Review of Superhero Harry

Introduction

The latest production from genuine guerilla filmmakers Ian Paterson and his co-conspirators at Superteam Productions. Last year I had the pleasure of reviewing their movie 2Epic. SuperHero Harry is their comic-book style comedy taking a satirical sideswipe at political correctness.

Harry Smith (Michael Smith) is a normal man going to work each day in Scarana City and he lives a normal, boring life. One day Harry is asked to help a few people while on the way to work. He reluctantly helps them, but each one thanks him and calls him a hero. This gets him thinking and he buys a superhero costume so that he can go out and help people. Then he acquires a set of superpowers from a mad scientist.

SuperHero Harry is a satirical comedy that waill elicit sly smiles rather than belly-laughs. Written and directed by Ian Paterson, the story is in the dialogue rather than the action. This of course underlines any shortcomings there might be in characterisation and acting. None of the players in the movie are professional actors - they`re in it for the love of the medium rather than hopes of being "discovered". Not that anybody turns in an awful performance - even professional actors hit lines they`re uncomfortable with and can sound stilted.

One thing that particularly impressed me from a technical point of view was the prowess of the visual effects team. Scene transitions are handled using a high-contrast video filter which turns the image into a line drawing, which is highly effective given the milieu of the story. There is one sequence towards the end of the picture with two CGI Tyrannosauri, which although not rendered to Hollywood standards is still pretty frickin` impressive for something shot in peoples` spare time with a beer-money budget. The Tyrannosauri look very reminiscent of Red Dwarf VIII`s Pete The Sparrow.

Superteam`s PR handout for the movie is slightly confusing, describing the release as a 2-disc set (I only got the movie-only disc) shot in anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1 (it`s straight 16:9, and some shots look oddly stretched like they were shot 4:3). The running time is 73 minutes rather than the stated 85. I think I`d have been better off not reading the handout and simply watching the disc.

Bottom line was, like their previous release 2Epic, I was really impressed. I like guerilla filmmaking, and I`ve seen some examples which have been terrific and some that have been terrible. SuperHero Harry is definitely in the former category and should be shown to some of these bloody film-course students at University about how to shoot a coherent story. Best of all, there`s none of that shaky-cam beloved of idiot BBC camera-ops.

Video

Shot in 16:9 DV, picture quality isn`t perfect, but it does the job. Scenes shot in bright sunlight are, naturally, the sharpest and most professional looking (which is a shortcoming on non-professional video cameras rather than any comment on the filmmakers).

Audio

Dolby Digital 2.0.

Features

Nothing.

Conclusion

This is filmmaking at its rawest and most enthusiastic. Superteam have the expertise and more importantly the vision and desire to make movies - a committment that many professionals in the industry lack. Of course they have a few rough edges - under the circumstances one would hardly expect a Hollywood product - but the final results are genuinely impressive. Given the resources, Superteam could give the professional British Film industry a run for its money. Support these guys. They put their hearts into this stuff, and do their darndest to bring their movie dreams to life. I can relate to that.