Rating: B
Dir: Ernesto Díaz Espinoza
Star: Marko Zaror, María Elena Swett, Iván Jara, Mauricio Pesutic
Before there was Kick-Ass, before there was Super, before there was even the comic-book which would be adapted into Kick-Ass, there was Mirageman. Yes, in their first pairing, Espinoza and Zaror go down the “crap amateur superhero” path. And to be honest, this may well be an improvement on its well-funded and better known Hollywood descendants. There’s a classic origin story: Maco Gutiérrez (Zorar) saw his parents killed and little brother institutionalized as a result of street crime. One day, he interrupts the robbery of TV presenter Carol Valdivieso (Swett), and consequently becomes masked vigilante, Mirageman. Fortunately, he’s very good at kicking arse.
Unfortunately, he’s a bit crap at all the other elements that go into being a hero – such as coming up with a good costume. Maco is painfully naive, simply handing out his email address ([email protected]) and unable to know who to trust. He ignores the overtures of wannabe sidekick Pseudo-Robin (Jara), and the person he puts his faith in most, ends up cynically using Mirageman for their own benefit. But his masked alter ego still becomes a local legend – not least, to his own brother – in part because of things like taking public transport around the city of Santiago. However, when a mission against a gang of paedophiles goes badly wrong, the hero needs to go off-grid and regroup. His downward spiral continues, and only the fortuitous intervention of Juan Moli (Pesutic) prevents the story of Mirageman coming to an unfortunate end. I guess every hero needs a redemption arc, including the not-so-super ones.
The joys here are numerous, albeit mostly to be found in the little things, like Maco drawing up a shopping list: “NECESSARY ITEMS: mask, gloves, belt, flexible pants, light slippers”. Or the pauses while he puts his costume on, with no instant changes in a phone-booth for Mirageman. In his starring debut, Zaror hardly says a word, letting his fists and feet do almost all the talking. This certainly plays to his strengths, making Maco the strong, silent type, with a heart of gold, though this leaves certain components underdeveloped, like the brother subplot. The limited resources are occasionally slightly obvious, though rarely in a way which impacted my enjoyment.
Perhaps the most obvious iinstance of this, was wondering how a low-budget movie such as this afforded licensing a lengthy section of David Bowie’s Life on Mars for the soundtrack. Perhaps this could only have been made in South America – where music rights are cheap? But in general, the low-fi and can do approach is in line with the low-fi and can do nature of its hero. It might have benefited from a better villain: a group of generic child molesters is merely okay, I suppose. Regardless, what you have here is a charming yet gritty take (the in-film artwork is unexpectedly disturbing) on a genre that still seems fresh, despite having been done to death over the two decades since. Kick-Ass just had its ass kicked.