That said, Ivan Reitman's My Super Ex-Girlfriend could have been so much more. This is the same guy who gave us Ghostbusters and Heavy Metal, after all. And the actors and actresses are woefully underutilized. Luke Wilson gives an okay performance as a put-upon schlub who's dating life is a steady diet of unstable women. He's at least somewhat sympathetic. Uma Thurman struggles bravely to add some dimension to her cardboard cut-out character. Anna Faris won my poor geeky heart as the love interest, and Rainn Wilson adds some needed smarm to the movie. Bad news: Either Rainn needed a better part, or the part needed Vince Vaughn. Eddie Izzard was wasted in his role as the Lex-Luthor analog, and even Wanda Sykes, who normally makes my teeth curl, could have done so much more with her role.
I don't blame any of them. I blame the writer, or whoever came along and decided to gut the original script. This movie needed more of an edge. It needed to send up the "player" movies, it needed to do more to send up the superhero genre, it needed Uma to make her character a bit more like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, it needed to have fresher comedy in it.
What did we get, instead? We got a male-oriented chick-flick with superpowers sprinkled in it, and some not-so-fresh romantic comedy filler. Matt Saunders(Luke Wilson) and Vaughn Haige(Rainn Wilson) are two single guys, both of whom are lovable, but have issues. Matt's the wounded heart who's been burned by dating closet nutcases, Vaughnn's the smarmy hard-on whose relentless drive is only superseded by his sleaziness. Together, they don't fight crime, but they conspire to get Matt laid. After a fumbled attempt on a subway to impress Jenny Johnson (Uma Thurman), Matt finds himself in a comically bungled attempt at being a hero, only to be rescued by Jenny (who is secretly the super-heroine "G-Girl"(Holy failed originality, Batman!)), and wind up on a date with her. Much to his regret.
Yes, romantic wackiness ensues(with occasional bits of funny thrown in). In this mix, the evil Professor Bedlam (Eddie Izzard)gets involved with a dastardly plot to remove G-Girl's powers! On top of all this formulaic madness, Matt realizes he's actually in love with the bubbly, sympathetic Hannah Lewis (Anna Faris)! Oh noes!! Will everything turn out all right in the end? Will every respective party find true love and comically kinky sex? Will you leave the movie theater suspecting, as I did, that the script was originally written on an Etch-A-Sketch? Grab a mantinee, true believers, or better yet, rent it or watch it on cable.
But let's be fair: there were some funny moments in the film. The shark scene was, at least, original. The catfight scene was definitely worth a chuckle, as was the dinner scene. Also, stay for the end credits! Anna Faris and Luke Wilson have definite romantic chemistry, so much so that you want to walk into the picture and slap them both silly, which I guess is the point. So it's basically romantic froth, not edgy enough to be genuinely funny or original, but worth viewing with that significant other who doesn't quite share your love of superheroes. It could have been more, though, and that's criminal given that these two genres haven't been blended together before, and were two great tastes that could have tasted great together instead of merely okay.
