Trailer:
“Sidekicks, Hero Support—lets just call them what they really are. Heroes.”
Welcome to Sky High, a film that carefully exploits previous films and novel series (top of the list is Harry Potter) to create a family friendly flick that surprisingly is not nearly as bad as it could have turned out. Still at its base it is a story about puberty more thinly masked than in Spider-Man.
The film opens with Will Stronghold, the son of the two greatest superheroes in the world. The film wastes no time and jumps straight to him preparing to begin his Freshman year at a school for Superheroes, known as Sky High which involves jumping on the Magic School Bus. There is just one tiny little problem. Will has no super powers. Yet he is accepted into the school anyways in the roll of a sidekick, trying to live up to parent and peer expectations.
That is really where the story is the most interesting. Unfortunately the first act is way stronger than the second or third. For that is when Will is trying to survive at school without any powers. Not just as the low man on the totem poll, but as the low man on the low man totem poll. Without any powers at all it makes it hard for him to find his place between suck ups to his parents, the cool kids, and his friends.
This just makes it a little disappointing when he finally does get his powers. Up till this point the concept behind the film is almost Pixar-ish but without their steady hand to guide it in a unique direction, Sky High falls into a pit of predictability and general cliché. It would have been far more interesting to see Will become his own hero and rise above his lack of powers but instead the film takes the easy route and just gives him pretty much unbeatable powers 1/3 of the way through the movie.
No really. I don’t think he is ever in real physical danger for the rest of the film. He just kicks everyone’s ass.
That doesn’t mean the film becomes trash. The movie still has some interesting character interaction and development that is relevant to the subject of a high school (so relevant that it feels forced at times). But the thing that really keeps the movie from sinking is that it has a good collection of fun and likable characters.
The main character of Will (Michael Angerano) is refreshing if not only for the fact that he actually looks like someone who could be in high school (unlike most of his costars). His character is interesting and though he does douchebag things later in the film you never stop rooting for him. He is helped by his “sidekicks”, a clever collection of friends.
Though the film is a little derivative in the central concept, it still is fun. Some of the ideas, like it being divided into Sidekick and Hero rating, are actually kind of clever. Even the Disney Hercules rescue the damsel sequence is entertaining. In terms of the sound track, what is with all these 2000’s high schoolers rocking out to classics from the 80’s. Are superheroes just behind the times? I personally can’t complain but….really? Would they really? I heard someplace that highschool was for the young and hip.
The main issue here is the film gets progressively worse as it goes on, building up to an exceedingly stupid and unfulfilling climax where the villains turns everyone into babies. Speaking of the villains, they might be some of the most unthreatening and uninspired creations that I've seen in a while. I would go into more detail but I can’t really without revealing too many spoilers. That’s because the villains are practically non existent for the majority of the movie, hiding behind a convoluted and absurd scheme.
This is not a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination. It may be painfully predictable and suffers in the last act but the first two are mildly entertaining. It’s characters are fun, the idea solid, it just lacked in execution and some poor writing mistakes. In the end though for a film targeted at elementary schoolers….it’s not too shabby and you could do a whole lot worse in the way of family entertainment.
FINAL RATING: 5/10- (50%)
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