10 Great Movies With "Rotten" Scores On Rotten Tomatoes
8. Super (2010)
This pitch-black comedy about a would-be superhero has a Rotten score of 49%.
Released in the same year as smash hit Kick-Ass, Super tells the tale of downtrodden loser Frank (Rainn Wilson) who becomes the Crimson Bolt, a wrench-wielding costumed vigilante with his sidekick Boltie (Ellen Page).
Those expecting a conventional ‘funny’ superhero adventure will be in for a shock. Super begins tongue-in-cheek but by the end becomes very violent.
On Rotten Tomatoes critics accused director James Gunn of “losing control of the tone” and “ill-judged nastiness”. Roger Ebert found (SPOILER) the death of Page’s character particularly troubling.
Super's sudden dark tonal shift and the death of Boltie may feel manipulative and cruel, but this is clearly Gunn’s aim. Super is a reaction against superhero movies. By 2010, The Dark Knight had been released, we’d had three Spider-Mans, and Marvel were beginning to craft their Extended Universe. With Super, Gunn attacks the humdrum acceptance of superheroes as being heroic, and shines a spotlight on superhero fandom - in particular the way that adult males fawned over Hit-Girl in Kick-Ass (who Boltie is clearly modelled on).
Super is the depraved cousin of Kick-Ass - cleverer, darker, and far more fascinating.