When it comes to movies, the adjective, “bad,” can have a wide variety of meanings. It can mean that a movie is irredeemably flawed on every level, just a complete failure–bad story, bad acting, bad writing, bad everything–and absolutely unentertaining. It can mean all of those things but that the film is so epic in its awfulness that it is almost brilliant, in a twisted sort of way, i.e. The Ed Wood Syndrome. It can mean that it isn’t so much that the film failed in what it intended to do, but that it is nonetheless hopelessly hackneyed and/or overly melodramatic and phony. It can mean all of these things but can also be a guilty pleasure of sorts, e.g. any film produced by Lifetime.
And then there is the most disappointing sort of Bad Movie, the kind that actually began with a kernel of a good idea, has an excellent cast, and even displays glimmers of what could have been were the whole thing not so ineptly put together. One example I watched only recently is Fanboys. Another is the film I saw last night, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, directed by Ghostbusters‘ Ivan Reitman, who used to direct great movies but now seems to have made a career decision to focus on crap. Still, I felt compelled to see it for a long time, due to my well-documented love of superhero films, despite the fact that it received fairly middling reviews upon its release and I was mostly certain it would be a misfire, at best.
Nevertheless, it stars the truly awesome Uma Thurman as G-Girl, basically a spin on Supergirl, if Supergirl were completely nuts and stalking the ex-boyfriend who dumped her, Matt Saunders (played by affable Everyman, Luke Wilson). After her righteous quest for gruesome vengeance as The Bride in Kill Bill, the idea of Thurman once again playing a woman out for revenge, but this time with actual, bonus superpowers, seemed rather inspired. It looked like her character might be a wacky, satirical spin on The Bride, spliced with Clark Kent. In the commercials, Thurman seemed to be having a blast, poking fun at her own image, and indeed, she does in the film, as well. The film also offers a rather unique look at superhero mythology, from the perspective of the human love interest. And what happens, Ex-Girlfriend asks, when one breaks the heart of someone who is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound, and so on and so forth? It also features fun supporting roles for fantastic comedic actors like Anna Faris, Wanda Sykes, Rainn Wilson, and Eddie Izzard as G-Girl’s archnemesis, Doctor Bedlam.
Now, if only the script had allowed any of the characters to behave like human beings. G-Girl, or Jenny Johnson (her alter-ego), is written as a complete and utter whackjob–clingy, obsessive, irritable–to the point that, from her first date with Matt, one seriously wonders what is wrong with him that he ever went on a second date with her in the first place. This makes it particularly hard to sympathize with him when she goes seriously haywire, because any reasonable human being should have known better. It also makes it difficult to understand why such a truly off-kilter woman ever would have chosen to perform the heroic actions she does. In the flashback to how she got her powers, she comes across as self-absorbed, shallow, and cruel. Supervillian, sure. But hero?
Look, I love silly, broad comedies as much as the next person, and I particularly love the fantasy genre, but for a story to succeed, even a fantasy, there needs to be some credibility somewhere, if only in the characterization. Without it, what we’re left with is a film that comes across as rather heartless, not to mention unnecessarily crass in a great deal of the dialogue. I’ll refrain from making an unfair joke at the expense of the screenwriter’s name, Don Payne.
With that said, there are some genuinely clever moments that justify giving the film a look-see. Superhero fans will get a kick out of many of the gags that deliberately tweak the genre. And there is one scene in particular involving a shark that, without any exaggeration, may very well be one of the most jawdropping things I’ve ever seen in any film. So, yes, My Super Ex-Girlfriend is a Bad Movie. Maybe even a Very Bad Movie. But if you squint and tilt your head sideways, you can almost see the Not-So-Bad Movie it could have been.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
My impression from trailers and reviews was that this movie could only be explained as an appeal to full-on woman hating. Is that about fair? After all, if women are evil, the guy can’t be blamed for going on a second date with him because women are all like that, “amirite”? And anyway, the guy is never at fault, of course.
HaHa! Great review! You really encapsulated my own feelings about this movie.
Although the shark scene ALMOST manages to redeem the whole film, it’s that insane.
That potential subtext is counteracted to some extent by Anna Faris’ character, who is among the people telling him to stay away from Jenny. I’m much worried by the fact that the characters are so inconsistently written–the main guy and the girl–it’s hard to take anything they do seriously at all.