-Ass, but when all is said and done it celebrated violence and threw a child into the midst of it. It was sort of sick. Super is more than sort of sick, but it seemed to me a more honest film in that it put the audience face to face with the consequences of the superhero violence that Kick-Ass celebrated.

[/B].