Quickie Review: Sky High (no spoilers)
Feb. 1st, 2006 08:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalSummary: Will Stronghold, son of the famous superheroes The Commander and Jetstream (AKA Steve & Josie Stronghold, Real Estate Agents), is all set for his first day of high school at the exclusive Sky High, where the children of superheroes learn in safety, suspended above the clouds (and above their parents' archvillian rivals). One small problem: He has no superpowers, and ends up being shunted into "Hero Support" AKA "Sidekick Class". Can Will find his inner strength, and still remain true to his sidekick friends?
Duh!
Review: Okay, "The Incredibles" this isn't. For one, it's live action, for another, it's got a fraction of the budget. It is however Disney's attempt to ride the wave generated by their more competent animation partnet, and it works suprisingly well. Instead of "Freaks and Geeks" it's "Heroes vs. Sidekicks", which is about as deep as the metaphors here go. The film's strengths lie in it's comedy, both the physical, the wry aknowledgement of super cliches, and some lovely grace touches, like the multiple phone handsets Will's dad keeps in the kitchen drawer that we see after he smashes one accidentally.
It also helps that Will isn't some wiseacre with snappy comebacks to his bullying tormentors. He's a genuinely nice kid, who's just trying to fit in (and realizes quickly how some of his bad decisions hurt people). Plus his dad (played by Disney movie vet Kurt Russel) manages to walk a fine line between "I love my kid" and "I love my kid because he's got superpowers." He could have been a one-note jerk part who gets his commupance in the end, but Kurt plays him better than that (and even share's Will disgust for the real jerk adult in the flck, Coach Boomer, played by Bruce Campbell).
Besides, you have to love any film silly enough to name one of Wil's antagonists "Warren Peace". :)
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Josie: We can't change who he is... not without dropping him in a vat of toxic waste.
[pause. Steve looks as if he's considering it]
Josie: Steve!
Steve: Where would we even find a vat of...
Josie: STEVE!
Duh!
Review: Okay, "The Incredibles" this isn't. For one, it's live action, for another, it's got a fraction of the budget. It is however Disney's attempt to ride the wave generated by their more competent animation partnet, and it works suprisingly well. Instead of "Freaks and Geeks" it's "Heroes vs. Sidekicks", which is about as deep as the metaphors here go. The film's strengths lie in it's comedy, both the physical, the wry aknowledgement of super cliches, and some lovely grace touches, like the multiple phone handsets Will's dad keeps in the kitchen drawer that we see after he smashes one accidentally.
It also helps that Will isn't some wiseacre with snappy comebacks to his bullying tormentors. He's a genuinely nice kid, who's just trying to fit in (and realizes quickly how some of his bad decisions hurt people). Plus his dad (played by Disney movie vet Kurt Russel) manages to walk a fine line between "I love my kid" and "I love my kid because he's got superpowers." He could have been a one-note jerk part who gets his commupance in the end, but Kurt plays him better than that (and even share's Will disgust for the real jerk adult in the flck, Coach Boomer, played by Bruce Campbell).
Besides, you have to love any film silly enough to name one of Wil's antagonists "Warren Peace". :)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josie: We can't change who he is... not without dropping him in a vat of toxic waste.
[pause. Steve looks as if he's considering it]
Josie: Steve!
Steve: Where would we even find a vat of...
Josie: STEVE!
