Surge of Power: The Stuff of Heros(2004)
Eventually, someone had to make a
film about a gay superhero, and here it is. Sadly,
it leaves a lot to be desired. Horribly filmed, acted
by wooden amateurs, written as if it were an homage
to contrivances, and just about as lame as one could
imagine, the film's worst problem is that it just
isn't gay enough. HELLO. If you're going to make a
gay superhero, for God's sake, he needs to be GAY!
Yes, I know, this is a Superhero film first and a
gay film secondly, but still. There's not enough here
to make me recommend it. It could have been so much
more. It's not even 1/100th of what it should be.
The biggest problem with the film
is that it just isn't fierce enough. There's no panache
here, no style. This is a film made without passion
or flamboyance. This is the straightest squarest gay
movie I have ever seen! I want a gay superhero that
kicks straight-people's butts and breaks down barriers.
Sure, I there are a lot of gay stereotypes, but there
are a lot of gay men who are individualistic, campy,
witty and fun too. This is a superhero that makes
milquetoast seem flashy by comparison. Where are the
real drag queens? Hell, where are any real queens?
This film is filled with a bunch of gym rats. That's
about the extent of the stereotypes here.
The biggest problem... who am I
kidding, it's impossible to pick one set of problems
as the biggest. Let's start with the script. It is
obvious that the writer here, who is also the star
and producer, Vincent J. Roth, is a huge comic book
fan. What he seems to not be is a huge movie fan.
Roth includes every superhero comic book plot contrivance
imaginable and then tries to joke these away by noting
in the dialogue that what is happening/about to happen/just
happened is awful similar to things we've seen a thousand
times. It's amusing once. It happens at least 10 times
in the film.
And even some of this might be acceptable
(I certainly laughed at quite a few things here) if
the film weren't so badly acted. The best actor in
the entire film (a friend who teaches Surge some karate
moves in the park) is only in the film for like five
minutes. Roth himself is pretty bad. There's no real
emotion or sense of reality in the acting here. Everyone
is wooden and while this might be used to the film's
advantage with proper direction and script, it just
rarely works here. Roth seems like a steroid pumped,
air- headed gym rat who somehow managed to scrape
together enough brain cells to hammer out a silly
script that he somehow made with his own money and
his acting does nothing to dispel this notion. And
while Roth is cute as a bug, its interesting to note
that he's even hotter in the Surge superhero suit.
The direction here is amateurish
and lackluster. Even when the film works, it doesn't
work well. The film seems to be shot in 35mm anamorphic
(scope) and director Michael Donohue seems to have
no idea at all how to fill the screen. The film is
begun and interrupted at times by some scenes shot
at a comic book convention (apparently on video) which
is flat and inserted into the scope footage with some
graphics on either side. And while this is a cool
idea, it doesn't work when the scope images are drab
and rarely engrossing. Worse yet, whoever shot the
film had probably never shot anamorphic before because
the focus has problems at times and the image seems
to waver at times. (Unless this was shot on video
and blown up to anamorphic, in which case the problems
may stem from the transfer, who knows?)
Another problems: There are several
scenes where Surge, the gay superhero, talks to Jesus.
Yep, these guys aren't just airheaded gay gym rats,
they are airheaded Christian gay gym rats. These scenes
of Surge talking to a statue of Jesus stick out like
a sore thumb here but at least it explains why the
film is so slight in its depiction of a GAY superhero.
These guys don't want to offend anyone, not even God.
Pussies! If these guys are ever lucky enough to get
this film distributed, the first thing they'll have
to do is take all this incongruous God stuff out.
And God, how about the scene with
"Star Trek's" Nichelle Nichols. What a horrid moment.
Nichols is the only actor in the piece who is worth
listening to and the dumbasses that made this movie
pump up the horrid score so loudly in the background
that you can't hear a damn word she says. It's irritating
as hell.
Is there anything to like in the
film? Well, if you are gay and your whole like if
comic books and cock, you might find some things to
like. Some of the graphics and animation are pretty
cool. And there's some funny jokes and funny ideas.
My favorite idea has a large, fat actor who consistently
shows up in the film playing several different roles,
often with a fake mustache or a costume. And there
are lots of cute guys in the film. Surge does continually
rescue this one hot guy who ends up tied up with his
sexy midriff and waistband showing for about 10 minutes.
That's hot.
But overall, Goddammit, this film
is just not gay enough. You know that when Bobby Trendy
from the "Anna Nicole" show has an extended cameo
and the film still isn't GAY enough, something is
dreadfully wrong.
Notes:
Also with Noel Neill (the original
Lois Lane on TV's "Superman"), Lou Ferringo, and some
comic book writers having cameos. And there are a
lot of 60's and 70's TV actors in end credits including
the real life people who played Eddie Munster, Nellie
Olson ("Little House on the Prairie"), the voice of
the robot on "Lost in Space," Lisa Loring (TV's Wednesday
Addams) and a lot more.
Several of the scenes were shot
at Comicon in San Diego where the writer, director
and some of the actors met. They also met Ferrigno
there and asked him to be in the film.
Donohue met Neill when he was younger
and told her he was going to put her in his first
film She agreed to appear here to fulfill his wish.
Roth said during a Q&A after a screening
of the film at Agliff
2004 that he envision a sequel and perhaps up
to four "Surge" movies.
