...Writer-director Robert Townsend's 1993 superhero-comedy "The Meteor Man."
25 years before Marvel/Disney unleashed "Black Panther" (2018) - and even five years before Marvel's first hit "Blade" (1998) - which went on to become a major cultural and cinematic achievement, the first black superhero movie of any significance was "The Meteor Man." A who's-who of prominent black Hollywood talent and early-'90s hip-hop stars, "The Meteor Man" is an original (as in, not based on any pre-existing material) superhero movie that doesn't always work, but it does have laughs, action and special effects (by George Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic), and a sentimental but nonetheless positive message about standing up for and taking pride in your community (that word sure does come up a lot in this movie).
Townsend ("Hollywood Shuffle," "The Five Heartbeats") stars as Jefferson "Jeff" Reed, a mild-mannered substitute teacher in a particularly rough section of Washington, D. C., along with his friend Michael (comedian Eddie Griffin). He lives in a boarding house with his aging parents (Marla Gibbs and the late Robert Guillaume) and he often encourages his students to run away from danger instead of standing their ground and fighting back (a stance he gets reprimanded for by the school's administrators and angry parents).
Jeff's neighborhood has been overrun by crime, much of it orchestrated by the Golden Lords, a local gang who are easily identified by their peroxide-blonde haircuts and shiny black-leather wardrobe and expensive cars and motorcycles. They're led by Simon (Roy Fegan), and are the most feared and powerful gang in the city. The people in Jeff's neighborhood hold nightly meetings at the community center and they all agree on one thing: the situation with the Golden Lords is hopeless, and they cannot rely on the police for help.
One night, Jefferson gets hit in the chest by a glowing green meteor and before you know it, he can absorb all the information in a book just by touching it (though he only retains the information for 30 seconds); develops X-ray vision, as well as "laser eyes"; he can talk to animals; telekinesis; gains superhuman strength, speed, reflexes, and invulnerability; and can fly (though Jefferson must overcome his embarrassing fear of heights first). His mother stitches together a Superman-like costume for him, and his father also dishes some free advice: - "Maybe you can go international and save South Africa!" though Jefferson opts to stay local, where soon a number of people learn his true identity and becomes a local fixture around the community as he takes on crime.
That last bit is probably the greatest reason to see "The Meteor Man" if you're a fan of positive-message movies. Aside from being the first black superhero movie ever made, "The Meteor Man" was also another one of the earliest films made by a black filmmaker to show that life in the inner-city is not all crime, violence, poverty, and drugs (think back to Spike Lee's 1989 masterpiece "Do the Right Thing"). And the film shows black neighborhoods in a positive light that a bigger-budgeted Hollywood picture would be casually dismissive of.
"The Meteor Man" shows that when it comes to the problems facing rough neighborhoods, you don't always need a caped crusader (though it certainly helps) on stand-by, but the people living there need to believe in the community themselves, and they also must have the courage to fight for it (as perhaps best demonstrated by the film's climatic ending confrontation involving Jefferson and the residents finally standing up against the Golden Lords); Jefferson understood that much, even before gaining superpowers. And it is that inspiring message that keeps the film above water - which also happens to remind me of Living Colour's similar-themed song "Open Letter (To A Landlord)" - even if the film itself is not perfect and does not always seem to touch upon all of the intriguing ideas it presents (i.e., how and why Jefferson seems to lose his powers from time to time).
"The Meteor Man" is a hit-and-miss show; the ILM-produced special effects seem curiously dated (like they could have been produced in the late '80s rather than 1993); the soundtrack is very much of the time it was produced, though as a major old-school hip-hop fan, it was nice to see Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, Cypress Hill, and Naughty By Nature make cameo appearances; and the script does sometimes feel like it was cobbled together from a number of different sources that could have had their own feature-length productions.
Still, "The Meteor Man" is a fun and terrifically entertaining, and civic-minded, superhero movie.
Get Meteor-ized.
7/10.
