Plastic Man (Super Hero #3 of 5)

This is cool? I just don't get it.

Genre: Action with Traces (I said Traces, certainly not Dollops) of Comedy

Premise: Ex-con Daniel O'Brien wins childhood love, Dr. Susan Bright. Then he's turned into plastic man and fights industrialist Icarus Argon, also a Plastic Man. It's a very simplistic, goofy plot despite its length (128 pages).

About: Speilberg's production company, Amblin, was attached to helm this film. But Amblin didn't Men in Black instead, the Wakowski brothers did The Matrix, and the film was soon forgotten about. There's been talk recently, nothing confirmed on IMDB so it's still speculative, that the Wachowskis are gonna direct this sometime soon with Keanu Reeves as Plastic Man (the most wooden actor as the most malleable superhero....pretty brilliant casting!)

Writers: Andy and Larry Wachowski are the only credited writers. And, for the sake of things, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I'm not a fan. I understand the Matrix has a large following, but that's about the only decent film they've done and the sequels sucked. V for Vendetta is mediocre? Speed Racer and Assassins just suck. At some point, people started thinking they were talented because they were the creative geniuses behind a blockbuster series. Just doesn't impress me. Sorry.

I've tried to read Plastic Man comics several times in the past. And I just don't get it. He's malleable and plastic....quite like Gumby, Spiderman, or... Mr. Fantastic. Only the comics never have enough comedy or style in them to differentiate the series away from these other, close in genre superheros. So I checked out very easily with Plastic Man, and I don't really quite why other people care for this series so rampantly. It's just a B-grade comic. And, that being said, the writing was never that terrific. An Alan Moore Plastic Man might work.

So that being said, I don't care about Plastic Man's origins. Even though the idea of having him start off as a criminal is certainly awesome. And this script devotes about 80 percent of its pages to explaining how Plastic Man's life was set up. And you can tell as you're reading this thing that there were going to be crazy special effects and visuals. But as far as this story goes, why spend so much time explaining the origin of a superhero nobody ever really cares about?

The Wachowski brothers do much to save the storyline, however. The script is filled with plenty of funny things (Plastic Man hates people who literer, and even at the end after he's proven himself a hero is still chasing litter bugs. Also plenty of cool shots, and set ups). This thing kind of reminded me of that Pixas film, The Incredibles, in places due to all its sight gags. And the more I'm thinking of it, wasn't Mr. Incredible also bendy and malleable?

I just don't get it. What is cool about somebody who can extend their arms and bend into various shapes? That'll get old real quick. Particularly when the character is already kind of flat. I'm half tempted to say this idea is such poppycock that's the reason it never had enough strength or oomph to get made into a feature film. But, if the Wachowski brothers ever do make this film and it does have Keanu Reeves in it, I'd expect it to fair at the box office. The visuals alone would be awesome. Add a few more jokes into this film, which there aren't too many of in the draft I read (I hear the later ones are funnier), and you've got a strongly mediocre popcorn flick.

Scooby Doo (Complete Crap)
[X] - Atilla (Poor, Few Redeeming Qualities)
Wedding Crashers (Mediocre)
Hot Rod (Good)
Definitely Maybe (Pretty Darn Good

Isla Prospects: Dr. Susan Bright is almost certainly an intelligent blonde. As evidenced by Scooby Doo, Isla can't do blonde and as evidenced by Confessions of a Shopaholic, she can't really do intelligent either.

What I Learned: Origin stories are interesting (the Wolverine one follows this formula too)... if you present a story that the audience is hooked on you can get away for a long stretch of time without a semblance of a plot or anything that even remotely resembles a taut story line. In the case of Wolverine, I went along for the ride. For Plastic Man, I checked out before the end of the first act.