Superhero Needs to be Rescued

By Broadside Staff Writer Ross Bonaime

Every few months, a new parody movie comes out that recycles the same jokes, but puts them in a new environment. This month, that release is Superhero Movie.

Drake Bell from the hit Nickelodeon TV show, Drake and Josh, plays Rick Riler, the down-on-his-luck loser who is in love with his beautiful neighbor and whose life pretty much mirrors Peter Parker’s in every way. The main difference, however, is that instead of being bitten by a spider, Rick is bitten by a dragonfly, which turns him into the superhero – yup, you guessed it – Dragonfly. Rick tries to win the girl and help make the world a better place, while also visiting Professor Xavier at his school, meeting up with the cast of the Fantastic Four and reminiscing of the Batman Begins-like death of his parents.

Superhero Movie follows the same outline as the other films similar to this like Epic Movie and Date Movie: make as many random pop culture jokes as possible, while keeping a barebones plot together with a loose story line and feature cameos from the usual suspects like Pamela Anderson and Leslie Nielsen. These jokes, such as fart jokes and prat falls that most parody movies are accustomed to, are weak and just tired. Someone needs to tell writer and director Craig Mazin that a minute long fart is not comedy, it is just pathetic.

Nothing in Superhero Movie seems original at all. These pre-packaged parody movies have just become a copy of a copy of a copy. The idea is a good one, but it should have come out about three years ago and the way it is executed is just sad. A film like Superhero Movie needs to be more like Walk Hard or This Is Spinal Tap than Meet the Spartans.

Hopefully, the creators of these parody films will realize how tired their schtick has become and try to make a parody that is actually funny and original, instead of recycling ideas. Unfortunately, Superhero Movie fails to be memorable and just ends up being another wasted parody that could have been something interesting.