Director: Ernesto Díaz Espinoza
Writer: Ernesto Díaz Espinoza
Producer: Derek Rundell
Starring: Marko Zaror, María Elena Swett, Ariel Mateluna
MPAA Rating: NR
Running time: 85 min
Country of Origin: Chile
Toronto After Dark Film Festival
Problems with bullies at school? Too many old ladies having their purses snatched in your city? Never fear. Just send a quick email to local super hero, MiargeMan, and if he has some time he’ll stop by the next day to beat the shit out of any perps hassling you. Yes friends, here is a superhero movie I can finally get behind with enthusiasm and recommend highly. And it’s from Chile!
“Mirageman” is a crime-fighting superhero brought to life accidentally by Maco; a young man who stumbles upon a burglarly late one night and decides to take justice in his own hands. Donning a ski-mask, Maco takes out several criminals at once, rescues all of the valuables and most importantly saves two women tied up within the apartment in danger of being raped and/or murdered. As it turns out, one of the rescued ladies is actually a fairly high-profile news anchor and her subsequent broadcast publicly thanks the masked man and pleads with him to show himself once again so she can personally thank him. This prompts Maco to rethink his life and realizes that he is exactly what his city needs most.
A side story whch also contributes to Maco’s decision to continue masked crime-fighting revolves around his mentally unstable, younger brother; committed to a sanitarium. The sudden emergence of someone he can really look up to and believe in seems to improve his health and encourages Maco to press forward in his endeavor.
The joy in MirageMan really lies with its ability to take all of the conventions of your typical superhero movie and mock them mercilessly… in a loving way. It’s a look at what a superhero might actually be like in the real world should he not have the benefit of unlimited funding, the ability to fly or shoot lasers from his eyes, a weapons research and design department or the ability to climb walls and swing through the city from skyscraper to skyscraper. No. Maco is a phisically fit (understatement) man with knowledge of martial arts and the will, courage and heart to take on anyone who deems “unfit” for society.
The biggest belly laugh comes with one of the most typical and iconic moments in super-hero comic books. The hero (particularly Superman) must quickly duck into a phone booth or a dark alley-way to change into his outfit. This usually takes mere seconds and a bit of magic. In the real world though, removing your socks and shoes to put on tights and don a mask takes a few minutes. It’s uncomfortable fun as evil criminals heist a bank or beat a man senseless while our hero is busy changing clothes behind a dumpster. Without ruining things, this one aspect of typical super-hero movies is even taken a step further and is just one example of the logistics to crime fighting that are usually ignored in a Batman or Spider-Man movie.
Besides the details of crime-fighting, our hero must deal with the media and the public. If you’re a masked super-hero appearing all over the evening news with acts of heroism and your email address is out there for the world to contact you, one can imagine the sort of emails you might receive. On top of these fantastic moments in the film, you’ve got general public opinion to deal with. It seems that most citizens of the city would prefer the police handle these matters – not some “crazed” vigilante. Meanwhile, Mirageman is being manipulated and used by both the criminal element and the media, who only want to further their ratings.
During the introduction to the film, Todd Brown from Twitchfilm provided some insights into the movie that make it all the more fun to watch. For one, the martial arts in this movie are essentially “real.” In other words, while the guys on screen know how to fight without hurting each other (much), these are real kicks and real take-downs. When a man gets kicked in the gut in midair and goes down like a sack of potatoes, it looks real because he actually was kicked in the gut and went down like a sack of potatoes. On top of that, there was little choreography involved. The director just tells the guys to “go at it” and let’s see what kind of footage we can capture. A brilliant tactic that works well.
Beyond this, there is zero CGI and zero wirework. Watch the trailer below and tell me if you can believe that. Well, believe it because it’s true. All of the jumping off walls, backflips and the horizontal spin kicks are apparently within the realm of physical possbility; amazing as it looks.
Marko Zaror, who plays Miargeman, is a towering piece of iron of a man. He’s well over six feet tall, weighs an easy 250 and would give a steam train one hell of a challenging boutof tug of war. Yes this guy really is a marvel of human physicality. When you stunt double for “The Rock” though, I suppose you have to be.
So the film is a truly a joy from start to finish with the laughs that ensue and the quality martial arts. As I think back to the film as I type, it occurs to me that the amount of layering in the plot is quite astounding for a Chilean film made with a budget of about fifty bucks. Toronto After Dark is a film festival designed with qulaity fun in mind. MirageMan epitomizes that philosophy perfectly.
Click “play” to see the trailer:
Links:
IMDb profile
Official Site
Flixster Profile for Mirageman
Toronto After Dark Film Festival
friend of mine from work said this was absolute shit, that it has gained a cult following from people impressed it was made with next to no money, but has become hyped far beyond its actual worth. Mind you, thinks the same thing about Blair Witch Project (as a number of people do).
I’d watch it, even though I don’t think the chance to will be very likely, and even though I could see that critique against it possibly being true. I mean, I was with you enjoying “The Man From Earth” but if it got hyped into a lot more a lot of people would walk away harshly criticizing it not getting what the big deal was.
Mirage Man is one of the great ‘loving’ spoofs of a genre. It may not have the budget of the Pegg/Wright/Frost pictures (i.e Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz), but there is a real smarts on display there. I expect it to rub a lot of the superhero enthusiasts the wrong way, because it is somewhat of a total smackdown of the genre, yet a solid entry into it nonetheless and even for the lack of budget. The film is FUN FUN FUN, if still a very small (even often quaint) production. Definitely worth a look.
i had the chance to see mirageman, and i was impressed. the fight scenes are top notch (zaror doesn’t pull punches), and the story is actually pretty clever. see it if you get the chance. it’s its own genre…
There is a lot of cleverness in there, it is more the drawing point of the film actually. Although yes there are a couple of painfully hard hits and fights to sweeten the pot.
kudos on revamping the 1960′s animated-in-toronto version of the spiderman score to grace note a couple of scenes. Obviously Raimi’s films are where this film is setting its satirical sights.