Plot: 14-year-old Will Stronghold, son of the two most powerful superheroes in the world, begins his freshman year at a high school for budding superheroes. . .and sidekicks. Unfortunately, Will has manifested no superpowers. At the same time, a supervillain from his parents' past is plotting revenge and mass mayhem.
No review? I really liked this one for what it was worth. Kurt Russell makes a great super-dad! I think it would have seemed more unique better if it had not come out around the same time as The Incredibles.
Arghh! "more unique better". Again, I wish we had an Edit function...
I know this was a great movie. Defiantely in the comic book deal. I loved it the way Kurt Russel did his dad duties.
"And tell your mom I took away your Xbox. I don't have an Xbox. Are you sure about that!"
Lots of quotes and even though they stayed with most of the big comic book/superhero/supervillan cliches they did manage to get them somewhat freash and different. Not to mention the neat little side jokes thew just kinda threw out there
I liked it.
massive spoilers below
Royal Pain sends a giant robot to threaten the town. It appears that the only reason for this was so that the Commander, after destroying it, would rip off the one part that happened to contain an audio/video bug as a souvenier and take that part back to his (and Jetstream's) sanctum. I don't think that said bug actually advanced Royal Pain's plans all.
There's a lot of invulnerability in this movie. It starts early, as Will observes that the Commander's super-strengh makes him basically invulnerable. Huh? That doesn't follow at all. Super strength may be of limited use without invulnerability, but I don't see why one would cause the other. Later Zach will be blown off a platform and Warren will be punched through a wall without any concern that they might be hurt, even though neither had been established to have invulnerability as a power.
Coach Boomer's venue for the freshmen to demonstrate their powers is a bit lacking. Even if she had wanted to Layla couldn't have demonstrated her power (unless she could make the plants outside burst into the gym). What about somone who could telepathically communicate with animals or had a healing factor?
I realize that Zach is insecure, not very bright, and overly talkative. Still, why does he talk up his superpower, and eagerly volunteer to demonstrate it right after Larry's impressive display? He does realize that it's not the greatest power. . .
Zach's power also behaves oddly. He doesn't seem to glow at all in the gym, but glows brightly in a darkened classroom and air duct that aren't really that dark. (The problem here may be what on Star Trek was called "magic cave lighting": a scene that should be dark, with only a few well-defined light sources (in this case, Zach) is instead shot with the usual fill lighting, but turned down a little.)
From what we can see, the faculty and staff of Sky High consists of Principal Powers, Nurse Spex, Ron Wilson - Bus Driver, Mr. Boy, Mr. Medulla, and Coach Boomer. One supposes that there are other teachers, but every teacher who even observes part of the story (let alone teaches the leads) seems to be Boy, Medulla, or Boomer.
"Rescue the Citizen" seems pretty dumb. Even though Coach Boomer doesn't otherwise seem to favor Lash and Speed, he allows them to pick which side to play and the team they will oppose. You've got to think that it would be more pedagogically effective to at least force the winning team to alternate roles, and for him to choose teams based on whose powers he thinks will complement (or not complement) each other. Of course, if Lash and Speed played the heroes, Lash could just reach around and grab the citizen and the game would be over in seconds.
Much was made of Will being the first freshman to win "Rescue the Citizen". But will was part of a team with Warren, and Warren is not a freshman (as far as I could tell). In all the time the game has run at Sky High, has no one (for example) attempted to balance a team with an exceptionally powerful upperclassman by pairing him with a hapless freshman, who could sit on the sidelines while the upperclassman wins singlehandedly? By the standards presented here, that would qualify as a freshman winning "Rescue the Citizen".
Royal Pain goes to a lot of trouble to steal the Pacifier. Why? She built it before; she was able to repair it after stealing it. Why not build a new one?
After unmasking herself (er, technically, after masking herself), Royal Pain's villanous cohort traps the assembled Homecoming dancers in the gym by rolling down what look like those gates that are used to close off stores in malls. (Although we never see those gates anywhere else, a later line of dialogue establishes that Royal Pain has locked down the entire school.) It's not really clear why those gates are there (there are a lot of things in this part of the movie that you can explain as "well, she's a technopath" or "well, she was in charge of Homecoming", but these gates are a bit extreme). Moreover, there is no dialogue to establish that they are anything more than steel gates. This is the Homecoming dance for a school for superpowered people. Ethan could have oozed through the gates. Larry could have smashed through them. The acid-spitting guy could have burned through them. And that's just the kids. But apparently the gates trapped everyone (except Will's posse) long enough for Royal Pain to Pacify them all.
Royal Pain's plan is to revert a whole bunch of superheroes to infancy and then raise them to be supervillains. That will only work if they lose their memories of their past lives. The example of Mr. Medulla suggests that that is not the case.
An associated question is whether Royal Pain, herself, remembers growing up the first time (granted, her reversion was caused by the Pacifier exploding, not by being shot by it, so the effects may be different). If she didn't, then Stitches raised her to be a supervillain---and to abuse him. Not really bright. Maybe she did remember. The line "I went through puberty twice for this?", among other things, supports that. Either way (but more especially in the latter case) there was a missed opportunity for someone to comment on her situation (this would have been a better use of Principal Powers final interaction with her). Royal Pain's stated reason for becoming a supervillain was that she was unappreciated and ostracized at Sky High. But she had a (wonderful) opportunity to do it over and this time had it all---hero, student body president, popular with teachers and students---and still decided to be a supervillain. And now she wanted revenge on those who had given her an essentially clean slate (aside from the influence of Stitches).
