Star Cast: Xolo Maridueña, Bruna Marquezine, Damián Alcázar, Belissa Escobedo, Raoul Max Trujillo, Susan Sarandon, Adriana Barraza, George Lopez, Becky G
What’s Good: A lot! When it doesn’t do the usual superhero picture sh*t, it’s a wonderful film.
What’s Bad: After all, it’s a superhero movie, and it’s doomed to do the usual superhero movie sh*t.
Loo Break: Only the interval!
Watch or Not?: Even if you’re tired of superhero films, this won’t ‘bug’ you.
Available On: Theatrical Exit
Runtime: 127 minutes
In the middle of the mayhem of Marvel vs. DC attempting to reinvent the genre of superhero pictures, filmmaker Ngel Manuel Soto works hard to offer you that one thing different to establish that it’s a new one. With the oddities of a Latino family, a teenage underdog Mexican superhero, class politics, and social commentary on the great American Dream, this DC picture certainly offers a different viewpoint on avoiding superhero-movie weariness, but how much of it lands? Let’s sort it out together!
The choice to put the superhero’s cute family in the spotlight all the time is a fantastic one, as it not only instills some incredibly amusing lines, but it also works well with heart-wrenching emotions. Making a Mexican writer, Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, create the script has helped to keep the Latino taste; the conversations are beautifully synchronized between Spanish and English, with neither language dominating the tone. The references to the superhero spoof series El Chapuln Colorado and the Telenovela Mara Mercedes round out the unique elements not found in other superhero films.
But, when it comes to stuff you’d see in other superhero movies, there are many, from the underdog superhero battling a world-destroying creature fueled by a multi-billion dollar tech firm to proving the baddie who declared “The love you feel for your family makes you weak” wrong. It employs certain typical clichés but does not let them define it, as Sony did with Venom (series). Ari Aster’s preferred cinematographer
Pawel Pogorzelski (Hereditary, Midsommar) provides us with some cool-looking views such as the kid’s first-person view (FPV) as a superhero and more.
