Astonishingly good filmmaking crippled by the choice of the lead actor. That this movie was (reportedly) made for $12 million is a wake-up call for Hollywood; to achieve what it does on this budget shames the entire industry. It is a remarkably fresh take on the superhero genre made by someone who understands that many people under 40 are getting better stories -and a sense of wonder- from the best video games, rather than movies.
The special effects are astoundingly good, and, for once, are at the service of the story; sparingly where necessary, before building up to a stunning climax in the last third. They were not only more effective and superior than what is usually seen in a $150M production, they were used in a smarter and more convincing fashion.
The tempo of the story is managed perfectly over the 90-odd minutes, and some of the actors involved would seem to have a big future. The black dude has the charisma of a Denzel Washington; he, the cousin and the filmmaker/girlfriend all complete their roles perfectly, without any of the self-aware over-acting prevalent in most studio movies these days.
The only negative for me was a big one; I nearly turned it off after the first ten minutes due to the fact that the lead character was possibly the most whiny, wet and irritating I have ever seen in a film. It wasn't that he stood out more due to the higher standards being set everywhere else, because I was ready to turn it off before knowing how good the rest of the movie would turn out to be.
I get it that a huge part of the movie was the contrast provided when a powerless, submissive protagonist gains extraordinary power, yet even the most determinedly unsympathetic anti-heroes pale in comparison to this guy. As the victim of many circumstances out of his control, even when he turned evil I felt like there should have been at least some stage where I gave a sh*t but this never happened. Much of this has to do with how the character was written, yet I think literally any other actor playing that character would have made for a better film.
I don't know the history of the director, the cinematographer or the writers of the script; if they are all unknowns then what they achieved here is even more impressive. As of late, only Christopher Nolan puts together something this polished, this assured....with 20 times the budget.