OneMetal.com film REVIEW:
Super Hybrid

When Karl Benz was working on the four-stroke cycle gasoline engine in the 1880s, he probably never considered the thought that he could have stuck an alien monster under the hood instead. Karl Benz was a genius. Fast forward 130 years to 2010 and the appropriately-surnamed team behind Super Hybrid, director Eric Valette and writer Benjamin Carr, finally arrive at the stupidest idea that ever dribbled out of the human mind.

Set in an unnamed US city that looks suspiciously like somewhere in Canada, Super Hybrid follows the murderous adventures of an extraterrestrial that can shapeshift into any kind of car it so desires. Step inside and it will devour you behind dark, tinted windows because this is a gore-free PG13. Sensing that there’s not much of a budget, the alien wisely shacks up in a windowless, locked down garage for the night, where seven disparate employees fight for their survival against the four-wheeled bastard.

If only the Top Gear team would take this motor for a test drive.

To make matters even worse, their sneaky boss spots an opportunity to make some money by catching the beastie. As if to add further insult to injury, they must also contend with such contrivances as mechanical faults, a non-existent mobile signal and an electrical blackout.

Shannon Beckner channelling Predator: "If it can bleed, it can die" - actual dialogue from Super Hybrid.

A grotesque, squid-like alien that can morph into a car is a maddeningly dumb concept, but to locate almost all of the action inside a darkened multi-storey car park/garage is even dumber. Being a creature that can only change into an automobile, no one ever considers that seeking shelter on one of the several stair wells within the complex might make sense. Pedantry aside, this is a movie where budget considerations come first, logic second.

Oblivious to the stair well behind them, the team stared four-wheeled death in the face.

The bland, wafer-thin characters deserve little sympathy, but somehow the producers have assembled a decent cast of upcoming Canadian TV actors who give the Aliens and Predator-inspired material much more than it deserves. As troubled mechanic Tilda, Shannon Beckner brings heart and a good running style to the table. Caprica Rising star Ryan Kennedy proves more than just a pretty face as her cousin, Bobby, and his fate is one worth caring about. The best of the bunch is Israeli actor Oded Fehr (aka Carlos in the Resident Evil films) as Ray, their unscrupulous pantomime villain boss, gets all the best lines.

Shannon Beckner and Oded Fehr: "I'll be Burke and you can be Ripley."

The alien itself reverses CGI advances by about 20 years. To describe it at a blue, warty turd with tentacles isn’t spoiling it for anyone. For all the franchise’s faults, at least the aliens in Transformers are robots and, therefore, it’s not incomprehensible that they might be able to turn into a car or a jet. Watching a squid-like cartoon shapeshift into a people carrier is distressingly illogical. When the camera switches to the alien’s point of view, we’re treated to a sub-Predator vision filter that wouldn’t look out of place in the cheapo eighties films of Charles Band. The only advantage of this camera shot is that we can see the characters for the underwritten flesh bags they really are.

Alien Vision: another innovation in Super Hybrid.

The practical effects aren’t much better either. The filmmakers obviously sat down to ponder what kind of car stunts they could film, reaching the following conclusions: wheels spins and donuts are menacing; a car going on two wheels isn’t fun but very, very scary; and cars chasing people at 20mph in enclosed spaces will thrill audiences. When these terror techniques are combined, the alien is about as frightening as a petulant teenager with a subscription to Max Power. The only bright spot is the sequence in which the alien changes into a mustang covered by a white sheet and dangling chains, drifting around the levels like a Scooby-doo ghost car.

watch the trailer for Super Hybrid below:

Bottom Line

With the exception of the cast, there’s little to excite in this stuttering and derivative D-reg sci-fi horror flick. Even if you can forgive the ridiculous central concept, the execution is PG13 pedestrian and completely flat. If you’re looking for films about malevolent motor vehicles, watch Christine or The Car instead. Stick this one in neutral and roll it off the cliff.