Supersonic Man (1979)

Film review #706

Director: Juan Piquer

SYNOPSIS: A superhuman being from another planet is sent on a mission to Earth to save humanity from itself. Settling in New York City under the name of Paul, he has to stop the sinister plot of Dr. Gulik, who plans to take over the world…

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Supersonic Man (sometimes known as just Sonic Man) is a 1979 superhero film. From the outset, we see our hero in a spaceship or capsule thing as he is sent to earth to save humanity from himself, eventually coming up against some evil genius. It will not take much brainpower to work out that this is a low-budget derivation of the recently released Superman films of the time, looking to cash in on that much more successful film. From the opening, featuring tacky special effects, iffy greenscreens, and a robot that’s built out of cardboard boxes and wielding a flame thrower, you know what to expect from the rest of the movie; and yes, it offers no real surprises: Sonic Man’s must protect his love interest, she gets kidnapped anyway, her Father is a scientist who has also been kidnapped to work on a superweapon…all the usual stuff. There’s never really a point where the film takes on it’s own identity and doesn’t feel like a rip-off.

The funniest moments in this film (unintentionally) are when Sonic Man has to use his super powers and the special effects have to find a way to produce them: from iffy greenscreens as he flies above New York City, to lifting up a bulldozer that is clearly just a drawing on a flat board, nothing is convincing and it always looks silly. The daft costumes that serve no purpose too make it very difficult to take anyone seriously. The soundtrack is perhaps most notable for having a theme song that is reused every five minutes to really drill it into you and try to forget about the much better Superman one. Not really much else you can say about it really: you can immediately tell it is a Superman knock-off and it fulfils that expectation, throwing in the typical low budget features and hallmarks that gives you something to point and laugh at I suppose.