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At least most of the gags in this one are superhero-related, even if they aren’t funny

Oh, everything that is holy, please help me. As a fan of the original spate of spoof films like Airplane and The Big Bus, the 80s revival (Naked Gun, Hot Shots) and even the comeback in the 1990s (Scary Movie), I have grown increasingly frustrated by the absolute lack of care and humor found in the most recent additions of the genre. Granted, it started with a few of Leslie Nielsen’s post-Naked Gun efforts (sorry folks, but Wrongfully Accused and Spy Hard sucked), but we seemed to get back on track with the aforementioned Scary Movie and Not Another Teen Movie. But then something went terribly wrong and it stopped being about actually writing funny gags spoofing pop culture. Instead, with the emergence of Date Movie, Epic Movie, The Comebacks, Meet the Spartans and now Superhero Movie, it isn’t about being funny, it’s just about doing lame impersonations from other popular movies. And while Superhero Movie isn’t quite as bad as the rest in that line-up, it’s still no Repossessed.

The general plot, such as it is, is a take-off of Spider-Man. Drake Bell plays a Peter Parker-alike who gets bitten by a bug and becomes the superhero Dragonfly. His main nemesis is the Hourglass, a scientist who tried to cure his terminal disease, only to be given the powers to drain others’ lifeforces. Now, that sounds like a decent enough premise for an actual superhero plot. Unfortunately, it’s spread out with gag after gag. A few are actually funny (mostly the ones involving Kevin Hart as Bell’s best friend), but most are just lame. The stuff with Stephen Hawkings is fairly entertaining, even in a “you’re going to hell for laughing at it” way.

The Dimension DVD release has a lively running commentary by the creators. Other extras include an alternate ending, some deleted scenes, a featurette on the cast, and a making-of called “The Art of Spoofing” which shows they just don’t fully get it.

Superhero Movie isn’t the worst of the current crop of spoof films. I’d put it somewhere in the middle of the genre – maybe along the lines of Loaded Weapon I and Naked Gun 33 1/3 (admit it, by that point, the NG series was running out of gas) – but nowhere near the classics. Still, I managed to watch it all the way through and actually laughed a few times, something that couldn’t be said about Epic Movie.

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