Super Frat

The basic premise is the X-men meets Asian action movie.  Chris Evans plays Nick Grant, a guy born with telekinesis powers and Dakota Fanning plays Cassie Holmes, a girl that can see glimpses of possible futures.  The back story, like all mutants, Nick was hunted as a kid and his father sacrificed himself to save Nick.  Division, the bad guys, killed Nick’s dad and want to start a huge army of mutants.

The movie lays out something that should be simple.  The government coops the mutants and you either play ball or your life is miserable.  Nick gets hunted down after 15 years, but instead of bringing him in, the Division guys let him go.  Eventually Dakota Fanning shows up telling Nick that they’re going to find millions of dollars, but really, she’s using him to find her mother.  On top of all that, Division is looking for this girl and there’s an experimental drug, mutant Chinese gangsters and a dozen or so other mutants running around.

Much like the X-men, there are probably too many mutants in this yarn.  On the up side, it is paced well and action scenes are nice.  Evans and Fanning are engaging to watch and the villain, played by Dijmon Hounsou, is okay.  Ultimately, the movie feels like 50 issues of a comic book crammed into two hours.  The story kind of ends, but doesn’t totally resolve, leaving room for sequels.  Somehow, I doubt that will happen.

Still, I kind of like a convoluted movie now and again.  It probably would’ve been a better TV show than movie.  And, although I felt for the characters, the formulaic elements that were left out, left me thinking, “I think this movie needs another hour to explain itself.”  It’s also a bad sign when you start to wonder how long the movie you’re watching is going to go on.  It’s almost exactly two hours.

On the one hand, they get right into the superpowers right up front.  But on the other hand, they try and do stuff like hiding the powers during the opening sequence.  Why hide them?  I already know what the movie’s about.  Don’t you realize I already saw the trailer where Evans gets thrown all over the Chinese restaurant?  It’s like making me wait for James Bond in a James Bond movie, you’re just stalling.

Also, Division comes off as vague, rather than clandestined and secret.  It’s only at the end of the movie does Dijmon I.D. it as part of the U.S. government.  That’s something that probably would’ve been better up front.  Plus with all the renditioning and torture, why not throw that in as a way to make the bad guys badder?

I’m nitpicking, but overall, I liked the movie.  I give it 6 keggers out of 10.  It’s probably a better rental.