All Superheroes Must Die

Four heroes find themselves abducted by their arch-nemesis and are forced to compete in a series of challenges in order to save an abandoned town full of kidnapped innocent civilians.

Let me start by saying I love "The FP" and consider it a work of genius. Well-acted, well-scripted, well-shot, funny and so on. A truly great film. And I think we can learn something about filmmaking by comparing that film with this one, another Jason Trost joint.

With "The FP", a short was made. I assume this was used as a fund-raiser to get the full picture done right. That was a great idea and it worked. Here, we have what was a thrown together film -- if what the trivia on IMDb says is true, it was written in four days, shot in two weeks, there was no budget and time constraints meant the script had to be cut on the fly.

That is no way to make a movie. You do not necessarily need a budget, but you need to know what you are capable of and work with it. Here, we can tell it was rushed. The acting is only average, some of the lines seem out of place... and it just was not clever on the level of "FP". Another script revision or two, an extra day of shooting or two, it might have been worlds different.

Combining comic book movies with the plot of Saw, All Superheroes Must Die ambitiously attempts to double dip. Striking amidst the early days of the MCU, the film aimed to invent a new breed of hero for cinema-goers... if anyone would have watched. While the Saw franchise started strong and struggled to create compelling puzzles in its later installments, All Superheroes Must Die immediately failed to produce any interesting challenges. Alongside its lackluster puzzles, the film introduces audiences to a forgettable cast of superheroes with powers so generic, they are never even used. Complete with a mediocre cast and incredibly simple dialogue, the film is a spectacle of wasted potential. All Superhoes Must Die promises many interesting ideas, but fails to deliver them.

With the success of super heroes in theaters it comes as no surprise that filmmakers are starting to churn out their own variations on the genre. The biggest issue is that without the recognition, most of these films just can't capture and audience. Filmmaker Jason Trost, who delivered the insanely fun The FP has thrown his own vision into the super hero genre with All Superheroes Must Die. With The FP showed he could think outside the box and deliver something different that still works, but can he score the same with his superhero vision?

All Super Heroes Must Die follows four super heroes who find themselves abducted by their Arch Nemesis and forced to compete in a series of challenges to save kidnapped innocent civilians. This movie not only works it takes the genre in a whole new direction. Imagine super heroes and throw them into the world of SAW and you have this film. The film is dark and gritty and plays up the torment as opposed to the super heroics giving it more of a punch than you would have thought. The costumes feel more like what real people would have put together if they became costumed heroes, all without coming across to silly. The inner dilemmas of the characters add to the already insane struggles they have to deal with causing their tasks to be that much harder to complete. The performances are pretty good for the most part, with only a few moments here and there that are a bit off. James Remar as the mastermind behind the torment eats of the screen playing this character way over the top, yet perfectly fits this world and his character.

This is one of the better attempts at this genre thinking outside the box to create a fun unique film. The mix of the genres really adds to the over concept to create a must see for anyone a fan of either genre. Horror fans, be on the lookout for Chromeskull himself Nick Principe in a villainous role as a part of a memorable fight scene. Trost is really doing a great job with these films and will no doubt be an up and coming force to be reckoned with and can't wait to see what he delivers next.

I love the dark feel of the film that was not like your typical "super hero" movie. It seems that some of the critics of this film didn't understand it. Anyone who was a fan of "watchmen" would enjoy and understand this picture.

These characters were not over the top and exaggerated, they were portrayed as real/average people that happen to have super hero problems. This isn't a story that is tied up in a nice little bow at the end, where most Hollywood movies do. This is an edgy story that mirrors the unfortunate reality of actual life. The acting was solid, the directing was clean, and the writing was creative.

Maybe I am guilty of understanding what it really takes to make a film happen, and understand the constraints of time, schedules, and how filmmakers have to often make hard decisions on the fly to make something as big as a film happen.

I still say good job, and I look forward to more.

What looks like a fascinating concept on paper is executed in villainously poor fashion in All Superheroes Must Die, a micro-budget thriller that twists almost every convention of the oversaturated genre, but is drastically let down by innumerable plot holes, a jagged script and empty performances all round.

Sick to death of playing the speed bump to the good guys and their well-meaning plans, supervillian Rickshaw (James Remar) has knocked out and stolen the powers of Charge (Jason Trost), Shadow (Sophie Merkley), Cutthroat (X-Men First Class' Lucas Till) and The Wall (Lee Valmassy), the town's four resident superheroes. Meanwhile, he has rigged several town landmarks – and many more innocent civilians – to explosives, meaning the heroes have no choice but to play by his wicked rules.

Directed and written by lead actor Trost, the film can never seem to decide between being a serious look at the sacrifices made to be a hero, or a tongue-in-cheek satire of the suspension of disbelief required by the genre. It constantly flexes between sharp, intimate flashbacks showing the closeness of the group before becoming superheroes, and incredulously over-the- top delivery from Remar and Sean Whalen – as side villain Manpower – none of which hit their mark.

The rest of All Superheroes Must Die is a mish-mash of unexplained plot points and unprovoked character turns. The story jumps regularly, giving the impression that a short shoot forced pages to be ripped out of the script at will. And while some films of this nature do a fantastic job of stretching the production value, Superheroes looks every bit like a low budget cellar dweller, doing little to mitigate a collection of lacklustre individual parts, forming an utterly forgettable shell of an intriguing idea.

*There's nothing I love more than a bit of feedback, good or bad. So drop me a line on jnatsis@iprimus.com.au and let me know what you thought of my review. If you're looking for a writer for your movie website or other publication, I'd also love to hear from you.*