Unwanted Origins

Introduction

While I do love a good detective story now and then, I have to admit I was not too fond of the Spanish 2020 superhero crime thriller directed by Galán Galindo, Unknown Origins.

Setting and Plot

The film follows Detective David Valentin, played by Javier Rey, as he tries to solve several cases revolving around a string of superhero-themed murders. The murders remind me of the classic 1990s film Seven, but as mentioned before they have a superhero twist. Each of the victims is murdered in a way that mimics the origin stories of some of pop culture’s greatest heroes.

While the premise of Unknown Origins sounds incredible and original, it is the execution of director Galán Galindo’s work that utterly breaks it. As a comic book lover, watching a film that turns superhero origins into grizzly murder scenes sounds like a match made in heaven. However, the poor production makes Unknown Origins feel like a low budget Doctor Who episode. This coupled with an awful main character who cripples any sense of immersion I had for this film.

I found that Galindo tries to distract the viewer from his shabby writing by using several references to other pieces of popular fiction, by either showing objects and comics as references for fans to spot or through poor imitation. In a span of three minutes, the film makes a reference to both Lord of The Rings and Batman Begins.

Characters and performances

Doctor Navarro

Doctor Navarro’s crazy and over the top personality is probably the best thing about this movie. This antagonist takes many of his traits from some of Batman’s most notorious villains, most notably the Joker and Scarecrow. However, Galindo makes the mistake of taking a bit too much from his inspirations, so nothing Navarro does feel original. Of all the characters in the film, Navarro’s premise seemed to be the most promising, yet it becomes the most disappointing.

David Valentin

While the overall plot of the film is decent to some extent, Galindo’s bad writing creates one of the most irritating anti-nerd characters I have ever seen, David Valentin. I initially viewed his character as someone similar to Brad Pitt’s character from the film Seven, but with a bit more edge. Eventually, he becomes almost intolerable, constantly berating other characters for their lifestyles and completely disregarding their opinions.

What makes matters worse is that Galindo tried to couple Valentin’s backstory with that of Batman’s, one of the most selfless characters in all of comics. Even the man’s transformation to the superhero vertex felt underwhelming; Valetin’s character suddenly takes a 180-degree turn and becomes heroic.

I should remark that Javier Rey looks like he could be a brilliant actor, and does a great job at making his character feel and act believable, but there is only so much he can do with a bad script.

Norma Celimendiz

Then there is the forced romance between Valentin and Verónica Echegui’s character, Norma Celimendiz. Norma is a sarcastic and upbeat homicide police chief who does nothing for the plot outside of open a door and trot around the police station in cosplay. Discounting her ability to make great knock-off anime costumes, she might as well be a lamp with lips.

The weirdest trait of this film is that she lets her senpai, David Valentin, walk all over her. There is one where Valentin completely disregards her orders to not bring his old partner back out of retirement. She even reveals that the man is suffering from a medical condition, which could be a liability to have around. Norma is caught off guard when Valentin dismisses her orders and is even more confused when he suddenly decides to kiss her before leaving. If this happened to any other chief of homicide, Valentin’s suspension would have been immediate for blatantly disobeying orders and for sexual misconduct towards a superior officer.

Jorge Elias

Finally, we have Jorge, who is the last character of this unholy trinity. Jorge Elias, portrayed by Brays Efe is a generic fat overgrown man-child, who owns a comic book store in Madrid and was brought in as an advisor to help David Valentin regarding the investigation. The film makes an effort of stereotyping comic book fans as bloated, and to some extent, awkward. Superheroes and their comics have now come into the mainstream these days. So, the stereotyping of the fans feels forced and unoriginal. Jorge’s character is a perfect example of stereotyping. The film dresses him up in very unflattering childlike superhero outfits while giving him the personality of a child.

Conclusion

Unknown Origins has the problem of wanting to do too many things. Originally it wanted to tell a detective story about superheroes, then it wanted to be a superhero movie and, in some instances, it tries to squeeze in a very lazily written romantic subplot.

This comes in part due to the film’s shoddy writing. One can see that the actors are putting their heart and soul into making these characters come to life. However, this won’t make a difference if your script makes these characters just unlikable.

I can compare Unknown Origins to Seven with its gritty atmosphere and unique over the top murders, but that all comes crashing down in the final act, where it suddenly turns into a counterfeit Batman movie.

If you are looking for a good crime movie, and since I have mentioned it a number of times already, try Seven starring a young Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. However, if you long for a grittier take on the superhero genre, you can try out any of the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy or the various marvel series on Netflix. Unknown Origins and the rest of the movies and series mentioned in this review can all be streamed on Netflix.