Also, in an interesting twist, The Hyperions is less a story about superheroes and more about a dysfunctional family with Mandulbaum as its patriarch. His endgame is creating the greatest superhero team to protect the world, and in doing so, he established a family environment for Vista and Ansel. They believe he is their father and treat him as such. When the two manage to disappoint him, he gives up on them, casts them aside, and moves on to new children. Abandonment is just one of the many themes explored.
Another surrounds power granted and taken away. If you’re a child (heck any adult) with superpowers, there’s a sudden jolt of self-confidence that comes with it. These powers make you special and unique compared to your peers. Now take it away, and a giant void is created. This loss of self and confidence is massive, leading to the Hyperion Museum’s storming. There are other spoilery plot points and twists that elevate these ideas.
“…Elwes is a joy…”
What keeps me from giving The Hyperions a glowing review is its overall energy, particularly in the performances across the board. The fact that this low energy is consistent throughout leads me to believe that it’s a creative choice from McDonald and not the actors’ fault. It’s an action film that flies at a respectable level of 6, when it should soar at an 8, 9, or 10… 11, if you will. I don’t mind that the story focused on the family issues of superheroes, but it needs the energy of an action film to give the family drama real stakes.
Looking back, the story of a family of Superheroes is excellent. Add Professor Mandulbaum as a father, who should never be a father, and the exploration of power granted and taken away absolutely works. Still, the overall tone is a disservice to these great ideas. The fix can be done without needing expensive superhero scenes.
In the end, The Hyperions is good, not great… worse, as it has the potential to be great. That said, it’s still a good story once you understand what it is saying. I think the younger set will like the film, presuming the parents can get past some of the salty language and let them watch it. Superhero fans, you’re out of luck on this one.
The Hyperions premieres on the Daily Wire YouTube channel and is available On-Demand.
"…a good story once you understand what it is saying."
Respectfully, I disagree with the assumption that the pacing is not an intentional choice by the director. This is meant to feel like an episode of the wonderful world of Disney. The art direction at the critical moment in the movie when the Dr makes his decision going into the finale is a classic example of the style this movie is seeking to emulate. Incredible acting, wonderful dialogue, and actual character development are only marred by how much the director borrowed from Wes Anderson, instead of striving to create his own style and flavor of composition, framing, and actor direction. If you compare the actions sequences in this movie to movies like Life Aquatic, you can see why the action and pacing choices were made.
At it’s heart, this is not a super hero movie, this is a movie about family, set in the tone of a sixties weekend family movie, that just happens to include characters who are super heroes.
I think you’re being way to nice and forgiving. This film was as dull as can be, most of the “laughs” fell completely flat, and it seemed cheap and amateur. Regardless of the messaging, the movie was hard to watch. Actually it was painful to watch. I stuck it out just hoping that it would come alive at some point.
This film was a lot like the Royal Tenanbaum’s in tone. It is a different take on the superhero genre. The Marvel / D.C. blockbusters mostly fall short when it comes to portraying internal conflict or empathy. Cardboard cutouts dressed up and given a superpower and catch phrase. I won’t knock that either though this genre has been about appealing to kids, you don’t need more. This movie succeeds in making characters that are less super and more human. Sort of a weird combination, an anti-hero hipster approach to super heroes, trying to be the opposite of what you expect. If you don’t mind the feeling of discontinuity I found it fun, clever and entertaining.