ANALYSIS:  Short order cook Frank (Rainn Wilson) is unable to cope after his ex-addict wife, Sarah (Liv Tyler), is stolen by a seductive drug dealer named Jacques (Kevin Bacon).   Franks starts to see his deluded Christian visions as a call to action to become a superhero named the Crimson Bolt who beats the bad guys with a pipe wrench.  He is joined by his beautiful sociopathic sidekick Boltie (Ellen Page).

SUPER is a slow starter.  It starts to pick up after Frank become the Crimson Bolt.   Ellen Page does upstage Rain Wilson and steals the film.   Too bad we don't see more scenes with them together whether it is in private (like the seduction scene by Boltie) or more in action as they fight crime.  They would have made a great couple if Frank wasn't so hanged up on winning his wife back instead of just trying to save her.    SUPER does have good moments including the small part by Nathan Fillion as the Holy Avenger.   Still I think other movies that writer/director James Gunn has been involved in are better like SLITHER or the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake (which James wrote the script for).

SUPER is about morality.   It shows how far the characters will push themselves and where their values lie.   Frank has some limits on how far he will go to stop the bad guys while he must reign in Boltie when she tries to kill a guy who may or may not have keyed her friend's car.   Jacques is willing to compromise his morality even to turning out Frank's wife as a trick to complete a drug deal.   Puny Entertainment's animated title sequence is fun and I wish some of that fun translated to more fun scenes in the film.

If I chose which film I liked better about superheros in the real world, I still say KICK-ASS was better than SUPER.   KICK-ASS is more fun and yet Ellen Page's Boltie does give Hit Girl a run for her money when it comes to performance.  Too bad SUPER couldn't have shown more of a Boltie and Crimson Bolt team-up (I blame the small budget and 24 day shooting schedule).

SPECIAL FEATURES:

BEHIND THE SCENES- 18 minutes long bts featurette

MAKING OF THE MAIN TITLES-  interviews (with Shad Petosky, Julia Vickerman and other animators) and behind-the-scenes on making the titles with Puny Entertainment as they show how they created it in addition to the Batman style animated sound effects they created for the climatic battle.

HOW TO FIGHT CRIME- a short featurette made and shot in Austin, Texas with Rain Wilson, Ellen Page, and

Audio commentary with Writer/ Director James Gunn and Actor Rainn Wilson discuss the difficulties getting the film made despite known actors getting added and the movie's production.

Also on the first disc is the theatrical disc, TV Spot, and a deleted scene

Best Buy bonus disc-

EMERALD CITY COMICON PANEL DISCUSSSION- an hour long panel with James Gunn and Rainn Wilson

THE MAKING OF "HOW TO FIGHT CRIME"- a short behind-the-scenes featurette on the making of the HOW TO FIGHT CRIME featurette on the first disc

INSIDE THE WORLD OF SUPER- a Best Buy exclusive featurette

SXSW PREMIERE- interviews with James Gunn and Rain Wilson from SXSW South By Southwest

Two extended scenes that can be skipped and an extensive poster gallery.

FINAL ANALYSIS:  SUPER drags in the beginning to be redeemed when the film does pick up with the story.   It's not the best film from James Gunn and yet it is better than some of the other independent stuff out there.   Plenty of extras.   Track down the Best Buy version for the extra disc of extras.

this DVD review is (c)8-13-2011 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com