NEW YORK -- The only surprising thing about "Superhero Movie" is that, in an era when big-screen parodies are released seemingly every other week, it took this long for the venerable comic book genre to receive the treatment.

Otherwise a fairly standard entry that at least is better than January's lamentable "Meet the Spartans," this spoof demonstrates that David Zucker, one of the film's producers, has come a long way from the glory days of "Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun."

The other distinguishing factor of the film, which was released Friday without being screened for the press, is that its screenplay doesn't come from the usual gaggle of scribes but rather is solely the creation of Craig Mazin, who also directed.

The story line takes its main inspiration from "Spider-Man," relating how young dweeb Rick Riker (Drake Bell) is transformed into Dragonfly via a bite from a mutated insect. In between pining for his schoolmate Jill Johnson (Sara Paxton), he finds himself battling the forces of evil, most notably Hourglass (Christopher McDonald), the villainous alter ego of a billionaire industrialist.

The freewheeling satire also incorporates elements of "Batman," principally with a back¬story involving the death of Rick's parents (the father is played by "Airplane!" star Robert Hays); "Fantastic Four"; "X-Men"; and, all too briefly, "Superman."

The gags arrive at the usual breakneck pace, albeit mostly producing quiet chuckles rather than belly laughs. The major exception, at least for the mostly quiet audience at an opening-day matinee, was an extended fart scene involving poor Marion Ross that mainly demonstrated the filmmaker's apparent desire to top the one in "Blazing Saddles."

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Superhero Movie