Archenemy

Archenemy

Ever since the “superhero on the skids” archetype was popularized in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ mid-’80s comic/graphic novel Watchmen, we haven’t seen a lot of different iterations on film. There was 2008’s Hancock, with Will Smith as the titular drunkard/anti-Superman; and then there’s Wolverine, who has his ups and downs over the course of several pictures. In Archenemy, our above-average-powered fellow drinking in alleyways, punching walls to no effect while grumbling “I used to punch holes in space” bemoans his lost powers and refuses to think of himself as a superhero.

He introduces himself via animated intro sequence: voice over explaining who he is now while images describe how he got here. Hero from another dimension fueled by “cosmic blood,” etc.; outwitted, fell into our (slightly futuristic itself) universe where he’s now a broken down nobody. Street kid and wannabe Internet influencer Hamster (Skylan Brooks) names him “Max Fist,” sighs with irritation when Max asks him to be his new Boswell. “Say super one more f**kin’ time.”

Hamster’s older sister Indigo (Zolee Griggs) appears to work for a drug kingpin called only The Manager (Glenn Howerton), who tells her at one point “I wanna make it rain we should be going viral.” “Viral?” The Manager asks. “Viral,” she responds. Here you’ll find yourself longing for the charms of old movies that is, very old movies, movies without spoken dialogue.

It becomes worse when Indigo is given the task of getting some money from one of The Manager’s recalcitrant operatives, named Krieg. He’s played by comedian Paul Scheer, wearing red Speedos and boasting a short length of barbed wire rendered in tattoo form on his forehead. (Above that word “genius.”) He raps at Indigo with such intensity that I found myself thinking, thanks but I’ve already seen Boogie Nights; in fact, I’d rather be watching that now. Oh, and I’ve seen Intolerable Cruelty too.

Improbably and in part because Joe Manganiello’s performance as Max is so committed the movie does start to generate its own slightly trippy momentum as it moves toward resolving whether or not Max’s shtick is true, or if he’s just, as one voice in his head has it, “a schizophrenic who lives under a bridge.” The animated sequences keep coming back, and they’re useful: the low-budget movie appears to be saving its effects firepower for certain key moments, and the animation livens up the expositional walk-and-talks Fist and Hamster often engage in.

The performances eventually suggest that some of this stuff might be intended as satirical or even outright funny. (When Hamster sees Fist snorting some white powder before a fight to get cranked up, he indignantly shouts “Are you saying the cosmic blood is crystal methamphetamine?”) Writer-director Adam Egypt Mortimer is clearly a movie-mad soul, and if he can get a little further out from under his influences he may cook something more consistently geekily Tran-sportive.

Watch Archenemy For Free On Gomovies.