Super: Difference between revisions

 

It originally screened at the 2010 Toronto Film Festival and was released on 1 April 2011.

* [[Action Girl]]: Boltie

* Advertised Extra: Linda Cardinelli gets top billing despite only being in one scene

* [[Affably Evil]] - Libby. She'll help you pick out comics, invite you over to a cozy housewarming party, bandage you up when you've been shot in the leg, kill someone for (probably) keying a friend's car, save your life, go out shopping with you, {{spoiler|and rape you}}. Really, she's less "affably evil," more "affably sociopathic".

* [[All Crimes Are Equal]]: Molesting children? Savage beating. Stealing purses and attempting rape? ER for you, my friend. Cutting in line? Dude, you're going down.

* [[Animated Credits Opening]]

* [[Armor Is Useless]]: Averted for Crimson Bolt. {{spoiler|but not for Boltie}}

* [[Ascended Fanboy]] - Libby. Subverted with Frank who, despite becoming a superhero, doesn't have much of an interest in comics and knows little about them.

* [[Asshole Victim]] - Deconstructed with the couple who cut in line. They're obvious assholes with no likeable qualities introduced in their time onscreen, but that didn't even ''remotely'' justify [[Disproportionate Retribution|what they got.]]

* [[Celibate Hero]] - Frank turns down Libby's advances because he still considers himself to be a married man. {{spoiler|She doesn't take 'no' for an answer.}}

* [[Cheap Costume]] - they really do look like shit. Frank's is a patchwork mess, and Libby's is just cheap-looking spandex.

*** Subverted It's clearly a weapon and it's not really surprising that he uses it but still fits that it's used to dispatch the [[Big Bad]].

** Subverted with {{spoiler|Libby's bulletproof vest.}}

** Played straight insofar as, with the genders reversed, {{spoiler|it would certainly have destroyed any trace of sympathy anyone had for the rapist and raised a lot of eyebrows when the one who was just raped gets over it almost immediately and heads off to the final showdown with rapist in tow. It is at the very least [[Played for Laughs]] a whole lot more than Sarah's rape at the hands of a male client of Jacque's.}}

* [[The Dragon]] - Abe, Jacques' lead henchman.

* [[Dueling Movies]] - With 2010's ''[[Kick Ass]]'', which had a similar premise of dark, realistic superheroics. ''Super'' is even darker and more grounded in reality. Both [[Mark Millar]] and Gunn are friends in real life, with the former defending the latter's work when accusations of copying came up (both films were developed around the same time independently of one another). Millar even screened ''Super'' at his own Kapow! comic convention in London.

** There's a third movie to factor into this with ''[[Defendor]]'', which played at festivals before either film came out. ''[[Super (Film)|Super]]'' could be considered half-way between ''[[Kick Ass]]'' and ''[[Defendor]]'', or maybe even more similar to the latter in many aspects.

* [[Enemy Rising Behind]]: ''[[Oh Crap|Behind You...]]''

* [[Epic Fail]] - Frank's first outing as a superhero ends with him getting his ass kicked, falling into trash and fleeing with a clearly used diaper stuck to his ass.

* [[Evilly Affable]] - Jock compliments Frank on his eggs shortly before stealing his wife.

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]] - Jock's lead henchman Abe is visibly upset {{spoiler|after Jock sends Sarah up to be raped by his client.}}

* [[God]] - Voiced by [[Rob Zombie]], of all people.

* [[Gorn]]: {{spoiler|Boltie ends up with a wound not unlike the T-1000, unlike him, she's human.}}

* [[Heroic Comedic Sociopath]] - The Crimson Bolt and (even more so, due to a complete lack of remorse) Boltie.

* [[Honorary Uncle]]: {{spoiler|Frank ends up as this to Sarah's kids.}}

* [[Hypocritical Humor]]- After telling Frank not to make a joke about her name ("Libby's on your label") after she introduces herself, Libby makes fun of him when he tells her his name.

* {{spoiler|[[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy]]}} - {{spoiler|At least arguably so. A couple of months after the gunfight at Jock's ranch, Sarah leaves Frank, but this time he doesn't mind because she's happy (unlike when she's drawn into Jock's drug ring).}}

* [[Jumped At the Call]] - A call straight from God, no less.

* [[Little Miss Badass]]: Boltie

* [[Looks Like Jesus]] - Nathan Fillion requested that the Holy Avenger have long hair because of this.

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: The whole movie.

* [[More Dakka]]: While gun shopping, Libby tries out a pink shotgun, Frank takes it away and hands her a Bazooka.

** ''Behind You''

** The drug dealer that was Frank's [[Epic Fail|first target]] get one of these when Frank comes back for him... this time [[Wrench Whack|with a wrench]].

** Frank's beard when posing as a college student merely confuses the librarian.

* [[Parody]] - The Holy Avenger is a parody of [[Bibleman]] and other [[Religious Edutainment]].

* [[Playing Against Type]] - One of the reasons why Ellen Page took on the film was because she was tired of getting typecast in ''Juno''-type roles.

* [[Police Are Useless]]- Played with. The police don't listen to Frank at the beginning of the movie, but only because he has no evidence that anything criminal is going on, and Frank never tries going to them again afterward. The one detective we're shown gets killed pretty unceremoniously, but mostly due to dumb luck on the part of Jacque's mooks.

* {{spoiler|[[Black Comedy Rape]]}}: Of a very dark sort.

* [[Reality Ensues]] - {{spoiler|It's hard to survive a barrage of gunfire...}}

* [[Took a Level In Badass]]: Frank goes from barely being able to take on one mook, to slaughtering an entire security team.

* [[Tragic Hero]]: Frank

* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: Jacque goes from being self-assured and affable to practically frothing at the mouth when The Crimson Bolt's presence scares off his client.

* [[Wrench Whack]]: Crimson Bolt's [[Weapon of Choice]].