I didn't get how Ethan defeated Lash. Ethan shoved Lash's head into a toilet and left, and Lash was out for the rest of the action. Why couldn't Lash just pull his head out of the toilet and go after Ethan again?
Layla's fight with Penny left much to be desired. Despite outnumbering Layla eight to one, Penny basically does cartwheels as Layla slowly flees. She then lands one weak punch on Layla and stands still while Layla uses her power to tie Penny up. I was half expecting Layla to respond to Penny's punch with "You hit like a girl!" and proceed to beat her up without resorting to her powers.
After hearing from Penny about the scrambler Royal Pain built and attached to Sky High's repulsorlift control, Layla immediately has a detailed blueprint of Sky High, including sensitive information like repulsorlift control. Later, Zach knows that the scrambler---which he cannot see, and is in a small, almost inaccessible location---is attached to the repulsorlift control with a red wire. Where are they getting this information? Even if there was a scene not shown where the gang interrogated Penny, Lash, and Speed, the henchmen wouldn't have any reason to have the plans for Sky High or to know details about the scrambler.
Will delivered a mighty blow to Royal Pain's helmet that shattered it without hurting her (although she seems to be down for the count---but not unconscious, since she can still activate the scrambler). That's fine muscle control.
The scrambler that would disrupt Sky High's repusorlift system was, according to Penny, on a timer. But after losing, Royal Pain activated a control on her otherwise nonfunctional exosuit that appeared to activate the scrambler. Why do that, when it was about to activate itself on a timer?
NANJAO: Note that not only was the arm-mounted scrambler control reminiscent of the Predator's self-destruct from the eponymous movie, but, like the Predator, Royal Pain became suicidal upon defeat. Moreover, she became truly homicidal (previously the closest she had come to homicide was reckless disregard for Jetstream's life (and whatever meyham her giant robot might commit, or who might have been beneath Sky High when it fell down)), with no apparent motive other than revenge. This makes her character much darker, and the Commander's description of her as a "psychopath" much more apt.
When confronting Stitches, Ron Wilson asserts that only he is authorized to transport superheroes. But the first arrival at Sky High showed several other school buses; surely the drivers of those buses are authorized to transport superheroes?
While gesturing to the saviors of Sky High (less Will) Jetstream calls them "sidekicks". That group to which she gestures includes Ron Wilson and Warren, neither of whom is a sidekick.
NANJAO: Although the film makes much of the social division between hero and sidekick and the main character distinguishes himself by sticking up for his sidekick friends, at the end of the day the main character is a hero who ends up with a character that will probably be reclassified as a hero if and when the school ever finds out about her powers.
Quite a review -- nice!
A couple things I didn't like (which hardly diminished my enjoyment of the movie at all) -- when I first saw Lash and Speed I immediately thought "Bulk and Skull". The similarities were too great to be coincidence.
Stitches had to be the most annoying villain sidekick ever, except maybe for Otis from the Superman movies. I thought it would be revealed that he was Mr. Boy's alter ego, also seeking revenge.
Nice cameo of Lynda Carter. For you youngun's out there, she played Wonder Woman on a TV series back in the 1970's. And she looks darn good even 30 years later!!!
A couple things I didn't like (which hardly diminished my enjoyment of the movie at all) -- when I first saw Lash and Speed I immediately thought "Bulk and Skull". The similarities were too great to be coincidence.
I definitely see this. I'm surprised I didn't earlier, since the scenes with Royal Pain and Stitches in their lair instantly made me think of Rita Repulsa---and I don't think I've seen even one complete episode of Power Rangers!
Obvious nit I missed: On two occasions, Royal Pain reached over with her right hand, flipped open a panel on her left arm, and pressed a button. She's a technopath. Earlier she assembed a ray gun using just her mind. She doesn't need to use her hands to push a button on her own exosuit.
TWS Garrison: I realize that Zach is insecure, not very bright, and overly talkative. Still, why does he talk up his superpower, and eagerly volunteer to demonstrate it right after Larry's impressive display? He does realize that it's not the greatest power. . .
Keep in mind that until just a few days previous, he didn't have any powers at all. It's not too much of a stretch that he would delude himself into thinking his power is kewler than it actually is.
TWS Garrison: Royal Pain's plan is to revert a whole bunch of superheroes to infancy and then raise them to be supervillains. That will only work if they lose their memories of their past lives. The example of Mr. Medulla suggests that that is not the case.
But his power is super-smarts. Quite possibly he manifested at a very early age. The others have regular baby brains.
Was it ever explained what Mr. Boy's power was? Since he's a former sidekick, it was probably not too impressive, but I'm still curious.
And speaking of which, maybe it's just me, but he comes across as being quite bitter about the lot of a Sidekick. Though from what we see in the Alternate Opening, he has plenty of reason to be.
In an effort to foil the Spambot, I'm closing this thread and opening a part 2.