Nice to see Lou Ferrigno still getting work.

Avengers Grimm is a film that may not be entirely known by the mainstream media. However, the company behind the film’s creation is notable primarily for Sharknado. Its success seemed to kickstart a trend of films that do whatever they can to be intentionally amazing through their ridiculousness. Enter Avengers Grimm, which, unless someone doesn’t know what superheroes or movies are, is a very blatant semi-ripoff of The Avengers, except instead of established superheroes, we have established fairy tale characters… with superpowers.

To add some contextual flavor, the director and writer of this film, Jeremy M. Inman, also directed and wrote for one Sinister Squad, another movie I had watched in the past that featured, well, many of the same things in this film. From time to time, I will use these two films as comparison pieces, as they have a lot in common and some key differences in quality that make for an intriguing study.

Now, the purpose of a good bad movie is to be entertaining through its insane inadequacy. The Room isn’t amazing through its technical strengths. Avengers Grimm somewhat teeters the line between serious and non-serious film, featuring a lot of dark lines and unenthusiastic characters on top of cheesy action sound effects. It manages to somewhat embellish itself in an aura that makes it seem as though it’s a film to be taken seriously. Unfortunately, looking at it as a “good bad movie,” this works against it, resulting in the audience becoming bored at the lack of zaniness. Looking at it from a serious, objective lens, the movie is devoid of relatable characters, rational resolutions, and an original plot—just look at the title.

With the manner in which I critique things, I believe that “the point” of a film can only shield it so much from criticism. I adore The Room and Troll 2, yet I gave both one out of ten scores, because they’re horrendous on a technical level. Avengers Grimm and Sinister Squad both distinguish themselves as enjoyably bad films, but at the same time they hold enough seriousness to them without transparency that it’s hard to take them… unseriously seriously? Still, they are bad films, because they’re trying to be bad. I’m simply playing it straight as scoring as I see it. Enjoyment can only do so much for it in the end.

That’s enough background noise. Let’s jump right into the choir. Avengers Grimm is pretty bad. It is not, however, among the worst films I’ve ever seen. There’s enough there in terms of plot and structure to make it tolerable, though perhaps very dull. A clear focus is established, along with a goal, and it never shies away from it. Even some moral code (I think) is included within the actions of the characters, establishing that helping those in need will end up being used as good karma. Should one care about any of these characters in the first place, it probably wouldn’t been more impactful. Quite frankly, I went the entire length of the film not knowing the name of two major characters.

Bringing to light the biggest issue of the film is the lack of any real personality from the characters. They simply act according to what the plot expects of them and nothing more. It’s almost as if I were watching another “hit” drama show from CBS or FX. The tone is grainy most often, with silliness taking a back seat for a more gritty approach, which only makes the film more off-putting to me, especially one who’s likely aiming to be terri-bad. Very little separates one character from the others, as most fall within a bland caricature of serious characters with a penchant for cheesy one-liners. Some (like Lou Ferrigno’s character) offer some additional inner conflict which makes them more interesting, but it’s pretty standard stuff altogether. If not him, the “Red Riding Hood” character also has some spunk to her.

And with the characters also come the performances from their actors. Most were adequate, doing enough to make me believe the film didn’t have enough money to buy anyone remotely famous aside from Lou Ferrigno, though a few were pretty horrendous. Lauren Parkinson as Snow White was the LVP here, constantly spewing lines in strange, monotone fashion, completely flat with the heavy situations present. With the tone of the film, there isn’t much one can do outside of acting like serious shit is going down, but Parkinson’s role, as major as it is, probably would’ve been better served for a different actor, particularly any other of the female leads, who all outshine her. Still, I could be asking for too much here, as the comparison of screentime Snow White has with all others, and her role in the film, shine more emphasis on her performance. Rather, why couldn’t Lou Ferrigno be the star?

Action sequences are pretty key in films that involve superpowers and clear good vs. evil scenarios. Action sequences here are pretty mediocre. Not a lot of attention to detail outside of character traits and quick, repeated camera cuts to different angles. Filters out a lot of what’s actually going on, which is unfortunate because it was something to distract me from the never-changing mood. Special effects, on the other hand, were fine. Very minimal, but fine. I particularly liked the slow process of crystalization from Snow White’s ice powers. I also liked Lou Ferrigno as an iron giant, but that’s not really a special effect as much as it is a special effect on me in realizing how good Ferrigno would look as a bald guy made of iron. They don’t do too much for the story, though bring a little zest to the characters and their quirks. For a film about fairy tale superheroes, there isn’t very much use of power here.

On a technical scale, Avengers Grimm is probably a better movie than Sinister Squad, though the latter had a lot more charm through its characters and intentionally unintentional charisma. Neither are good movies in their own right, but “the point” of the movies is that they’re bad, or so it seems. I would recommend Sinister Squad as a better example of something within that genre, though Avengers Grimm does get points for a good effort in remaining ambiguous with its intentions. Altogether, it’s a film worth watching if one enjoys reveling in the art of atrocity, though there are better movies of that sort out there than this.

Final Score: 2/10

The rating for all other films can be found at Letterboxd.

For more, check out the March of the Movies Archive!