Abar

Abar, the First Black Superman (1977)

** (out of 4)

Dr. Kincade (J. Walter Smith) moves his wife and two children into an all white neighborhood where they soon become targets of physical and mental violence. Turns out the white folks aren't too happy about blacks moving in so the doctor must get a bodyguard named Abar (Tobar Mayo) to help. After a tragic death the doctor uses a chemical he's been working on to turn Abar into a superhero. ABAR, THE FIRST BLACK SUPERMAN is a pretty campy movie that thankfully has enough funny moments to make it worth sitting through. With that said, if you're wanting a "good" Blaxploitation film then this here certainly isn't it, although I must say there's some good stuff scattered around and with some more editing I think you could have had a very good movie. What's so strange is that the title refers to the character as a "Superman" type but he actually turns into a mix between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jesus. Abar walks around with special powers that can produce storms, put snakes into women's beds and he even has the power to turn black men's alcohol into milk. This entire sequence is rather bizarre and I'm not exactly sure what the point was but you have to admit that it's rather entertaining. The hilarious moments come from the racist white people. If you've seen a Blaxploitation movie then you know all whites are racist and that stays true here. Just wait until you see the neighbors reaction to the blacks moving in and her "breakdown" is among the funniest scenes I've seen in a very long time. How long it takes for the protests to start was rather hilarious as was a bit where the news station warns people that blacks have moved into town. The performances for the most part are forgettable but both Smith and Mayo are mildly interesting in their parts. The biggest problem is that the film runs on way too long and it takes way too long for the story to get going. I'm really not sure why they waited nearly an hour for the powers to kick in but by then you've really lost interest in it. This is certainly far from a "good" movie but fans of the genre should get a few laughs out of it.

Although obvioulsy not a sophisticated production, in its first 70 minutes, Abar may be considered as an entertaining blaxploitation flick. There is a plot of a black scientist and physician who moves with his family to a fancy neighborhood and suffers violent racist bigotry from his white neighbors with dramatic consequences, and there is a cool badass band of motorcycle vigilantes who protect black people in danger and is led by martial artist Abar. That is not the most innovative script but it is good enough. The problem is that the story turns very confusing afterwards, with many things happening in a hurry without either proper development or good cinematic shooting. It is only in this chaotic part that Abar becomes a superhuman, and his powers are not well defined either: physical invulnerability? Psychic powers of mind control? Transmutation magic? Enhanced wisdom? "morality-change" power? Control of elements and weather? Super-hearing? Teleporting stuff? Summoning animals? God-like powers in general? Quite messy, indeed! The new god-like superhero has as his weakness suffering enfeeblement and reverse effects if he misuses his powers. To resume, everything is too broad to make sense, even considering the range of existing superhero fantasy characters. The end of the movie is bad and cheesy. I cannot help but say that the film had a better potential than its outcome, considering the first two thirds of it, and its failure is not the result of low budget.

There are a lot of interesting ideas here and it's clearly someone's passion project. Other reviewers have said that the ending is absurd--maybe, but the ending was the most interesting part of the movie. Everything leading up to Abar becoming the "black superman" takes twice as long as it should.

The performances are, for the most part, bad. The script needs tightening. And, unfortunately, due to pacing problems described above, the movie drags and didn't hold my interest. I almost gave up on it, in fact.

That said, I thought it was a thought-provoking movie. It's certainly not a must-see, but there's worse out there.

First off: potential viewers should note that the picture on the front of the In Your Face re-release (actual title: Abar, The First Black Superman) has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MOVIE! The two people pictured on the front are NOT in the movie, and neither one of them is Abar.

Now that that's out of the way, this movie is so bad that it is not only entertaining, it's highly enjoyable. The premise is easy to follow, and the story has so many goofball turns in it (Dr. Kinkade develops a serum that makes rabbits bulletproof!! Little boy's dream sequence is also unforgettable!) that you can't help but have a good time taking it all in. Production values are really horrible, sound looping is obvious, and scenes often cut for no reason. Still, worth a look, especially if you're a die-hard fan of nonsensical B-movies. The only real problem with this one is the extremely tacked-on lackluster ending.

From the looks of Abar, the First Black Superman, not a trace of progress was made from the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. That doesn't stop Frank Packard from making his "statement" on race relations between whites and blacks. This is such a clumsy and badly made film, but not for one moment was I bored. At times I was flabbergasted, or yelling at the screen at a character's actions (or, more often than not, so-called performances), but never did I want to turn it off. It's a classic of fun-bad movies, only hurt somewhat by the fact that its main character doesn't turn into the First Black Superman until an hour into the film! (who really REALLY doesn't look like how he does on the re-issued cover, "In Your Face", titled for some God-awful reason).

Abar is part of a black resistance, of sorts, but he only comes into play with the life of Dr. Kincade and his family when the good doctor and his kin move into a 200 grand house - in the suburbs! Oh, Whitey doesn't like that, and of course there's a "welcoming" committee waiting outside the home with signs like "N-word" this and so on, and of course Kincade doesn't feel too comfortable at it, especially when one white woman yells at one of his kids. So he gets Abar to help out as security, but it unfortunately doesn't save Kincade's quick-talking (or mumble-mouthed) son from getting run over by another Whitey in a car. Vengeance must be had! But can Kincade take the serum he's developed for rabbits to gain psychic powers? Will Abar, a volatile and possibly psychotic being with huge muscles and bad 'tude be able to take it? Tune in next week as...

Oh, this is such stupid stuff. Some of the dialog is bad enough, but the performances, oh man. It's like watching an off-off-off-off-off Broadway production that is really the Community theater of a basement in Queens putting on Blaxspoitation. The lead actor, J. Walter Smith, makes me pine for Rudy Ray Moore's expert ability. His job here ranges from wildly, badly over-the-top to unnecessarily whispering every line. The kid actor playing Kincade's son, Tony Rumford, speaks his lines like he wants to rush away to go to the bathroom. And the director makes Tobar Mayo (Abar) into a kind of black El Topo in the last twenty minutes with a series of eye-close-ups that should make him SUPER BAD ASS NEGRO-MAN-THING, but is really just as silly as anything else.

So why recommend it? Because it is so funny, and so tasteless that it's hard to resist. It's the kind of movie that liberally (I mean inappropriately, like at the end and at a critical point midway through) uses clips from Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Did they even get the rights to this? Maybe for the good of all African-American kind they persuaded the King estate to use the clips for good use... such as highlighting a story of racial oppression where there's either dirty ghetto that can't be saved or white suburbia that won't have one black person anywhere near them. I almost hope there was a series (or at least a sequel) of these movies. Perhaps once was enough, but I can at least say it's a unequivocal guilty pleasure. It makes other campy blaxploitation subtle by comparison.