German flick "Freaks" on first inspection is not substantively different from many other productions, cast in a similar vein.

Where it does depart is its treatment of the subject matter, which is substantially more down to earth than its counterparts. This is a tale about ordinary people who happen to have extraordinary abilities and how this impacts on them, as people. It lacks the grit and cynical grandiosity, not to mention the gratuitous violence, you might typically expect.

I found this treatment refreshing. Its thoughtful and heartfelt and I feel, offers more depth of character development.

Certainly, it has its moments of exposition driven action but that said, this is a quieter film, that may not appeal to super hero action addicts.

I enjoyed Freaks . Its has a maturity of treatment that you don't often see in the superhuman genre.

7/10.

Song references that are dated aside, the movie is quite decent. Even without reading what this is about, you can guess where it heads. A nice central performance by the female lead and another great performance by Wotan, her "mentor" if you will. The movie itself is predictable, but it still is fun to watch.

Who wouldn't want to have certain powers? And then depending on your character, you would apply or use them at your own free will. Yes this can go south of course ... though I reckon if there was an equivalent to the NRA for superheroes, they would say: only a good superhero with powers can stop a bad superhero with powers ... joking aside, the movie is decent, if you are into this sort of stuff.

The movie brings nothing new to the table. The same origin story done to death, people doing things that make no sense, a lot of filler and a rather deplorable use of superpowers. You see, the hero is a meek woman which is being taken for granted and considered harmless even by little children. She gets her power and she starts killing or maiming "the bad guys" and even breaks the bikes of the naughty children. It makes sense that petty people would do that, but without a very well crafted story, you can't sympathise with them. And what message is that? Because you are oppressed, you get the right to hate more?

So: bad message, pace too slow, nothing original, holes in logic. I can't recommend it and it's really boring.