FOLLOWING hot on the heels of the hugely popular Scary Movie series, Epic Movie, Date Movie and Meet The Spartans comes Superhero Movie, a brand new spoof comedy designed to draw plenty of laughs from the world of heroic costumed crime-fighters with superhuman powers.

With comic book icons like Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Iron Man, Fantastic Four and X-Men, among others, having proving hugely successful at the cinema box offices over the years, it certainly was only a matter of time before a spoof of the superhero genre came out.

Taking aim at some of aforementioned superhero blockbusters for laughs, Superhero Movie features the comedic talents of young rising stars Drake Bell and Sara Paxton as well as spoof movie regulars Leslie Nielsen, Tracy Morgan and Regina Hall.

Making cameos in Superhero Movie are Pamela Anderson, Robert Hayes from the classic 1980s spoof movie Airplane, Marion Ross from hit sitcom Happy Days, Brent Spiner (Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation), Jeffrey Tambor, Craig Bierko and a certain Hollywood superstar by the name of Tom Cruise.

It’s raining ... it’s pouring ... how will Dragonfly (Drake Bell) fly?

With Superhero Movie, the creators of The Naked Gun and Scary Movie series – producers Bob Weiss and David Zucker – strive to answer the question: “How many superheroes does it take to save the world?” in the funniest way possible.

The movie revolves the exploits of Rick Riker, played by Bell, a cool, young dreamer who just happens to be blessed with amazing superpowers. Now, if he only knew how to use them in his guise as the lethal (in more ways than one) and somewhat confused crime-fighter known as Dragonfly, the world would be a much safer place.

Standing in the way of Riker’s destiny is the villainous Lou Landers, played by Christopher McDonald. When an experiment goes horribly wrong, Landers discovers that he has somehow developed the power to steal a person’s life force and, in a dastardly quest for immortality, becomes a super-villain called The Hourglass.

With incredible strength and speed, and very uncomfortable tights, Dragonfly, along with a few new superhero friends, attempt to foil the dastardly ploy of The Hourglass and save the world.

“A few years ago, we talked about what unexplored areas we could parody,” recalled producer Bob Weiss, in notes provided by the movie distributors, of the initial impetus to put Superhero Movie together. “We realised that a good scouring of the superhero genre hadn’t really happened.”

Speaking of Drake Bell, who is at the centre of the storyline, writer-director Craig Mazin described the character (Dragonfly) as well as his comedic potential: “He has super strength and agility. He can climb walls. He’s pretty good at street-fighting. His skin is armoured. He is impervious to just about anything except titanium blades. He has a great, green costume, like every good superhero should have. But when Dragonfly tries to save people, he tends to end up killing them accidentally. He’s got a good heart but it just doesn’t always work out.”

Though the filmmakers enjoyed the ribbing this forum offered them, Mazin pointed out that their jokes were all in good fun. “You can’t really spoof something unless you love it. We loved all the movies that we spoofed in the Scary Movie series. We certainly we love the movies that we spoof here – Spider-Man, Batman and the whole genre.” – Compiled by Zack Yusof

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