Sparks (2014)

Superheroes on a Budget

Given the relentless wave of mega-budgeted superhero movies out of Hollywood, is there really room - or a need - for a low-budget indie superhero movie? Sparks answers the question in the affirmative, if not resoundingly so. There's always room for an entertaining movie, and Sparks is entertaining and worth a couple hours of your time, particularly if you are a comic book fan.

Sparks tells the story, mainly via flashbacks, of Ian Sparks (Chase Williamson), who lost his parents as a child as the result of a robbery gone wrong and has grown up vowing to fight evil-doers. Sparks eventually heads to the big city and becomes one of a group of "supers," costumed vigilantes fighting crime with the tacit approval of the police. He teams and falls in love with Lady Heavenly (Ashley Bell), a petite ass-kicker that grows famous enough to become a leading pitchwoman for various commercial products.

At a key moment, the relationship between Sparks and Heavenly is severed as the result of a dark run-in with Matanza (William Katt), a depraved serial killer. Sparks is thought to be a coward by the city's denizens that once worshipped him, and Heavenly leaves him. Sparks hits the skids, but is eventually pulled out of the gutter by a former cop, Archer (Clancy Brown), to take on a different villain. When this mission results in disaster, Sparks hits the skids yet again. But Matanza lurks, and he forces Sparks back into action to give Sparks another opportunity at redemption.

The movie, directed by Todd Burrows and Christopher Folino, wears its inspirations on its sleeve - Sin City, Watchmen, Unbreakable, and Peeping Tom appear most obviously (there's also an unmissable reference to Terminator 2: Judgment Day in the dialogue). Yet while there isn't much that's terribly original in this one, the filmmakers possess both the skill and the energy to sustain it as a satisfactory noir film. It's ultimately more entertaining and fun, while more adult, than most of the big budget action films out lately.

Kudos to Burrows and Folino for making the most of a limited budget. The limits of the budget are obvious at times, but that melts away through the earnest affection they seem to have for the genre. They are able to take the audience on a ride even if they lacked all the bells and whistles that they may have preferred.

The plotting gets fairly convoluted (you may want to make sure you don't have to leave for the bathroom in this one) with multiple flashbacks and many plot twists. While the thing threatens to careen out of control on several occasions, Burrows and Folino (Folino also wrote the film) seem to intuit when to bring things back on track with the original story. More kudos to them for managing a lot of flashbacks in a manner that is less confusing than it could have been.

Several of the surprises in the film are pretty easily figured out, but the filmmakers tend to soft-pedal the reveals - perhaps understanding that if they tried to over-sell their importance it might provoke more eyerolls than anything. Where the filmmakers find some less familiar territory is in the relationship between Sparks and his mentor Archer - it turns into something of a movie inside of a movie and gives us a healthy twist on the old master-student hero movie relationship that it recalls.

The Archer-Sparks subplot also introduces us to Dawn, a shape-shifting survivor of a radioactive meteor explosion. Dawn, played well by Marina Squerciati, provides the film with both pathos and a darker edge that the film really does need to differentiate itself. Dawn has a connection to Matanza and is in love with Sparks - and you just know that mix has to lead to tragedy. Dawn's character is also able to draw some darkness out of Sparks' character, as the only way she can convince Sparks to make love to her is to shift into the visage of Lady Heavenly (Sparks then promptly starts pimping her out to star-struck johns).

Ultimately, Dawn does more to draw some darkness out of the Sparks character than Chase Williamson is able to manage. When Williamson is playing Sparks as the naive, slightly goofy crime-fighter in the beginning, it works. But when Sparks hits the skids - which is much of the film - Williamson struggles to make it work. He just can't give Sparks much of an edge. It does hurt the film, as when Sparks turns into an alcoholic, or a pimp, or a down-and-out noir hero, he just can't quite make it as convincing as it should have been. The directors keep things moving pretty swiftly, however, and it only serves to limit the film, rather than ruining it.

Ashley Bell as Lady Heavenly is fine as the all-American girl, if somewhat undistinguished and not very convincing as the type of girl that can beat up multiple giant thugs at a time. Coming off best in this one are William Katt, who really doesn't get much screen time but appropriately chews it up when it arrives, and the aforementioned Squerciati as Dawn (who loses much of her screen time to Bell, but she's able to convey Dawn's innate sadness when she's on-screen in character).

As convoluted as the whole thing is, the filmmakers make it work as an entertaining superhero noir. It successfully maintains its child-like reverence for the world of comic books and superhero movies, while giving things a darker edge than you'll see in just about any PG-13 studio superhero movie headed for your multiplex. The movie is, ultimately, fun and never feels like a focus-grouped commercial like so many big Hollywood movies have become. It's worth a watch.

Screened in the theater.