Archenemy

Hamster is a black teenage aspiring to be an investigative reporter like Hunter Thompson. He finds his subject in homeless man Max Fist (Joe Manganiello) who claims to be a hero with superpowers. He comes from another world and the problem is that his powers only exist in his home world. Hamster's sister gets into trouble with drug dealers after stealing their money.

I really like the premise but I would slow-roll the comic book animation. The first half of the movie shouldn't have the animation. The audience should be conflicted about Max Fist's story and his home world. He should be equally crazy and equally heroic. I like the fight against the car and there should be more of that. This is smaller indie and the movie struggles to be a big action superhero movie that it wants to be especially in the third act. All in all, I like the characters, the actors, and the premise.

I like Joe Manganiello. No matter how many bad roles he does, I still have something in my heart for him, some hope that he will do better and shine. Unfortunately it's not this film. The plot is not that original, but OK: a guy pretending to be a superhero from another dimension, while we have to struggle to believe him in lack of any real evidence, the hapless kids that get into something bad and need help, the comic book vibe, the resolution at the end. And it kind of starts promising, too. Yet from the middle on it just gets depressing and slow and badly acted.

Bottom line: I would have liked to like this film, but it just wasn't the case. It felt like an episode of Powers with an even lower budget and worse acting.

Few movies shot in this twisted style. Comic book inserts that are perfectly woven into the storyline lend a good narrative to this yet grim story.

The title says it all. It's way better than 5 stars. The difference between 5 and 7 is don't watch or watch. That's a huge difference. It's really well directed and decently written.

Acting was decent and the the way that the comic style depictions of another dimension were woven in was great. If they made a sequel I'd watch it.