Blu-ray Movie Reviews

In an homage to Spiderman, nerdy high-school student Rick Riker (Drake Bell) is bitten by a genetically altered dragonfly, giving him superhuman abilities. He soon discovers the secret of being a superhero—it's all in the costume—and becomes "The Dragonfly."

From the creative team that brought us the Scary Movie franchise, Superhero Movie contains just enough laughs to keep it interesting. The producers use elements from Batman Begins, X-Men, and Fantastic Four, although the main plot points of Spiderman are the crux of the story—the insect bite, Rick being an orphaned boy living with his aunt and uncle, and of course, the hottie next door (Sara Paxton).

The VC-1 encode looks pretty darn good for a low-budget production. The color palette is clear and bright, and the detail is strong. Unfortunately, a byproduct of the strong detail is that the matte paintings used for backgrounds stick out like a sore thumb, but given the subject matter, who really cares.

The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack is very front loaded, but there are occasional discrete effects that fly around the surround speakers. The jokes come through clear and intelligibly from the center speaker. Given the superhero roots, there's ample use of the LFE channel with some room-shaking explosions and some serious "thump" to the punches.

The supplements feature an audio commentary, an extended cut of the film, an alternate ending, and some deleted scenes. There are a couple of featurettes on the cast and the art of spoofing, BD-Live content that includes some cast bios, a hilarious spoof of a Tom Cruise interview, and some other goodies.

While not nearly as funny as Airplane!, the mother of all spoofs, there are enough laughs to keep it entertaining. This low-budget flick looks decent on Blu-ray, but don't expect to be blown away. If you're a fan of spoofs, it's worth a rental.

Release Date: January 13, 2009

Movie: 5/10
Picture: 7/10
Sound: 7/10

Review System

Source
Panasonic DMP-BD55

Display
JVC DLA-RS1 projector
Stewart FireHawk screen (76.5" wide, 16:9)

Electronics
Onkyo Pro PR-SC885 pre/pro
Anthem PVA-7 Amplifier
Belkin PF60 power conditioner

Speakers
M&K S-150s (L, C, R)
M&K SS-150s (LS, RS, SBL, SBR)
SVS PC-Ultra subwoofer

Cables
Monoprice HDMI cables (source to pre/pro)
Best Deal analog-audio cables
PureLink HDC Fiber Optic HDMI Cable System (15 meters) from pre/pro to projector

Acoustical treatments from GIK Acoustics