It’s an interesting time for superhero movies. Indeed you have the studio level tentpoles for Marvel, DC and the nascent Valiant label, but if you’re a genre director on the other hand, like Daniel Isn’t Real helmer Adam Egypt Mortimer, your eye is definitely on something more subversive and atypical like other films of late.
Mortimer’s latest, Archenemy, marks the director’s latest stake in the nontraditional, casting Joe Manganiello as Max Fist, a superhero jettisoned to our planet after staving off a disaster that threatened his own just light years away. Powerless and rapidly aged by fifteen years due to the planet’s atmosphere, Max is fallen beyond far from grace; He’s homeless, derilect, resigned to a daily routine of public drunkenness and angry stupor when he’s not at the bar retelling the same story of how he came to be to patrons who don’t believe him, least of all the bartender.
Enter Hamster (Skylan Brooks), an apsiring street reporter looking for an in-roads to employment for a bustling online creative firm with the aim of showing people “Hamster’s World”. His daily travails eventually find him face to face with a dismissive, inebrieated and reluctant Max who, after friendly pressure from Hamster, decides to entertain the young reporter’s curiousity during their days together. With Hamster busy trying to earn a job, the only one making any money is Indigo, as an drug-peddling subordinate to underworld crimeboss, The Manager (Glenn Howerton).
Things eventually get messy when Indigo is assigned to collect from a paranoid junkie, and the meet results in an ugly chase with Indigo soon on the run from the Manager’s henchmen, and Hamster’s life in danger. Little does Max know that just when he intervenes, his actions will bring him ever closer to not only rediscovering his purpose, but for a brief moment, reawaken his powers long enough to unearth the looming threat (Amy Seimetz) that may have possibly followed him far away from home.
Archenemy articulates itself aptly with comic book-style animation in between chapters, illustrated with bright coloration and mingling only a few moments of imagery of Max as his former self, with much of the focus placed on concurrent story development. That he’s powerless for most of the film allows for a more transformative deliniation and description of Max’s past, his present state, and in the thickening of things as the plot moves forward, the resolve to redeem himself. It also allows for the story to invoke a more layered approach to Max’s characterization, giving viewers a protagonist whose own self sense of heroism might be a deeply flawed one.
Both Hamster and Indigo have their own means of street-savviness to pair with their own eccentricities, fashion included. Hamster in all his youthful wonderment is all about the learning process and excitement in talking to Max, though he’s not as receptive to the more grim turn of things, especially when Max starts doing the presumed unthinkable. It’s a plot point that proves a little more daunting for the resoundingly idealistic and peppy teenager than intended, whereas the more pragmatic Indigo, while not so numb, is slightly more tougher-minded as she needs to be as a mid-high ranking employee of the Manager.
Seimetz’s character doesn’t fully emerge until well into the second half of the film. Going forward, it helps to keep in mind the origin moments as the plot develops, the moment Hamster’s would be boss mentions her employer, and the moment The Manager gets off the phone, as it all materializes by the final act of the film and the scheme that’s been building up underneath finally takes shape, and the story takes an intriguing turn amidst its little surprises.
Archenemy is less of a superhero movie than it is an inventive take on the genre – the result of a what happens when you take a superpowered being from another realm, strip any and all measure of superhuman ability and reduce him down to a dilapidated shadow of his former self, just before throwing him in a whirlwind of danger. There are twists, there’s high drama and suspense, and while the action doesn’t stretch as far as city skylines, the level of violence and brutality adds to the spectale, topped with ample doses of the computer-generated red-stuff. At one point, Max resigns to a more tactical outfit that definitely pays homage to a certain Marvel character that fans know and love, and it almost makes you think about the possibilities.
Mortimer crafts an aptly entertaining genre-bender with a hypnotic visual allure that amplifies the its more psychological and dramatic focus. While it’s not the kind of tentpole focus that would garner the kind of box office attention Marvel and DC, the delightful fact here is that Archenemy doesn’t need to be. That the film is its own thing is good enough, and whatever may come from it should Mortimer choose any sort of sequel route might only be a plus.
Archenemy opems in theaters, on VOD and Digital from December 11.
