How I Became a Superhero

This is an above-average superhero movie, satirical at times, disturbing in others. How I Became a Superhero is a mostly playful take on the superhero story, showing a modern-day Paris where superheroes are common and mostly assimilated into society, and are more likely to use their superpowers to get their own television shows and celebrity than solve crime. This part of the story is entertaining and often funny, as it counterbalances the less original and more violent aspects. Some of the parallels to our world can be a bit intense, particularly for more sensitive viewers, such as a scene in which a teen who has purchased flame-throwing superpowers off the street uses them to get even with classmates in what mirrors a school shooting, and a scene in which two at-risk teens buy this "mystery formula" and immediately take it, and instead of getting superpowers after greedily inhaling it, they lose consciousness and die. These and other scenes make the movie grittier than one might expect.

While the story itself has its fair share of originality, some of the tropes are way past the point of exhaustion. For instance, the "loose cannon male cop" paired with the "by-the-book female cop" by the "stressed-out police chief exasperated with the loose cannon cop's antics" needs to be retired. Regardless, it's still an entertaining movie, with the expected hints of a sequel that come across as something to look forward to instead of inducing eyerolling dread.