MOVIE REVIEW: ARCHENEMY

Archenemy is a superhero film that turns the tables on many of the superhero tropes. In a way the film is reminiscent of the Film Hancock in which the hero of that world was aggressive and unlikable as well and seemingly anything but heroic.

The premise of the film is that a local drunk named Max Fist claims to be a superhuman protector from another dimension who fell into our reality by accident. Unlike the character of Hancock, who was shown to have tremendous superhuman abilities, Max just appears to be nothing but a homeless drunk, though admittedly a large and powerful one. Max likes to tell his story for free drinks, stories which depict him as a being akin to Superman in terms of scope and power, living in a utopian parallel Earth city of Chromiom. The film has many homages to the mythos of Superman as Max is a professed alien from another world, speaks of performing feats comparable to those of the Man of Steel. Unlike Kal-El, however, a flashback shows us that his powers were granted accidentally. Max’s flashbacks are told in the style of animated comic book pages which is a nice touch.

Among the other Superman/comic book allegories we discover that Max’s archenemy, Cleo Ventrick, is the smartest person in the world. Like DC’s Lex Luthor she reportedly used her vast scientific genius to create numerous weapons to combat Max, including solar lasers, giant robots and other items cribbed from the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons of the 40’s. In fact Max Fist’s name is likely an homage to Fleischer. Max picks up a sidekick in the form of Hamster. Hamster is a street kid trying to break into the world of online journalism. Like cub reporter Jimmy Olsen he becomes Max’s best friend and at one point Max even rigs up the equivalent of Jimmy’s signal watch, so that Max can find him if there is trouble. The film is full of delightful touches like this for comic fans to pick up on. Characters in the film all have names that could easily fit into the comic world. There is of course Hamster, his sister Indigo, the crime boss The Manager, his bodyguard Longman. In fact all of the cast are given names that are either comic appropriate or rolls/identities like Bartender and Mask Man (even capitalized like this in the credits).

Color also plays a big part in establishing the comic aesthetic of the film with different parts of the film being bathed in reds and blues. Hamster is introduced wearing red socks with blue shorts, another nod to either Superman or Spider-Man as Peter Parker is another hero who worked as a journalist. Indigo wears blue and has blue hair. Max’s flashbacks are red while several Earth scenes are lit in blues, reds or other primary colors, with villain colors tending to be less vibrant. Like the aforementioned Hancock, the separate thrust of the film is to see if Max will rise up to be a hero or if he is merely a dangerous loner. Without powers in this world Max has fallen into bitter despair and is full of rage. Though he claims to have had Superman’s ideals of no killing and to stand as a symbol of moral strength but when Hamster and Indigo run afoul of the Manager, Max becomes something closer to the Punisher, a violent, gun wielding, antihero who exhibits no mercy when dealing with criminals.

In another wonderful wink at superheroes the film even manages to make Max bulletproof for the climactic third act action without dipping into fantasy or scifi. The film is very clever in that respect, always managing to explain away anything that might give the impression that Max is anything but a delusion hobo. The film will keep you guessing, right up until the last big scene whether or not Max is crazy or not and grounding this film in our real world allows the filmmakers to tell a story were there are no real heroes and no monstrously evil villains. All are flawed, with the only true innocent being Hamster, and its this point where I have one issue with the film. You see all the guilty suffer in the film and in comic book logic (and even film logic in a moral play) rightly so. In the end however one character is rewarded when if you ask me it should have been Hamster who benefited by virtue of being, well the one virtuous character in the film. Hamster is as pure and guitless as a character can be in this setting. Still the film is not ruined by this, with strong performances, tight direction and excellent cinematography its a must see for both comic book fans and non fans alike.

SCORE:
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4.5 out of 5