“Airplane!” (1980) used the exact plot of “Zero Hour!” and added exaggerations and absurdities to hilarious effect. “Superhero Movie” (2008) — produced by “Airplane!’s” David Zucker and originally titled “Superhero!” — uses the plot of 2002’s “Spider-Man.” It connects on jokes much less often than “Airplane!” or even “Scary Movie,” but it’s brisk (75 minutes!) and painless – just forgettable.
Early days of the boom
Speaking of forgettable, we think of the superhero boom as starting in 2008 with “Iron Man” and “The Dark Knight,” but that’s when it went super-mainstream. The boom can be traced back to 2000’s “X-Men,” wherein Marvel joined DC as a movie juggernaut. Not knowing about the mega-boom to come, “Superhero Movie” targets the works of 2000-07.
Craig Mazin, writer of “Scary Movie 3” and “Scary Movie 4,” writes and directs. Interestingly, his only other directing credit is 2000’s “The Specials,” a superhero spoof penned by James Gunn. I’d love to see that, but it’s stubbornly unavailable.
“Superhero Movie” (2008)
Director: Craig Mazin
Writer: Craig Mazin
Stars: Drake Bell, Sara Paxton, Leslie Nielsen
“Superhero Movie’s” jokes are rarely clever, but sometimes they are funny if you have a shallow sense of humor (which I do). A standout sequence finds the Aunt May equivalent (good sport Marion Ross) farting while napping on a couch after Thanksgiving dinner.
The Peter Parker and Mary Jane stand-ins (Drake Bell as Rick Riker/Dragonfly and Sara Paxton as Jill) have a romantic heart-to-heart nearby. Jill sheds tears — not from Rick’s words but rather because her eyes are burning.
A game cast
The absence of a centerpiece star like “Scary Movie’s” Anna Faris is noticeable. But Bell has decent comic chops from his Nickelodeon sitcom days. Paxton is transitioning from her unskilled early years into a respectable actress. Mainly she has to look pretty, which – if we’re being generous – could be a commentary on Mary Jane Watson in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” trilogy.
Also if we’re being generous, the casting of Kevin Hart as the high school best bud of Bell could be a statement on high school movies casting actors who are safely past their teen years. Or it could simply be that they wanted someone naturally funny, and Hart was available.
Leslie Nielsen plays the Uncle Ben stand-in, and his comedic timing hasn’t diminished since “The Naked Gun.” It’s just that his material is worse – including direct lifts from “The Naked Gun.” He says “schnookie-lumps” in an amusing but too-short funeral scene, and he accidentally pushes Stephen Hawking (Robert Joy) off the edge of a roof where Hawking does a Nordberg-style flip.
These moments made me think of how much better “The Naked Gun” is than this.
Expected rather than innovative
“Superhero Movie!” peppers in a decent “X-Men” sequence wherein Tracy Morgan’s Professor X switches to a different wheeled transportation device with each cut. Spoofs of “Batman Begins” and “The Fantastic Four” are less inventive.
Despite the best efforts of Christopher McDonald, villain Hourglass serves little function other than to give Dragonfly an opponent.
“Superhero Movie” isn’t outright lazy; everyone turns in professional work, and I would bet the filmmakers had fun. But the jokes are expected rather than innovative. Mazin has nothing to say about superhero films other than that they have recognizable tropes. He expresses no hatred of the genre, but no love either.
“Superhero Movie” falls on the side of “cash grab” rather than something inspired.