I wasn’t sure what to expect out of a film entitled Boy Wonder—as an avid comic book fan/total nerd, I immediately made the connection between the title and Robin, Batman’s sidekick, often affectionately called the “boy wonder.” So when, in the first minute of the film, I have seen an idyllic scene between a young boy and his mother talking about classical music, followed immediately and without warning by a scene of that same mother being brutally murdered through a car window, I was a bit confused. Sadly, the movie ain’t all that great, mostly because of its vastly depressing nature and lack of a good message. Like, it’s bad.

The story tries to tie in the whole “Robin” connection by making that young boy grow up and start to avenge his mother’s death by executing random hoodlums and criminals who are up to no good. Let me just say, if Robin ever got off his rocker this much, Batman would have slapped him upside the head, repeatedly. And then been awesome by himself. But that’s another issue. This story is just…strange. There’s a number of different characters and storylines that all tie themselves together at the end, but it’s not in an emotionally satisfying way, nor is it particularly moral or uplifting or even defiant. It’s just bloody, gruesome, and ultimately ridiculous. By the end of the film, the film reel is littered with more dead bodies than the stage at the end of a Shakespearean tragedy, except without much justification or social commentary required for such an act.

See, the idea is that the kid who witnessed his mother’s murder, Sean (Caleb Steinmeyer), never really got over the admittedly tragic event. And now he’s kind of going crazy, deciding that his own moral compass and instincts are more effective tools of justice than the due process of the law. It’s an intriguing idea, but it’s just really badly written. And directed. And executed. And I really wish I hadn’t watched this movie so soon before going to sleep. Christ almighty.

So yeah, the script is pretty bad. There’s way more dialogue than there needs to be. But that’s not the worst part, by a long shot. The acting’s also pretty atrocious, every member of the cast resorting to either melodrama or racial stereotypes to shamble through the movie—the one exception to this is Bill Sage as Mr. Crazy McCrazyPants’s father, who manages to engage despite the bad script. But even that’s not the worst part. The worst part is the direction, hands down. Michael Morrissey, how are you possibly making worse this admittedly mediocre but still salvageable script by… Michael Morrissey. Oh. That’s why. Please, people, if you can’t pull off being a writer/director, don’t try it. It’s not easy. There’s a reason we regard them so highly.

The direction really is bad, though. The actors got

pretty much no help, I can tell. The soundtrack’s admittedly decent, with a good score, and there are a few moments of intriguing sound design. But my main problem, ultimately, is the lighting. Filming a scene where the only light source is a flashlight 100 yards away pointing mildly in the direction of the characters is not good lighting. It is not edgy. It is not intensifying. It is irritating. My roommate came in after I finished watching the film to ask if I was okay, because my eyes looked really red and sore. I understand that you’re trying to have the action be elusive and gritty, but it’s not gritty if we can’t see what the @#$% is going on.

I swear, these are the same complaints people have with a bunch of survival horror-esque movies nowadays (I’m looking at you, Alien vs. Predator): either the action is way too close up, way too dark, or over way too quickly. While Boy Wonder isn’t really guilty of that third point (some of the scenes are drawn out excruciatingly long), it certainly should be convicted for the first, and especially the second.

There is just no redeeming factor of the movie. It wasn’t campy. It took itself way too seriously from start to finish. And honest to god, it was just depressing as hell! We have a homicidal, creepy young man who, at the end of the film, has either utterly isolated or murdered everybody who cares about him, was not justified in his actions (at least, not enough, even though the film tries so very hard), does not receive treatment, and manages to convince the detective who was curious about his character and actions that he’s right in the things he did, a notion so crazy, I can’t even fathom who could believe such a thing. And yet it condones it. I’m done.

I mean, holy moral relativism, Batman. This one’s a doozy.

Synopsis:

A young Brooklyn boy witnesses the brutal murder of his mother and grows up obsessed with finding her killer. Thus begins his life as a quiet, straight-A student by day and a self-appointed hero at night. But what is a real hero? And who decides what is right or wrong? As the boundaries blur, Sean’s dual life wears on his psyche and his two worlds careen dangerously close to colliding. Like a graphic novel you can’t put down, Boy Wonder challenges morality, distorting perceptions of what is right and what is justified, as it races to its shocking conclusion.