The Hyperions

Jon McDonald's superhero comedy "The Hyperions" is quite possibly the most unique entry in the superhero genre I have ever seen. Its use of cartoonish visual effects to convey superpowers is gleeful to watch and it never gets old.

The humor is much akin to a Wes Anderson film, with dry jokes pervading the screenplay in every scene. Not all of them land, but they always fill the already fantastical world with even more levity.

I was surprised by how much I liked the characters and how they interact with one another. They're all distinct with their own unique grudges against each other, and it's cathartic at times to watch them overcome their misgivings.

Unfortunately, this film contains a lot of high concepts, and packing them all into 90 minutes proves a little too daunting. It certainly doesn't waste any of its impressive story and world building elements, but none of them are used quite as effectively as they could have been. The film ends feeling quite rushed...all of the characters' emotions and the superpower elements could have been explored and integrated far more deeply and effectively than they were.

Despite its somewhat surface-level treatment of its deep material, this is a breezy watch, and a far more engrossing one than I was expecting.

Some movies don't really take off and don't really go anywhere, it's like the director is experimenting or thinks all their ideas are so cool or so cute... not!

I was looking forward it. Trailer implied comedy, drama and action. Yet, there's very little comedy, no action and a sad drama. Poor boring story. 0 character development. The most likeable character is the fat security guard. Couldn't care less about the rest.

The movie felt as a theater production play and was an amateur one too. This could've been amazing with a few simple addition to the story, yet as is, this is 3/10 and I am being generous by giving it 3/10, which all goes to the cast.

Cary Elwes is one of those guys that everytime you see him in something you ask yourself, "I love this guy, why don't I see him in more stuff?" That definitely applies here. Though the movie itself is fairly awful, it may be worth checking out just to watch Elwes. Director Jon McDonald misses bigtime with his sophomore outing in a very poor, all style and no substance movie that might be excellent for all audiences, content wise, but I doubt anyone would stick around past the first half hour to see how it ends. The hubris for an inexperienced director to try such an ambitious project from the super hero genre with such a small budget was where things first went wrong. McDonald tries to make up for it with cool photography and other tricks, borrowing styles from the likes Wes Anderson, but the end result only underscores how bad the script is (written by the director, naturally). There is no story to follow, no character development, no amazing special effects, and much more (less?). Outside of Elwes, nobody in the cast does anything worth watching. In fact, the only other character I found at all interesting was a fat security guard that only had a few lines. I gave this movie 4 stars because of Elwes, otherwise it would get a 3.

OK for a movie that is basically a "one-man band" flick by the director John MacDonald. But most of it falls flat, and is mostly boring. I wish I could give it a better rating, since it's one of the first movie attempts by The Daily Wire, but I have to be honest here. Maybe next time they can produce a movie that is a little bit better than this. I like Cary Elwes , but unfortunately he put the dull in Mandullbaum here.