Superhero Movie Review

Parodies should be funny. A bad parody is an even worse type of bad comedy. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth and not to mention, a really big hole in the wallet. Superhero MOvie treads that line between some funny laughs, but with many headfirst diving into a concrete pool not so funny laughs.

Credit must be given when it's due. The film has a plot! It's thinner than an anorexic person, but still holds together. Teenager Rick Riker (Drake Bell) is the quintestianl loser. That all changes when he is bitten by a radioactive dragonfly that gives super dragonfly abilities. Ironically, he doesn't have the power to fly. Evil scientist Lou Landers (Christopher McDonald) has created a machine that will cure him of his illness. One catch: it backfires and now whenever he touches someone, he takes their life energy, which he now must survive on. Pretty creative.

I have to admit some parts made me laugh out loud. However, most of that came from comedian extradonaire Leslie Nielsen. He brings that trademark look of not being in on the joke, which gives off some hilarious results including a very funny scene when he explains the facts of life to his newphew Rick.

Drake Bell, most famous as the dimwitted brother in Nickelodeon's Drake & Josh seems to think that comedic timing is about making reaction faces to absurd situations or events. That is why many of these parodies fail. The absurdity of the situation should speak for itself. We don't need the charcter to tell us that. It distracts from the comedy. While I blame Bell for that, the fault must also lie with the writers and directors. It simply is not funny.

Most of the jokes consist of making fun of the obvious pop culture sensations including Youtube, Tom Cruise, and 2girls1cup. While I did get the jokes, this is where the film fails. The humor is already dated. The great classic parodies like Airplane and Naked Gun did not have constant barrages of reference to the contemporary culture of the time. They aren't dated. Superhero Movie is already dated. Not to mention, unless you know the references, you won't get the jokes. Comedies, good comedies, shouldn't do that. Would Shakespeare's comedies be remembered if his comedies made only references to his period? No. They have a feeling of timelessness.

The film does succeed in noting the absurdities of the Superhero genre itself, like the cliched characters and archtypes that are so prevelanet in the genre. However, most of that humor falls into the category of making fun of the obvious that it's not funny. When the humor is obvious it fails for exactly that reason; there is no surprise.

Superhero Movie is an okay movie. Like all parodies, it had the possibility to be great. It certainly doesn't reach the status of Naked Gun, but it certainly doesn't reach the lowly status of the Epic Movie line.

Rating: 6/10