Superhero Movie

Writer-director Craig Mazin’s spoof of the Spider-Man and X-Men movies is marginally less wretched than those hopeless compost heaps cranked out by his erstwhile colleagues Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg (Date Movie, Epic Movie, etc.)—thanks mainly to a stronger cast peppered with seasoned pros (Christopher McDonald, Brent Spiner, Leslie Nielsen, Marion Ross, Keith David, Jeffrey Tambor)—and maybe also thanks to the presence of David Zucker (of the original Airplane!) among the credited producers. But it’s a small difference, one of minimal surface polish rather than, ahem, comic substance. It’s still not funny—there are not even enough laughs for a five-minute skit on Saturday Night Live—but at least the gags just lie there and die rather than making you cringe and grimace with embarrassment.