Frank Darbo (Rainn Wilson) is usually the loser except for two perfect moments. His marriage to his wife Sarah (Liv Tyler),and the one time he pointed out a robber to a cop. Then he loses Sarah, who may be using drugs again, to club owner Jacques (Kevin Bacon). After a vivid weird dream where tentacles cut open his head and the finger of God touches his brain, he takes on the persona of The Crimson Bolt with the suggestion of comic store clerk Libby (Ellen Page) who follows him as Boltie.

Pathetic Frank isn't really funny at all. This is a very slow start. But then Ellen Page gets into the movie. She is fast talking and hilariously insane. She injects much need energy. The movie is head and shoulders better when she's on the screen. Rainn Wilson as The Crimson Bolt is quite funny but otherwise he's awkwardly unfunny.

Super lays its cards on the table very early on. The film is about a loser. A loser in life and love and it is going to become even worse.

Guided by some religious vision and a sense of right or wrong. Frank Darbo decides to become a Superhero and goes searching for trouble armed with a wrench.

It deals with similar terrain as the film Kick Ass, that movie was mainstream, bigger budget and aimed at a wider audience.

Super is independent, more quirky and also more bleaker.

It blends, comedy, drama, tragedy and action. It also defies expectations. It might not always sustain its aims.

I found it was one of the more interesting films that came out that year.

In many ways, SUPER is a more successful film than KICK ASS, a movie with which it shares many qualities: they're both black comedies about ordinary people becoming superheroes to help the innocent and fight evil. The thing with KICK ASS is that it forgot it was a spoof somewhere along the way and become exactly what it was previously parodying; SUPER, which looks ultra-low budget in comparison, never forgets and stays true to itself throughout.

SUPER is shot in a kind of faux documentary style that really works. As with most comedies, it's a mixture of gags that hit and miss. The ones that miss are the overly familiar low brow jokes about sex and vomiting, but the ones that hit more than make up for those; my favourite scene is the one where the Crimson Bolt squats in a dark alley, waiting for criminals to show up. He wait, and waits, and waits...

Rainn Wilson, a hitherto unknown-to-me actor, acquits himself well with the role and, crucially, proves to be a sympathetic hero. Ellen Page, whose presence I typically find irritating in a movie, is a delight as his over-excited sidekick. Kevin Bacon contributes the best and most confident performance I've seen from him in years, and you wonder what he's been doing all this time. There's a nice little role for cult favourite Michael Rooker, too, which is the icing on the cake.

One thing I particularly liked about SUPER was the realism in regards to the extreme violence: there are no bloodless hits and bullet holes here, just real-life injuries: when people are whacked they bleed and bleed copiously, and bullet damage is horrendous rather than superficial. It's a refreshing change, and distinctly non-Hollywood. For that, SUPER deserves kudos.