"Archenemy" doesn't fully land vision of a grittier, low-budgeted take on superhero lore

Archenemy (2020)

In the vein of Peter Berg’s “Hancock” or M. Night Shyamalan’s “Unbreakable”—but never as cynical or as unpleasant as James Gunn’s “Super”—“Archenemy” wants to be the grittier, lower-budgeted urban cousin to superhero fare of the Marvel brand. A filmmaker with a bold vision and a very distinct style, writer-director Adam Egypt Mortimer (2019’s “Daniel Isn’t Real”) and co-writer Lucas Passmore have conceived of an intriguing idea concerning an antihero that’s been billed as “‘The Wrestler’ but with a superhero.” While that isn’t an inaccurate comparison, the film seems to be missing that tragic pathos needed to make more of a splash as a nihilistic-turned-hopeful deconstruction of superhero lore. Even with a lovingly geeky adoration for comics and superheroes clearly on display and made on a smaller scale ripe for intimacy, “Archenemy” is less gonzo, pulpy fun than it is strangely dull. 

Joe Manganiello doesn't have to dig too deep to find his inner Marv—as in Mickey Rourke’s hard-boiled character in “Sin City”—and grunt away as Max Fist, a drunken homeless man who claims to be a cosmic cape crusader hailing from the space city of Chromium. One day, he is met by an aspiring influencer from the streets named Hamster (Skylan Brooks), who believes Max’s outlandish story about falling to Earth after his archenemy Cleo (Amy Seimetz) ripped a hole in the space-time continuum. Complicating matters, Hamster’s drug-dealing sister Indigo (a magnetic Zolee Griggs) finds herself in deep when she steals money from her boss, a local kingpin called The Manager (Glenn Howerton), and might need help from Hamster and his new friend. Could Max actually be a grizzled superhero, or just a mentally ill hobo who happens to look like Mr. Sofía Vergara and lives under a bridge?

“Archenemy” makes its introductions, but it never quite finds its footing to feel like it’s telling a full story. Max Fist seems like a passenger in his own origin story, too, but it’s just as well when it’s never in doubt that Max is who he says he is, a hero from another dimension and powered by cosmic blood. Joe Manganiello surely commits to the brutish Max, but he stands at an emotional distance from the viewer compared to Indigo and Hamster. The most tension actually arises when the film follows self-proclaimed “sugar plum fairy interstellar princess” Indigo who’s playing the dangerous game just to make a better life for her and Hamster, particularly during a jolting pick-up for the Manager from paranoid loose-cannon Tango (a tatted-up, never-before-seen Paul Scheer). 

Otherwise, by trying to ground this heightened crime world, director Adam Egypt Mortimer only brings the most eye-popping creativity and personality to the pinked-hued pop art of the comic book-styled animated stretches. As one of the Big Bads, Glenn Howerton is merely okay as the psychotic Manager, making one wish he embraced more of an unhinged glee like Walton Goggins in the recent “Fatman.” Then again, Amy Seimetz is offbeat casting as Cleo, the real archenemy, and she mesmerizes as the subdued villainess in a silly wig. When the moving parts have finally come together after some solidly staged but forgettable brawls and shoot-outs, the film is already in its climactic confrontation. Independent pieces within “Archenemy” are interesting and splash-worthy, but the whole not so much.

Grade: C

RLJE Films released “Archenemy (90 min.) in theaters, on digital, and on demand on December 11, 2020.