Toronto Days. Toronto Nights: Super

By now, the dark superhero satire has been done way too much, and I'm really getting sick of it. Kick-Ass already came out this year, and I liked that well enough because it was enjoyable for the larger portion of it. The fact that it wasn't successful, but they're still going through with a sequel, says volumes about how much faith people have in the film. However, James Gunn's Super just seems like a half-assed attempt to capture that fire, and I don't think it will succeed. It really hurts to say it, because Ellen Page is in the film, and I absolutely love her. She's phenomenal in most everything, and according to the reviews, that hasn't changed.

Peter Sciretta (/Film): "There are moments of brilliance, surrounds by moments of bad sketch comedy. The highlight of the film for me is Ellen Page, who is just hilarious as the psychotic sidekick who is just looking to fight crime (even where/when it might not exist). Super also has some good character-based emotional moments which I’d better expect in a Jason Reitman film, but feel a bit out of place and unearned in this movie. I wish I liked this movie more than I did (that’s not to say I didn’t like it…). Comic Book and Rainn Wilson fans will definitely want to check out this movie, although I feel it ranks closer to Defendor than Kick-Ass on the spectrum of cinematic costumed vigilantes."

Alex Billington (First Showing): "Wilson stars as Frank D'Arbo, a simple religious man whose wife, played by Liv Tyler, leaves him for a drug dealing kingpin, played effortlessly by Kevin Bacon. He has a vision one night and is "touched by the finger of God" (literally) and decide to become The Crimson Bolt, a masked crime fighter beating up drug dealers and line-butters with a pipe wrench. Along the way he meets comic book fanatic Libby, played amazingly by Ellen Page, who becomes his sidekick Boltie. It's a fun story, it's a great cast, it's a bit better than Defendor, it's crazy violent and overly realistic (so that's what happens when you beat someone with a pipe wrench!), but it didn't really take the comedic vigilante concept to the next level like I was really hoping this would."