There is this small little film which surprised me a couple
weeks ago – Boy Wonder. I don’t know if I can recommend it, simply because I’m not
sure if it’s actually a good film. What I can say about Michael
Morrissey's debut film is that it wasn’t far off being something special. I know that doesn’t
make sense – how can I not recommend something but say that same film wasn’t far
from being special?
…
Boy Wonder is about a mild mannered but troubled teenager
called Sean, who saw his mother murdered when he was a child.
Now, in his teenage years, he tracks down violent and despicable criminals to dish out his own brand
of justice.
I’m pretty sure this may sound familiar.
…
I love Batman, but I’m not a Batman expert. My knowledge of
the character stems from my love of the Nolan films, my admiration of the
Barton films, my secret affair with the Joel
Schumacher and my recent experience with the excellent Long
Halloween comic series.
But, with that said, the core of the Batman mythos just doesn’t ring true to
me – at least the Batman stories that I'm aware of. If you saw both your
parents murdered and you believed it to be your fault,
how doesn’t that send you crazy? You can argue that running around in a rubber
costume in the dead of night is crazy, but in the Batman stories that I have experienced, that tragic event is treated as a plot device to turn Bruce into the caped
crusader.
Boy Wonder on the other hand treats a similar event very
differently. The death of Sean’s mother is at the centre of everything in this
film; that event touches every character in this film in some way. Its effect
on Sean is the reason why I buy into this world and it's also why I get
so frustrated about the films short comings.
…
And here is the thing, although it is obvious
that Sean is well trained, intelligent and focused; his rage is, well… messy. His
rage is actually brutal and importantly, it’s deadly. Yes, Sean kills his
victims. As stupid as this sounds, this was another thing that shocked and
surprised me about this film, because once again, I was so used to the rules
set out by the Batman stories.
While Batman works outside of the justice
system to ultimately aid it, Sean simply doesn’t believe in the system at all.
He believes that the system is complicit in the injustice surrounding his
mother's death. If you get a change to see this film, take note of his speech about due
process.
…
What is frustrating about this film is that
apart from Caleb Steinmeyer and Bill Sage, everyone else in this film sucks. It’s
poorly acted and I’m not convinced that this is all because of the script,
because I’ve heard many clichéd things said in Nolan’s Batman films that
sounded very cool. This thing is littered with very bad actors.
What I will blame Michael Morrissey for is the inconsistency in his directing. There are parts of this film that are jaw droppingly good, such as the opening sequence – but there are other parts where the camera work is student film poor. You can hardly follow the action scene because the camera is so damn shaky and the cutting so damn quick that you don't know who's shot who.
Also, did I mention how bad the
acting is? It really is bad.
…
But, I really don’t want to get bogged down
on the negatives, because this is a great story stuck in a poor films body. It
really is.
Sean is what Bruce Wayne could have been if
he didn’t have all that money. And it’s this element which makes this film
worth while to me. I bet Bruce got a lot of psychological help when he was
younger.
This film asks a really interesting question
at the end: Has the lack of psychological help and support to deal with his
mother’s death left Sean mentally unstable?
@ChocoTeddyFilms
@ChocoTeddyFilms