[This review first appeared shortly after the film had its world premiere at Fantasia 2007 and reappears now with Mirageman finally making its way to DVD]
I must start this review with a bit of a disclaimer. As the observant will know Mirage Man is a film I programmed for the Fantasia Festival, currently wrapping up in Montreal, and I have so far resisted writing any new reviews for Fantasia-involved films. It's an objectivity thing. I'm biased as hell, really, and so have just stayed away from writing to avoid putting myself in any awkward spots. But I'm going to break that rule here what with the having just had it's world premiere and I hope you can take me seriously thanks to these two points: first, there are no tickets left to sell so it's not like I'm shilling; second, if I didn't like the film a good amount in the first place I'd never have programmed it. So, I'll certainly understand if you don't take my opinion seriously due to the conflict of interest here, but I hope you do ...
Mirage Man reunites all of the principal players behind Kiltro, the first ever South American martial arts film. But while Mirage Man certainly will meet expectations of fans looking for a thorough martial arts ass-whuppin' on most other levels it will come as a surprise to those looking for a continuation of Kiltro. The two films are remarkably different, the combination of martial artist Marko Zaror and writer-director Ernesto Diaz Espinoza proving to be surprisingly versatile, tapping into entirely different approaches to the martial arts genre. Kiltro aimed large, very nearly epic, with a sprawling cast of characters, complex plotlines, extensive back story and fusion of influences. Mirage Man, on the other hand plays it as raw and rough as possible, going straight for the throat and never taking the foot off the gas pedal.
Zaror stars here as Maco, a young man orphaned when his parents became the victims of a violent attack, the attackers also raping his younger brother and leaving him nearly catatonic in a mental institution. For his part Maco has withdrawn almost entirely into himself, paying the bills working as a bouncer at a strip club, filling the rest of his entirely solitary life training in the martial arts so that he can never be victimized again. But everything changes for Maco one fateful night, a night when he encounters a home invasion in progress and decides to intervene. He stops a woman from being raped, knocks the trio of attackers unconscious, and does it all while wearing a mask he took from one of the gang, presumably so that he could not be recognized and targeted himself should any of the gang escape. This would have been the end of the story for Maco, an admirable but isolated event, if not for one simple fact: the intended rape victim was a television reporter, one who praises her savior on national television the next day, triggering visions of super heroes in the mind of Maco's younger brother, visions that give the young boy hope and focus that lead to a sudden improvement of his condition. Maco's path seems clear: to save his brother he must become the hero the news has made him out to be.
Mirage Man succeeds - and succeeds strongly - for two simple reasons: Ernesto Diaz Espinoza and Marko Zaror. Espinoza brings a strong voice to his writing and a rawly energetic shooting style to the table. His script does a remarkable job of balancing fantasy with reality, comedy with grit, raw action with sly social parody. The balancing act is remarkable - the film nimbly sets scenes of its hero battling a gang of pedophiles against those of him being pursued by a clumsy buffoon determined to be his sidekick against scenes of the television reporter quickly losing any sense of sincerity in her rapidly escalating quest for personal fame and fortune through higher ratings - and enormously successful. You shouldn't be able to have a realistic gang of child-kidnapping pedophiles in a film that frequently has you laughing out loud at its hero - the scene where Mirage Man returns from his first costumed battle only to discover that his street clothes have been stolen while he was gone is a classic - but this film does. That the comic and tragic elements both work is astounding.
And Zaror? The man is simply an enormous physical talent. The martial arts sequences are frequently stunning -- most of them shot handheld, with minimal rehearsal, and partially improvised to keep them looking natural and with absolutely zero wire work or CG enhancement - with Zaror pulling off moves a man his size simply should not be able to. This is the man who body doubled The Rock in The Rundown, remember, and here he is taking down adversaries with series of complex spinning kicks. But Zaror is also proving to be more than just a fighter. He's not likely to win an Oscar any time soon but he has a natural screen presence and charisma that carries him a long way and there's been a notable improvement in his acting skills from Kiltro to Mirage Man. Zaror works almost entirely without dialogue in Mirage Man and it's remarkable how much he is able to express without words.
Are there negatives to the film? Of course there are. Prime for the fight fans will be a structural quirk - one demanded by the plotline - that sees the film end without a climactic martial arts battle, Mirage Man has no true fighting match on the villain's side. This is not to say that there isn't a significant amount of martial arts in the film - there's loads - or that there isn't a large scale full on martial arts brawl - there is, and it's spectacular - but the final battle occurs between the hero and the pedophile gang and in the interests of maintaining at least some semblance of believability the fight is muscle versus guns rather than muscle versus muscle. You can actually make a good argument that Mirage Man is a superhero film in which the hero has no arch-villain at all, there is no one force that the hero is working against, rather the film is about the hero's development purely from his own perspective with his only true goal being the health of his brother. That unusual framing is one of the great strengths of the film but will also confound some and leave them wondering where the villain is.
The Espinoza / Zaror combination still has room to grow, there's no doubt about that. But there's also no doubt that these are two very talented artists both of whom are continuing to grow and come into their own. Kiltro was a very strong debut, Mirage Man a strong step forward. Keep an eye for whatever the future may bring.
The new DVD release from Magnet is limited in features but what it does, it does well. The film itself gets a good transfer - as you'd expect considering its digital source - and quality subtitles should you opt for the original language option. Yes, that means there is a dub option for those who prefer such things and while I don't - and never do - this isn't a particularly painful dub to listen to. The disc has only one special feature, that being a behind the scenes reel devoted entirely to the filming of the fight sequences. And if anyone out there is foolish enough to think that Zaror and co were augmenting their fight work with CG or wires, this'll put a quick end to any of that speculation. Personally, I'd have liked a bit more on the disc after having waited this long for it but there's certainly no room to complain about the presentation of the film itself.