SUPER: A Superhero ExtravaGunnza!

Director: James Gunn
Writer: James Gunn
Cast: Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon, Michael Rooker, Nathan Fillion
Runtime: 96 mins.
2010

Super was dead in the water.

The action-drama-comedy was released concurrently with the Mark Millar adaptation Kick-Ass, a movie with a suspiciously similar premise. Super's critical reception was decidedly mixed, with many critics dismantling its erratic tone, meandering plot, and a whopper of a weird performance by Ellen Page. The film only made a few hundred thousand, trailing in the wake of the $48 million gross of Kick-Ass. Many viewers expressed confusion, discomfort, or dismissal towards the film. Scratch that--only a few viewers expressed those things. This film didn't have many viewers in the first place.

Yet here we are four years later, and director James Gunn is about to release Guardians of the Galaxy, sure to be one of the biggest films of the year. How does a director transition from directing a flop of a superhero film that couldn't crack half a million to directing a Marvel movie that is sure to make hundreds of millions of dollars to widespread critical acclaim?

Maybe the secret is in Super. Let's find it.

SLITHER: A Penetrating Commentary

Director: James Gunn
Writer: James Gunn
Starring: Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Rooker
Runtime: 92 mins.
2006

I've been watching a lot of "bad movies" recently.  These include Troll 2, Mystery Men, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, 500 MPH Storm, and now Slither.  I'm realizing more and more that there are a million different kinds of "bad movies".  Two different "bad movies" can have varying degrees of self-awareness, budget, craftsmanship, homage, scorn for the audience, fun had by all, etc. etc.  So it's damaging to reduce any movie to the distinction of "bad movie" except as some sort of vague genre marker that needs to be elaborated on.

Slither is a bad movie only in that it is a send-up of classic schlocky horror.  Despite the structural similarities and nods to genre tropes and horror standbys, Gunn's film is a hilarious, intelligent commentary on gender roles and the culture of smalltown America, complete with deft acting, pacing, camerawork, and effects.  I like it a lot.