On the surface of My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006), there is nothing that separates it from any other romantic comedy.  It hits all the familiar beats, checks all the right boxes.  There is a comfortableness to it that comes with the great cast it presents.  What it throws in to stir that all too common cinematic pot are super powers.  Given how far we have come with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and now Detective Comics (DC) attempting something similar (I guess), a film like this one is quaint.  Yes, there are people with abilities far beyond our own, and there is the concomitant super villain.  Yet, this one is more about life in between donning the cape and putting out that apartment fire.  I now realize I am trying to have it both ways: a movie that is the same as others but unique.  But, hey, I am a Catholic and thus know that two things can be true at one time.

The ”super” part of My Super Ex-Girlfriend is Jennifer Johnson (Uma Thurman), who the world knows as G-Girl.  When she is not working in an art gallery, she is stopping bank robberies as we see in the opening sequence.  She is basically Superman, or Superwoman if you prefer.  Matthew “Matt” Saunders (Luke Wilson) and his best friend, and comedic(?) sociopath, Vaughn Haige (Rainn Wilson), are as enamored of G-Girl as anyone.  They discuss her latest feat while riding the subway to work in New York City one morning.  Another topic of conversation is Matt’s recent failed relationship.  In the course of their conversation, they notice Jennifer sitting nearby, minding her business.  With more carnal thoughts on his mind, Vaughn convinces Matt to attempt to ask her out.  He does not know she is G-Girl, but he fails nonetheless.  What turns his luck around is at that moment, a mugger steals her purse.  Matt takes off after him and manages to retrieve the bag.  He cannot help bragging about it, though, and is forced to hastily dive into a dumpster to avoid getting beat up.  It is there that Jennifer finds Matt, and she agrees to go out to dinner with him.  At the Indian restaurant they choose, things are going well until she becomes distracted by emergency personnel trying to put out a fire.  She leaves to go take care of the situation, and displays some other neurotic tendencies as the date ends.  Being the nice guy that he is, Matt explains them away to himself.  His co-worker Hannah Lewis (Anna Faris) the next day at work sees some crazy tendencies in Jennifer as Matt relates the story and advises him not to go out with Jennifer again.  He listens to Hannah because it is obvious he has a crush on her, though she currently has a boyfriend.  Since Hannah is taken, and with Vaughn’s terrible suggestions in mind, Matt goes out with Jennifer a second time.  It goes back to his place for some adult time, which is not important.  What is of note is how she is able to move the bed around during it, though he does not immediately take her for being a super hero.  It gets weirder, too, when on the subsequent day Matt is kidnapped by Barry Edward Lambert (Eddie Izzard).  Matt claims to not recognize him, but then Barry reminds Matt of the connection to G-Girl and Matt realizes that Barry is the heroine’s arch nemesis Dr. Bedlam.  Still, the secret identity is not yet revealed.  Barry just wants information on Jennifer.  It is not until Jennifer and Matt are alone once more that she finally tells him that she is G-Girl.  He is initially turned on by this revelation, but then she decides to do some more adult things while they are flying high above the city.  Further, she does all this because she says she is in love with him.  With these words, she becomes needy and possessive, particularly as it regards Hannah.  Matt gets the ladies to agree to a double date, though Hannah’s boyfriend does not show up.  Instead, it comes on the news in the restaurant they are in that a missile is about to impact the city and kill millions.  Because Jennifer does not want to leave Matt with Hannah, Jennifer pretends to ignore it.  It takes some convincing on Matt’s part before she finally agrees to save everyone.  Upon returning, she sees Hannah and Matt hugging in celebration of their lives being spared.  With the way Jennifer has been acting, it leads to Matt deciding that they need to end their relationship.  To put it mildly, this does not go well.  Among the things Jennifer does out of spite for dumping her include destroying his apartment, throwing his car into orbit, and getting him fired from his job.  At the same time, Hannah breaks up with her boyfriend when she finds out he had been cheating on her and turns to Matt for comfort.  This leads to the final straw for Matt: Jennifer throwing a shark through Hannah’s apartment window.  That straw pushes him to Barry, who has come up with a way of neutralizing Jennifer’s powers.  Think kryptonite and you have the idea.  Matt agrees to help Barry trap Jennifer by getting her to come to Matt’s place on the pretense of making amends.  Everything is going according to plan until, first, Hannah shows up, and then Vaughn for some comedic value.  In the ensuing chaos, the rock placed there by Barry absorbs Jennifer’s abilities just as she had gained them as a teenager.  It is at this point that Barry enters the room, but he promptly says that he is taking the powers for himself.  Matt tries to prevent this, but in the struggle Hannah and Jennifer touch the rock at the same time.  Jennifer is back to being G-Girl, but Hannah can do all the same things.  There is then a massive fight until Matt intervenes.  He manages to convince Jennifer that she belongs with Barry, with whom she had gone to high school.  Meanwhile, this frees Matt to go out with Hannah.  We conclude with Jennifer bringing Matt’s car back to earth before her and Hannah zoom away to save a crashing jet.

I must confess to seeing a lot of myself in Matt in My Super Ex-Girlfriend.  What I am thankful for, though, is not having a friend like Vaughn.  I hope none of you do.  He seems to only have one thing on his mind, that being sex.  He also does not seem to be above harassing women, either.  It is a trait that I have found, particularly since I started practicing my Faith earnestly, separates people in society.  While Matt is not completely above having similar intentions, he is at least not crass about it as is Vaughn.  The scene I have in mind does not pertain directly to sex.  When Matt comes to the conclusion that he must break things off with Jennifer, he gets some pointers from Vaughn.  He gives two approaches.  The first is to simply say they are through and move on with his life.  The other is the more sensitive route, to use lines that are designed to let the other person down more easily.  It should come as no surprise that Vaugh favors the former.  Now, there is a time and a place for being direct.  More often than not, this is how Jesus dealt with situations.  He also did not do so with a complete lack of feeling for the other person.  He explains this by telling His disciples that from the heart the mouth speaks.  If there is goodness there, then the unvarnished truth is best.  With this you see again how two things can be true at once.  Unfortunately, Matt does not go for this option and it is almost a complete disaster.

Other than the attitudes on sex, there is nothing too objectionable about My Super Ex-Girlfriend.  It is a fun little romp with, as I mentioned before, a good cast.  I wish Thurman and Faris would do more movies, too.  In the meantime, you have this one.