Sigh... Here we go again.
I only recently reviewed "Super", exposing it for what it was: a cheap exploitation. "Griff the Invisible" is just as much so as "Super". Read my review on "Super", all the points I made against it are valid in this case as well. These movies do not have to be about "the darker side" of being a superhero. In case of Griff, he's not even a hero, he's an antihero in the correct sense of a word. Dictionary definition states the following: antihero is a central character of a work of fiction who lacks the traditional heroic virtues.
All the usual shenanigans are there in the case of Griff: a very unsympathetic protagonist, a lack of motivation, a lack of a defined antagonist (bad for a superhero movie, "Super" had a good one though) and a very strong female lead.
The movie is essentially about an adult that's unable to grow up, living in a fantasy world and a girl that comes to his aid. Very similar to "Defendor", except that particular movie wasn't bad at all (also the protagonist had a mental developmental disability).
The movie is also full of pseudo-scientific nonsense to make it seem more intellectual, where's it comes out as silly to anyone with even an elementary knowledge of the discussed (pseudo-)scientific topics. I shall give one example of this. One of the main characters pounders a "theoretical" possibility of one physical object being able to move straight through another, due to the fact that most space between the molecules and atoms that an object is comprised of is empty. That fact is true: we are mostly empty space if we're talking about matter only. But those atoms and molecules also have bonds between them to form an object, unless it is a gas where those bonds are very weak. These bonds keep us together, were they to break we would fall apart. These bonds are energetic in nature, they would be disrupted if another bond were to be introduced in the same space. To penetrate solid matter an object has to reach a superfluid state, a highly homogeneous state of matter, but even then it is not really penetrating anything, but rather seeping through tiny empty cracks, benefiting from a complete lack of friction. It goes without saying that one would never survive such a transformation.
Oh, yes, there's also a lot of metaphysical garbage as well and as some of us may know: metaphysics is useless because it can be used to explain everything, since it itself is built out of the unknowable.
The only two good things I have to say about Griff are as follows. Maeve Dermody who plays Melody does so very neatly. She brings a lot of life into this barren wasteland of a film. She's also a great actress, I hope to see her in a movie that is actually good. Also the soundtrack is very nice indeed.
The ending is interesting, but I had seen it done before, so nothing special there.
Nothing else to say about it really. As a struggling superhero sub-genre goes this one is nothing to write home about. I suggest you skip it. Two points to Maeve and a half to the soundtrack, rounding it down, just because I feel like it.
I only recently reviewed "Super", exposing it for what it was: a cheap exploitation. "Griff the Invisible" is just as much so as "Super". Read my review on "Super", all the points I made against it are valid in this case as well. These movies do not have to be about "the darker side" of being a superhero. In case of Griff, he's not even a hero, he's an antihero in the correct sense of a word. Dictionary definition states the following: antihero is a central character of a work of fiction who lacks the traditional heroic virtues.
All the usual shenanigans are there in the case of Griff: a very unsympathetic protagonist, a lack of motivation, a lack of a defined antagonist (bad for a superhero movie, "Super" had a good one though) and a very strong female lead.
The movie is essentially about an adult that's unable to grow up, living in a fantasy world and a girl that comes to his aid. Very similar to "Defendor", except that particular movie wasn't bad at all (also the protagonist had a mental developmental disability).
The movie is also full of pseudo-scientific nonsense to make it seem more intellectual, where's it comes out as silly to anyone with even an elementary knowledge of the discussed (pseudo-)scientific topics. I shall give one example of this. One of the main characters pounders a "theoretical" possibility of one physical object being able to move straight through another, due to the fact that most space between the molecules and atoms that an object is comprised of is empty. That fact is true: we are mostly empty space if we're talking about matter only. But those atoms and molecules also have bonds between them to form an object, unless it is a gas where those bonds are very weak. These bonds keep us together, were they to break we would fall apart. These bonds are energetic in nature, they would be disrupted if another bond were to be introduced in the same space. To penetrate solid matter an object has to reach a superfluid state, a highly homogeneous state of matter, but even then it is not really penetrating anything, but rather seeping through tiny empty cracks, benefiting from a complete lack of friction. It goes without saying that one would never survive such a transformation.
Oh, yes, there's also a lot of metaphysical garbage as well and as some of us may know: metaphysics is useless because it can be used to explain everything, since it itself is built out of the unknowable.
The only two good things I have to say about Griff are as follows. Maeve Dermody who plays Melody does so very neatly. She brings a lot of life into this barren wasteland of a film. She's also a great actress, I hope to see her in a movie that is actually good. Also the soundtrack is very nice indeed.
The ending is interesting, but I had seen it done before, so nothing special there.
Nothing else to say about it really. As a struggling superhero sub-genre goes this one is nothing to write home about. I suggest you skip it. Two points to Maeve and a half to the soundtrack, rounding it down, just because I feel like it.