The Super
Stephan Rick
I'm a Val Kilmer fan. I don't know why, I don't know when, all I know is that I like his performances and the movies he is in. That was until his Hollywood star faded after the box office bomb that was Red Planet and unfortunately he hasn't had a real leading man role in Hollywood since. Some great performances came afterwards in more independent films such as The Salton Sea, Wonderland and Spartan. But if I were to look at his filmography for the last ten years I see the criminally underrated Felon, the overlooked MacGruber and a small supporting role in The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans. The rest of his movies are trash. Then The Snowman came out. I kept seeing ads for this and seeing his name associated with it, but not once did I see him in any of the marketing. I was under the impression he would be the killer. Little did I know it was due to his poor health appearance and clearly dubbed dialogue. The film was trashed by everyone and their grandmothers with a lot of people pointing out the glaring issues with having Val Kilmer in the role. Well he's back with another movie, post-cancer diagnosis and he doesn't look or sound that much better. Are Val Kilmer's acting days possibly behind him? Maybe Top Gun 2 will answer that question.
The Super focuses on a man who becomes a superintendent to an upscale New York apartment building. He lives in the basement with his two daughters, but feels uneasy whenever the old-timer super Walter (Val Kilmer) is around them. He's creepy, is obsessed with voodoo dolls and mutters weird things under his breath. To make matters worse, people in the apartment building start disappearing under mysterious circumstances. Can the new superintendent protect his kids and discover what exactly Walter is up to?
The Super seems to be pulling a fast one on some people that didn't expect some turns in the story. I applaud the filmmakers for making an effort, but I feel little clues they drop throughout the film make it glaringly obvious who's who and what's what. The Super tries to have it two ways; is it a serial killer thriller or supernatural mystery. The problem is that it tries to juggle both of these genres and it drops the ball. An intriguing opening sequence makes you think one thing, then the reveal towards the end splits the difference making it awkward to look back on the earlier efforts.
Val Kilmer does a decent job as the creepy super. Unfortunately his dialogue is dubbed over again. It's not only him this time though, a few scenes they do this do other people, including a crucial scene filled with exposition that really takes you out of the experience when words don't match lips.
WARNING: "The Super" spoilers below
One of my biggest gripes is the climax here. One character is told that her twin sister was responsible for a fire that killed their mother. In a fit of rage their father killed the girl and he is now haunted by her demonic spirit. He can see her and acts like she is still alive. Walter can see her because he practices weird voodoo. That's the twist in this film, that the one younger daughter is actually dead and is controlling her father to kill a bunch of people in an apartment building for childish reasons (She wanted an old lady's dog, she hated her teacher, she disliked her sisters new friend, etc) Sure whatever, pull the dead the whole time card. This little girl appears out of thin air to this woman because we are to believe that she is next on her hit list. The woman runs away into the elevator...poof the little girl reappears in the elevator. At this point, this woman is terrified because she's seeing some sh*t.
Then we get to the climax in the basement. Walter manages to subdue the little girl and perform some voodoo magic on her to destroy this demonic ghost. She is trapped within a circle and is burning up. So what does this woman, who has just seen the impossible happen regarding this little girl do? She hits Walter in the head to get him to stop hurting her. This demon ghost child that controls her father to become a killing machine. Stop it she says, she's just a girl. But she isn't, you know this, you just saw her perform some David Blaine/Chris Angel sh*t. So why on earth are you knocking out the one guy who is saving you? It makes no sense, it's all in a sad effort to make the good guys lose.
Walter is on the floor and daddy comes over and kills him. Then the girl says she wants a new mommy. Now we have daddy, daughter, dead daughter and new mother walk out of the apartment. New mommy asks, what do we do now and daddy responds, whatever my dead daughter wants. Telling me he knows she is dead and knows she possesses him to kill others, but he doesn't care.
One of my biggest gripes is the climax here. One character is told that her twin sister was responsible for a fire that killed their mother. In a fit of rage their father killed the girl and he is now haunted by her demonic spirit. He can see her and acts like she is still alive. Walter can see her because he practices weird voodoo. That's the twist in this film, that the one younger daughter is actually dead and is controlling her father to kill a bunch of people in an apartment building for childish reasons (She wanted an old lady's dog, she hated her teacher, she disliked her sisters new friend, etc) Sure whatever, pull the dead the whole time card. This little girl appears out of thin air to this woman because we are to believe that she is next on her hit list. The woman runs away into the elevator...poof the little girl reappears in the elevator. At this point, this woman is terrified because she's seeing some sh*t.
Then we get to the climax in the basement. Walter manages to subdue the little girl and perform some voodoo magic on her to destroy this demonic ghost. She is trapped within a circle and is burning up. So what does this woman, who has just seen the impossible happen regarding this little girl do? She hits Walter in the head to get him to stop hurting her. This demon ghost child that controls her father to become a killing machine. Stop it she says, she's just a girl. But she isn't, you know this, you just saw her perform some David Blaine/Chris Angel sh*t. So why on earth are you knocking out the one guy who is saving you? It makes no sense, it's all in a sad effort to make the good guys lose.
Walter is on the floor and daddy comes over and kills him. Then the girl says she wants a new mommy. Now we have daddy, daughter, dead daughter and new mother walk out of the apartment. New mommy asks, what do we do now and daddy responds, whatever my dead daughter wants. Telling me he knows she is dead and knows she possesses him to kill others, but he doesn't care.
^^^ TRASH.
Up until that point it was a tolerable film with faults. The end result is a frustrating one that makes no sense. It's a little embarrassing when you write a script thinking you are so clever and no one will see 'this' coming, only to have it be a joke and hurt the overall product. The Super....ain't super.
Bad dum tss.
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