Oh Mr. Trost, what have you done to the super hero genre? Right after I watched this film I watched Headshot from Thailand and FP which seemed like much better done films. From the trailer you had me Mr. Trost, the concept of four heroes beating the crap out of each other to save innocent victims from a super villain, you had me, but the actual film has little of that action. Many people will argue, well it was of very small budget. I'd argue it had nothing to do with that and sometimes writing, dialogue and story can easily save the day.
Some scenes I loved: the fight between Charge and Cutthroat and the ending fight with bad guys wearing animal costumes. Then just a few seconds, a sister being blown up, a flamethrower Uncle Sam played by a nerd actor I've seen in the background of a ton of films. That was it, the start was getting me interested, but sort of lead nowhere.
Four heroes wake up, don't know where they are, have some dead bodies around them and have lost their powers. Sounds so good so far. It turns out a super villain who doesn't have a super villain costume has trapped them and will make them play his game or innocent people will die. He's not playing fair.
Charge who was the leader of this disbanded team which has been forced back together, does carry the leader role, you have an angry ex-subordinate with Cutthroat and then the love interest...aaerarartaasthgasqgts. Why put in a love interest? Shadow or the dumbest female hero ever constantly pissed me off. She needed to be protected, didn't help a friend when they were being killed even though she easily could have done something and in general was stupid. Cutthroats's anger issues had me rooting for him and created some nice tension in the group. Wall was a wall of acting and nothing. Charge at the start was a smart leader. He used his head and grabbed a map and a backpack for supplies. He had sort of the gamer/rpg fans knowledge to come up with a plan. The rest of his team were idiots.
There were dark moments here and there. People got blown up, but I didn't connect with those people nor was any of their deaths that horrific. Being blown up is awful, but there's no impact while watching as a explosion happens off camera or doesn't show anything more than a blast. It lacks the edge you were expecting from an indie film that could do whatever nasty things it wanted.
5 Minutes is all the time you need
Trapped in a city, a small city but quite a few blocks on the map that Charge carries requires 5 minutes of walking to get anywhere. Not running as I never see the heros do this, but walking when lives are in danger. It doesn't matter where you are in this town, because 5 minutes will get you from the wood mill to the dry cleaners to the edge of town easily. Would it have been so hard to write some different times, it just made it seem silly.
What's going on with the flashbacks
In one flashback that comes out of nowhere Charge is eating a taco and it's suppose to be a touching moment on the team coming together to fight bad guys. Flashbacks are in back and white which is a fine choice and are usually there for the audience to learn something about the characters that's important. None of the flashbacks were needed and seemed out of place in the film. No real back story is gained and they all kind of remind me of drugs are bad videos I'd watch in school.
The thing with the eye
Something is wrong with Mr. Trost's right eye. I bring it up, because of the great lengths he uses in cinematography to cover up that fact in this film. I suggest making a drinking game every time Charge/Trost's eye is blocked. Be it sunglasses, someones head, being out of focus or what not take a shot. The most obvious part is his torn mask, which is backwards on the cover. The absurdity of it will get to you.
Acting wise Charge and Cutthroat do a fine job even if the dialogue in this is basically saying "Fuck" and "Jesus". Wall and Shadow never seemed to have fought crime before this day and respond like they've never been heroes before. James Remar was a terrible as the villain, simply terrible. He is not a villain you love to hate, he wore a bow tie. Bow ties are for bad guys? At some points I thought he was pre-recorded and one of the four heroes was getting revenge on the others, but no.
All Superheroes Must Die is a great concept which should have been explored more, maybe even sold to another studio. It has some moments, but nothing that screams violent or truly heroic.
The Blu-ray didn't come with any extras and for an indie movie it's a bit odd. The production company also had a different name from The FP and I don't mean Drafthouse Films, so it's once again as I say on my site odd. Can't say I like the cover art, which is important to fans. It depicts two of the heroes from the film with a backdrop that's nowhere in this film. At no point are they in the big city in full costume with a helicopter, it screams fast marketing for people to just pick it up based on the cover. Back cover you have a quote from Twitch Film, "James Remar is excellent as the villain. Simply excellent." However, the full review has the reviewer saying they're on the fence if the film is good and brings up the same points I do. That review was back in 2011, when the film was simply called VS.
Here's the top comment from that review
"Very much disappointed in this one that had so much potential but left me cold in the end.. I think this was the weakest of all that I saw at After Dark last week. It was the kind of film that you wanted to succeed but there were so many flaws in the film that they were glaringly evident.. You never find out what super-powers these 4 had before they were stripped of them, the villain was like a really cheesy version of Lex Luthor dropping one liners just to amuse himself.. It was billed as Kick-Ass meets Saw, but it was no more than a PG movie when you minus the profanity. The deranged Uncle Sam was a nice touch though.." -Steven
The CHUD review did like the film, but still had some problems with it. "A true burn-everything-to-the-ground superhero movie"? The same reviewer has their synopsis used for the back cover.
The Blu-ray was provided by the publisher for review
