The commercials for this movie sure were funny. Unfortunately the commercials showed largely the funniest bits that this flick had in its arsenal, but still those bits were very funny. The good thing about ‘Superhero Movie’ is that Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg has absolutely nothing to do with it. Those two gentlemen are responsible for probably the three worst big studio films of my generation with ‘Date Movie’, ‘Epic Movie’ and ‘Meet the Spartans’, films that have set the whole ‘spoof’ market back to the days before ‘Reefer Madness’. Awful. But this article is about ‘Superhero Movie’ which while plenty crappy is at least better than those three movies. Way better.

Our narrative pretty much hugs the first ‘Spiderman’ movie as we meet Rich Riker (Drake Bell) a put upon high school geek, although he lacks the brains that we like to think most geeks have. Now as a former comic book geek myself (when suddenly I turned twelve) I could tell you that Rich Riker is eerily similar to Rich Rider, or A Man called Nova, but you probably aren’t ready for the heavy stuff so we’ll move along. While at a high school field trip with his best friend Trey (Kevin Hart) Rich gets bit by a genetically enhanced dragonfly which gives him all kinds of freaky powers, with the exception of flight which kinds of makes getting bit by a genetically enhanced dragonfly pointless. Anyway, after his Uncle Albert (Leslie Neilson – still pulling down fat checks at 82) suffers a tragic accident due to Rich’s inability to help stop a criminal, his uncles last words will haunt Rich, ‘With Great Power come the bitches’. He doesn’t die either so I guess those weren’t really his last words.

Now swearing to fight crime Rich becomes Dragonfly, a secret known only by his buddy Trey, his dying uncle and his flatulent aunt who is also Richie Cunningham’s mom, Lucille (Marion Ross- still pulling down fat checks at 80). But what is a Superhero without a girl? Rich’s object of desire is his pretty next-door neighbor Jill

(Sara Paxton) who barely knows he exists. But what is a Superhero without a Super Villain? For this Dragonfly will have to do battle with evil industrialist Lou Landers (Christopher McDonald) who in a freak accident to stave off his terminal illness has become the murderous life sucking villain known as Hourglass. In order to extend his life, Hourglass must suck the life from others and he has hatched a diabolical plan to suck the life out of over 47,000 people at the same time which will make him immortal. That is if Dragonfly can’t stop him!

There’s really not a hell of a lot to say about ‘Superhero Movie’ to be quite honest as it pretty much is what it is. It seems that director Craig Mazin, who was a screenwriter for a boatload of those ‘Scary Movie’ spoofs has parlayed his success with those flicks into a plum directing gig, which totally rocks for him but necessarily for us. The material for mad karazy spoofiness is certainly there since there are a zillion comic book movies to poke fun at, and there were occasions that the comedy hit its mark, but it felt like instead of just going for just pure humor, Mazin apparently got confused and thought he was making a real superhero movie, and as such, not a very good one. The flick certainly had its funny moments, like the Tom Cruise gag for instance or almost any scene with Leslie Nielson in it but the movie falters badly when it descends into sophomoric bodily function jokes. Sorry, but ‘Blazing Saddles’ pretty much closed the door on fart jokes some thirty years ago. I don’t care if it is Richie Cunningham’s mom doing the farting, it just ain’t funny no more.

Now when this movie comes out on DVD we could always use it as a party drinking game and play ‘name that superhero movie’ which I can almost guarantee you will make this flick funnier and funnier the longer that game goes on.  Since the overwhelming majority of movie theaters don’t serve alcohol, and those few that do the drinks are quite cost prohibitive, so we have to watch this movie stone cold sober, which sadly lodges this flick somewhat below the mediocre line, but perhaps a notch above the total garbage meter. ‘Superhero Movie’ is not quite as funny as the sports spoof ‘The Combebacks’ in my opinion, a movie that had the wisdom NOT to attempt to be a real sports movie, but it is still miles above those Friedberg / Seltzer disasters. Watch the commercial over and over again if you want my advice because damn, that was one funny ass commercial.