Superhero Movie is a 2008 comedy film written and directed by Craig Mazin and produced by David Zucker and Robert K. Weiss. Superhero Movie starred Drake Bell, Sarah Paxton, Christopher McDonald, and Leslie Nielsen. It was originally titled Superhero!.
Superhero Movie is a spoof of the superhero film genre, mainly the first Spider-Man. The film follows in the footsteps of the Scary Movie series of comedies, with which the film's poster shares a resemblance. It was also inspired by, and contains homages to, some of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker's earlier spoof films such as Airplane! and The Naked Gun.
Production began in September 2007 in New York. It was released on March 28, 2008 in the United States, and the UK release was June 6, 2008, and received 9 million dollars on its opening weekend and was number three in the box office. The film was rated PG-13 by the MPAA for crude and sexual content, comic violence, drug references, and language.
Rick Riker (Drake Bell) an upopular student at Empire High with his only friend Trey (Kevin Hart), living with his uncle Albert (Leslie Nielson) and Aunt Lucielle (Marion Ross). His crush Jill Johnson (Sara Paxton), who hardly notices him, is dating Rick's bully Lance Landers (Ryan Hansen). Rick and Trey are then shown to be on a school trip to an animal research lab. In the lab Rick meets Lou Landers (Christopher McDonald) who coughs up blood because he is terminally ill. Dr. Strom, the head researcher at the lab, then shows his seven mutated dragonflies, though there are only six there because one has escaped which then bites Rick, and causes his neck to swell.
The scene then goes to Rick's house where his Aunt Lucille and Uncle Albert are talking on the couch, when Rick comes in. He is very sick, and throws up in a fish tank because of his illness and goes up to his room. Albert and Lucielle believe Rick is acting strange, so Albert proceeds to talk to Rick. Rick then passes out from the bite.
He wakes up the next morning, with a strange video sent to him from a man wanting to speak to him, later adding Rick as a friend on Facebook. Meanwhile, Lou Landers gets into a scientific accident, transforming into the The Hourglass, who feeds on human life. At a science fair, with a comically rude and mean-spirited Stephen Hawking who gets physically hurt throughout the film, Rick gets into mishaps, such as becoming stuck to water fountains and a woman's breasts. He then realizes he has superpowers such as the ability to walk on walls, have incredible strength, but cannot fly. He tests his strength in an alleyway, he then decides to test how he can walk up walls, he climbs up and begins to break dance, he then has a lie-down on the wall and a cat walks up the wall beside him. He then sees an old woman about to be hit by a truck in the road and just as she is about to get hit he pushes her out of the way and the truck collides with him stopping it.
After his heroic feat he is congratulated by passers-by, but as they are congratulating him he looks to his right and sees he has accidentally pushed the woman into a woodchipper and the dog she was holding the lead of up is slowly getting pulled up into the machine as well. Trey offers to become his sidekick, but Rick resigns. His Uncle and he have a brief fight, which reminds Will when he was younger, and rich with his parents who die in a spoof of Batman Begins. His father urges him to invest of all his money in, instead of Google, but Enron.
Rick later, watches the girl of his dreams, Jill who leaves with Lance in his car, Rick wants a car, and he sets out to get money from the bank. He fails though, with no credit or payment.
After his uncle is quickly injured, Rick is met by Xavier (Tracy Morgan) at his school for mutants ala X-Men. Rick is told to make a costume, which he does (and later improves), and he becomes known as the Dragonfly. He quickly becomes a sensation until, his fight with The Hourglass, who The Hourglass ends up cutting him with little hourglass blades. The Hourglass then escapes.
Jill is then seen walking in an alleyway, and is attacked by thugs, but the Dragonfly saves her. The two then try to kiss, but as Dragonfly tries to hang upside down, he drops a few inches and is unintentionally face-to-face with her breasts. They then, kiss for the first time, and Jill thanks him. The scene then goes to a Thanksgiving dinner at Rick's house. During Thanksgiving, Lou visits the family (everyone is unaware he is Hourglass). He nearly catches Rick dressed as The Dragonfly, but doesn't.
Just as Rick and Jill are about to fall in love, The Hourglass comes in and murders Aunt Luciellle. After a comical funeral, Rick decides to throw in the towel as a superhero. Trey and Uncle Albert find Rick after the funeral with a fake beard, but then convince him to find and defeat The Hourglass. At a ceremony, Lou, with the help of a Windows disk, concocts a plan to make himself immortal, by killing thousands of people. Rick finds out where he plans on doing this, a convention of all races, right next to a comic-con. Lou is awarded the douschebag of the year award, and stalls away Rick from believing someone else is The Hourglass, and critically injures Jill.
After a sincere speech given by Stephen Hawkings to Rick, he dons the Dragonfly suit, and battles The Hourglass on the rooftop. Dragonfly heals Jill, but the Hourglass throws an Hourglass bomb onto Dragonfly's crotch. Dragonfly then puts his crotch next to Landers face, which blows up, killing Landers. He also saves Jill and himself from falling to their death by finally growing wings and being able to fly.
The film ends with The Dragonfly and Jill flying in the air sky high, with Rick giving his final narration, only to be stopped short, as both are hit by a helicopter.
The film was initially slated for theatrical release on February 9, 2007 as Superhero! under the direction of David Zucker.[1] However, it was delayed, and the film later began production on September 17, 2007 in New York, and the director's chair was shifted to Craig Mazin, a writer of Scary Movie 3 and 4, with Zucker being pushed back to being a producer.[2][3]
Zucker said the film primarily parodied Spider-Man, but it also spoofed Batman Begins, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Superman. The producer elaborated, "It's a spoof of the whole superhero genre, like we did with the Scary Movies, but this one probably has more of a unified plot, like the Naked Gun had."[4]
Star of the film Drake Bell composed and recorded a song just for the movie entitled "Superhero! Song". In the song he included co-star Sara Paxton on backup vocals. This song can be heard in the credits of the movie, however it is credited as being titled "Superbounce". This song was released onto the iTunes Store as a digital downloadable single on April 8, 2008.
Sara Paxton also sings the second song heard during the credits, titled "I Need A Hero" (not to be confused with Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero"), which she also wrote with Michael Jay and Johnny Pedersen.
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