The Hyperions

Jon McDonald's superhero comedy "The Hyperions" is quite possibly the most unique entry in the superhero genre I have ever seen. Its use of cartoonish visual effects to convey superpowers is gleeful to watch and it never gets old.

The humor is much akin to a Wes Anderson film, with dry jokes pervading the screenplay in every scene. Not all of them land, but they always fill the already fantastical world with even more levity.

I was surprised by how much I liked the characters and how they interact with one another. They're all distinct with their own unique grudges against each other, and it's cathartic at times to watch them overcome their misgivings.

Unfortunately, this film contains a lot of high concepts, and packing them all into 90 minutes proves a little too daunting. It certainly doesn't waste any of its impressive story and world building elements, but none of them are used quite as effectively as they could have been. The film ends feeling quite rushed...all of the characters' emotions and the superpower elements could have been explored and integrated far more deeply and effectively than they were.

Despite its somewhat surface-level treatment of its deep material, this is a breezy watch, and a far more engrossing one than I was expecting.

The acting and props were fine for the budget available. The problem in the movie is it really seemed unsure of what it wanted to be. One moment the movie would feel like it wanted to be a comedy, which is where it was the best. The problem is it would suddenly go from a comedy to a family drama. Which can work but the character me needed to be better developed which the movie did not have time to do.

It felt like there was a much larger story to tell, but they did not have the time or budget to tell it. So it is not a bad movie to watch, but I would not recommend this as a feature to subscribe to the daily wire and watch.

Cary Elwes is one of those guys that everytime you see him in something you ask yourself, "I love this guy, why don't I see him in more stuff?" That definitely applies here. Though the movie itself is fairly awful, it may be worth checking out just to watch Elwes. Director Jon McDonald misses bigtime with his sophomore outing in a very poor, all style and no substance movie that might be excellent for all audiences, content wise, but I doubt anyone would stick around past the first half hour to see how it ends. The hubris for an inexperienced director to try such an ambitious project from the super hero genre with such a small budget was where things first went wrong. McDonald tries to make up for it with cool photography and other tricks, borrowing styles from the likes Wes Anderson, but the end result only underscores how bad the script is (written by the director, naturally). There is no story to follow, no character development, no amazing special effects, and much more (less?). Outside of Elwes, nobody in the cast does anything worth watching. In fact, the only other character I found at all interesting was a fat security guard that only had a few lines. I gave this movie 4 stars because of Elwes, otherwise it would get a 3.

I saw the trailer and thought, "Oh, this looks fun."

I was wrong. It was really boring. I didn't care about any of the characters. The extremely limited super hero scenes were super cheap looking. I enjoyed the 70s aesthetics but that wasn't enough to carry the film. Especially considering that most of the movie took place in one room.

A lot of the reviews here feel the need to mention "The Daily Wire" being involved with this movie. That should neither be a pro nor a con. This movie sucked, and it doesn't matter who made it or why. If you like watching spoiled children complain about how much of a douche their father is (and he is), you'll love this movie. Because that's all it is. Anyone who gave this movie a 10 is lying.

Some movies don't really take off and don't really go anywhere, it's like the director is experimenting or thinks all their ideas are so cool or so cute... not!