DVD review (region 2)
Directed by Craig Mazin
Starring Drake Bell, Sara Paxton, Christopher McDonald, Leslie Nielsen
Release date 13 October 2008

A comedy spoof of the superhero genre that sees the emergence of a new hero - Dragonfly!

We are rapidly approaching an era in which there will be more spoofs than targets. There are some very funny examples of the genre such as Airplane and The Naked Gun and there are some truly atrocious ones – step forward Meet the Spartans, Epic Movie and Scary Movie (parts one, two and three).

It’s telling that the best examples of the genre are the early ones. They were the films that worked hard to cram in as many jokes as possible and used actors as opposed to media personalities. Sadly, this latest spoof, while referencing a slew of movies, largely fails to find humour in a genre that is ripe for ridicule.

Appearances by Pamela Anderson and Lil’ Kim are utterly pointless and an overly extended gag at the expense of Stephen Hawking is as offensive as it is unfunny. The story itself is passable, but it’s always the humour that lets the side down, managing to miss the target virtually every time.

There are some rare funny moments. An impersonation of Tom Cruise is spot on and Leslie Neilson is typically funny in a brief cameo. It’s just a shame that these are the only two mildly amusing sequences in a film that is far from super. Jonathan Wilkins

VERDICT: 2/10
Lazy and depressingly soulless.