If you walk into Superfly with the intention of not taking it seriously.it’s actually pretty fun for all the wrong reasons. What makes Superfly work is its jaded views on street credibility and several of the lead actors to bring some much needed levity to what is a rip-off of every crime drama that came before it.
The plot is all you have heard a million times before. The whole one big score to end it all after a traumatic moment, corrupt cops, navigating through a Mexican drug cartel, all wrapped into a copy and paste style script. What makes it a little more worth while is the rival gang Snow Patrol, which is gloriously over the top in literally all white everything and filled with actors overacting in ways I haven’t seen in a movie in a long time. So it’s sad to say that there is a long period where they aren’t the focus and the film reverts into familiar cartel territory, which is not investing at all.
Trevor Jackson is okay in the lead role, but is clearly outstaged by his co-star Jason Mitchell, who is having more fun in the role than he is. He plays it pretty straight, but doesn’t stretch his range out enough to make him captivating. Also the film runs 20 minutes too long and could have sliced a large amount of the ending to keep it more focused and internal.
Superfly is simply harmless pulp that was close to being a guilty pleasure. In a post-Black Panther world, films like Superfly will have to beef up their reasons for existing by either going all the way absurd, or just asking new questions these characteristics. It’s crime isn’t its influence, but instead it lacks wings to truly fly.