Agent of Justice (2013) and other Brett Kelly superhero movies

[shevek]

I've been scanning through Tubi and finding a handful of interesting independent superhero movies from the 2000s and 2010s that I hadn't heard of.
These are from the pre-woke era, where there wasn't yet an emphasis on injected messaging and casting quotas, and you just had some nice spandex and a decent amount of violence and sexy stuff.
Basically the same premise as other superhero movies around that time including Kick-Ass, Super, Sky High, Superhero Movie, The Tick series (2001)
and a bunch of others, while presaging some things which came soon after, like Powers and The Boys.

Several of those were done by Canadian schlock director Brett Kelly, who is still at it today, based out of Ottawa.

Basically he is like a Canadian version of The Asylum - knockoffs abound. But by the Forum standards (since we watch a lot of micro-indies) he does a pretty good job. He's responsible for other superhero movies like Thunderstorm: The Return of Thor, Rise of the Black Bat, and Avenging Force: The Scarab, which I'll get to eventually, but the first one I'm posting about is 'Agent of Justice' which also goes by the name 'Agent Beetle'.

'Agent of Justice' is about a group of test subjects who were given a formula that grants them powers by a suspicious company called HIVE (kind of like a low-rent Vought Corporation). The head of the company, Lilith, tries to keep them under control but one man, Dan, who goes under the name Beetle (they all have insects names for some reason) breaks free of her control and tries to free the others. He also has a girlfriend who is a Lois Lane or April O'Neil style of reporter, going undercover to figure out the plot behind the HIVE.

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This movie is relevant to our interest because it has two sexy super-mercenary women who are part of the experimental group and they present a challenge for Beetle.

"Mantis" wears an excellent tight and shiny spandex costume (no boots, unfortunately) and has the power to turn invisible.
During the movie, she has a battle with the Beetle which she loses, and gets knocked out. She is played by Celine Filion, who acts in several other Brett Kelly movies as well.

Mantis seems like a worthwhile character - she's masked (attn Maskripper) and gorgeous and looks fantastic in her outfit.
To me, it's too bad that she didn't have more of a romantic role in the movie - she could have acted as a rival to Dan's reporter girlfriend, trying to entice. Also it would have been nice to have a scene where she slips on that tight costume piece by piece in a seductive manner. But you can't have everything.

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What you do get is a nice knockout.

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There's a peril scene where Dan (Beetle) briefly chokes Mantis, and she comes on to him a bit, calling him "Man of Steel". That's why a bit more flirting might have been a good idea.

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The other sexy character is a woman (played by Christine Emes) who has "accidentally" killed several of her husbands, acquiring the nickname Widow. When she gets the serum, her face becomes much sexier and more alluring, and she wears a tight and shiny dress with sexy black gloves and high-heeled boots. The superpower she gets is broadcasting intense pheromones of sexual attraction to both men and women.

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There are several great scenes with Widow, but one of the best is when she releases her pheromones to the rest of the criminal team, and then there are three dudes and one chick (Mantis) coming onto her and trying to paw her body at the same time, while she cries out in pleasure. In a SHIP universe, that scene would have lasted much longer and been way more sexually intense. I wish things had gone a little further in that respect, since the film is already rated Mature Audiences anyway.

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Also in this movie is an extended strip club scene featuring four girls in a local strip club. Not sure what the purpose of this scene other than to just add more sexy vibes to the story. It simply involves one of the mercenaries (a strong tough guy named Roach) staring at the dancers for five minutes.

Check out the movie for free on Tubi if the description sounds interesting:
https://tubitv.com/movies/100000767/agent-of-justice

[shevek]

Next Brett Kelly movie up for analysis is 2010's Avenging Force: The Scarab, known on Tubi as "Avenging Guardians".

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The premise here is that aliens from another galaxy provided the knowledge to the Egyptians which helped them build the pyramids (highly unlikely, but hey it's a superhero flick) and they imbued a stone with great power that was given to the builders.

Intrepid archeologist Peter Wards finds the stone, but it's also sought after by a masked villain called The Sphinx who commands a small army of thugs, as well as a couple of cute villainesses - one of whom is an eye-patched assassin who wears the exact same red-and-black spandex outfit which later appears on Mantis in Agents of Justice, and the other is a black-clad sorceress whose magic is apparently not very powerful, as she is easily knocked out.

Going up against them are The Scarab, Black Terror (yes, the Golden Age hero) and a brunette superheroine simply named Woman In Red, who I would assume is similar to the Golden Age heroine Lady Masque or Masquerade, and is played by actress Alix Pasquet. For much of the movie, though, Alix is wearing a red jacket and you can't see her figure.

There are gunfights and battles, but nothing really sexy happens until around 50:09 when Woman in Red first takes off her jacket to battle the spandexed assassin girl, revealing her tight and shiny red costume. The best minute of the production is when the two women are battling in the mattress factory.

Then at 51:50, she takes her jacket off again and she pulls off her gloves too for another round with the thugs. Unfortunately, by 55:50, her jacket is back on.

Alix Pasquet as Woman in Red.jpg (122.13 KiB) Viewed 247 times

Anyway, if you want to follow the adventures of the Scarab and his allies, here's the link to the Tubi:
https://tubitv.com/movies/100009284/avenging-guardians