The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

8 -A really clever and exquisitely grotesque attempt from James Gunn, that gives us his vision of the everyday hero, not sparing any gore or violence and leaving us in the end completely unarmed with an heartbreaking conclusion.

I watched this film the second time the day after the killing of 17 high school students in Florida by a kid who had lived a troubled life, known to be dangerous, but with no resources to help him. What I realized is to a mass murderer, those whom he kills have offended against whatever values he holds sacred. In this film, once we ignore the comic book trope, we get to know the inner suffering of the person who describes the happy days of his life, both of them -- one being marrying another troubled soul, whom he loved dearly.Sure, Rainn Wilsons', Frank Darbo vacillated between the earnest Frank Darbo and the super hero "The Crimson Bolt" was classic paranoid schizophrenia --- or elements of it. But, that's not the wavelength of this film, rather by creating empathy with his insanity, we can actually root for his smashing the head of a man whose crime was cutting in line for movie. Evil is evil, and once in character there is no quarter, no mercy for those who would break the law, do wrong. He is no longer the nondescript short order cook, who has no resources to prevent a drug pusher from "stealing away" his wife. The process of his connecting with his sidekick, Ellen Page's Libby / Boltie allow unbridled lust, she for him, to spark the raw emotion that demolish all restraint, or even reason.This viewing was an epiphany for me. The murder of 51 people at a rock concert in Las Vegas was by a man who was financially successful, no brain disease or any other explanation by those who knew him of his motivation. This film certainly doesn't answer this question, but it graphically illustrates how homicidal hatred can be unleashed within an individual who had never even been in a fight before. Under the guise of entertainment we were seduced to identify with what we call a "monster" who wantonly kills without compunction. We share the excitement, the sense of merging with God himself in punishing evildoers. The more gory, the more shocked the person upon realizing his life is over, the more exaltation our very human super hero felt. My first viewing of this film, was too stunning to let myself feel empathy for the suffering of the human character whose only release was in this joyous expression of violence. This time I got it, I had tears in my eyes over the life of suffering that Frank had lived, and could enjoy the pretend release of his vindictive carnage.And then there's the last five minutes, the postscript, where the violence of what had come before could have all been a dream, a fantasy that happens in real life all too frequently.

I've been a fan of James Gunn since 2006 when I first saw Slither and when I saw how complete it felt, I thought right then that the director had great things ahead of him. Unfortunately for me that promise didn't come to fruition until 2014 when he made Guardians of the Galaxy. Both movies sent me on a mission to spread good word of mouth to everyone I knew. Both just have the same kind of feeling of perfection. They blend romance, action, comedy, suspense, everything you could want in a movie and not one of those elements misses the mark. They just seem to offer so much that I walked away from both thinking, how can anyone not like this movie?I did not feel that way about Super. Not at all. I didn't tell anyone about it, mainly to remind myself of its existence as little as possible. I'm pretty dark as a person, my sense of humor is a bit twisted, I don't scare easily... dark themes are usually more of a draw than a deterrent. Super isn't just dark... it is depressing. It focuses on one character and ends with an immensely unfulfilling ending for that character. It puts a mentally ill person on an adventure where delusions are amped up and obstacles are removed sometimes by little more than luck and randomness. Sickness thrives and becomes all encompassing... and then just for a brief moment the audience sees the potential for the character being happy, being loved by someone for who he is instead of obsessing about someone who doesn't love him back. Someone loves him despite knowing all about his illness, he doesn't have to hide it she embraces it. If he can just stop thinking about something he'll never have and just focus on what he does have, maybe there's hope for clarity and an end to the insanity that at this point is spiraling out of control. And then Super takes that hope that it just gave you and completely smashes it in the most irrevocable and horrific way possible. And in the end our "hero" ends up right back to where he was, completely cut off and alone and empty and not even his fantasies to comfort him. He still loves someone who left him and never loved him back and she still dominates his thoughts. He stares off at pictures on a wall that tell a story of the great life she is having without him while the rest of his apartment is completely empty. He has nothing. It comes across as though we are supposed to feel good about this, about his acceptance and how he must truly love her if he wants her to be happy even if it's not with him and oh my isn't that wonderful. It isn't happiness. It's loneliness. She is still obviously all he thinks about except now he doesn't even have his fantasies to comfort him. The girl that did love him, she's gone now, because of his mission to save someone who very clearly does not deserve it. She's happy, gets to have a family, and he has nothing now having given everything for her to have that. I know there are some religious overtones here, and that he has faith and all, but I must have missed the part where he decides to embody Christ himself. A horrible person gets everything they want, the hero ends up with nothing... It completely destroys the film. It felt like a gut punch. It still stands out to me today because of how depressed I was when it was over, that's what I took away from it. The Aviator and Donnie Darko are the only two films that come to mind when I think of movies that hurt me like that. Lingering pain that you take with you for awhile, that's what Super has to offer people. James Gunn is a great storyteller and I'm happy he turned out to be such a huge success. In my opinion he's given us maybe the only legitimately good film out of the entire barrage of Marvel Studios movies that have come out so far. Guardians of the Galaxy couldn't afford to be mediocre. Absolutely no one knew who those characters were. The movie had to earn the audiences respect and keep them entertained and there isn't a single scene that is wasted. It never drags on because it couldn't afford to. For a director that doesn't waste screen time when he's on his game, I'm wondering if Super was a waste of his time. If there's a message to get here, if that was the point, I either missed it, or if I am right and this selflessness IS the message... I don't know, maybe I'm weak or I'm a bad person, but that's not a message I would ever care to learn.

James Gunn's Super has been eclipsed by the success of the similarly themed and very enjoyable Kick-Ass, but his film is also well worth a watch, taking a slightly different and possibly more daring approach to Kick Ass's underdog superhero schtick. In Gunn's film, the average Joe who dons a costume to fight crime isn't an affable misguided teen, but rather a depressed short-order cook, Frank (Rainn Wilson), who can only recall two perfect moments in his whole life, one of which is his marriage to Sarah (Liv Tyler), who has recently left him in favour of heroin dealer Jacques (Kevin Bacon). Clearly suffering from mental health issues as a result, Frank comes to believe that he has been chosen by God to fight injustice, and becomes masked avenger The Crimson Bolt, but finds that being a hero isn't like in the comic books.As with Kick Ass, Super is a blend of action, comedy and graphic violence, but the effect is more unsettling than its better known counterpart, Gunn's morally ambiguous character casually dishing out extreme violence for minor infractions at the drop of a hat (even whacking a guy on the head with a wrench for cutting in line at the movies!). And when Ellen Page joins in on the fun as his completely psychotic sidekick Boltie, things get even darker, the pair almost killing a young man for allegedly keying a car. Eventually, The Crimson Bolt and Boltie lead an assault on Jacques stronghold, Frank rescuing Sarah from her drugs hell, but at a heavy cost. The film ends on a bitter-sweet note, Frank alone once more, Boltie dead and Sarah having left him again, but with our hero now blessed with a whole room full of 'perfect moments'.