Superhero movies have become so pervasive since the turn of the millennium that they’ve spurred a whole subgenre of films subverting their formulas — primarily low-budget efforts like “Special,” “Super” and “Defendor,” but also major-studio projects “Joker” and “Hancock.” All share an interest in peeling back the mask, exploring the antisocial, delusional-fantasy side of superpowers.
Adam Egypt Mortimer’s third feature “Archenemy” occupies similar terrain, resourcefully using modest means to create a gritty yet stylized comic-book world in which a supposed fallen superhero may really just be some homeless guy with mental issues. However, that colorful surface is more successfully drawn than the characters and complications meant to fill it, leaving this noirish, (mostly) live-action cartoon feeling less like a dissection of superhero origin stories than an underdeveloped prologue to one.
It has its own prologue, marking the first of several sharp animated sequences credited to Sunando, Kevin Finnegan and Danny Perez.
Adam Egypt Mortimer’s third feature “Archenemy” occupies similar terrain, resourcefully using modest means to create a gritty yet stylized comic-book world in which a supposed fallen superhero may really just be some homeless guy with mental issues. However, that colorful surface is more successfully drawn than the characters and complications meant to fill it, leaving this noirish, (mostly) live-action cartoon feeling less like a dissection of superhero origin stories than an underdeveloped prologue to one.
It has its own prologue, marking the first of several sharp animated sequences credited to Sunando, Kevin Finnegan and Danny Perez.
- 12/11/2020
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
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