Sky High: Personal Appraisal

[terryweide]

Hi, I'm Terry Weide, a new member. I don't usually write reviews or appraisals, but I thought I'd try my hand at one after seeing Sky High yesterday. Hope the rest of you find it worthwhile. Best wishes, Terry

****

Sky High, starring Michael Angarano, Kurt Russell, Kelly Preston, Lynda Carter, Danielle Panabaker, Cloris Leachman, etc. Rated PG for some mild language and mild action violence.

I took my two nieces, aged 7 and 9 to see this yesterday, as they'd been bugging me to go. I found it to be pretty innocuous. If there's “language”, you're going to have to listen twice to hear it, and the violence, such as it is, is nothing that hasn't been seen by most kids in daily cartoons. The plot is that Will Stronghold, the son of the Commander and Jetstream, two super famous superheroes, gets sent to a high school for, you got it, super powered kids. Horrors! Will has been faking things for years, and has, at least seemingly, no powers of his own! Needless to say, things change when he's finally provoked into action. There's the usual teenage trials, girl loves boy, but he loves someone else, boy finally falls for the right girl, bullies get their comeuppance, adults are stereotypical dweebs, and the kids, by putting aside their differences, save the day.

There are obvious spoofs of the Superman, Batman, the Fantastic Four, Spiderman, the X-Men, and the villain’s armored suit looks like it came from the set of the Power Rangers. Despite this, and despite the fact that in a few shots the floating high school looks more like a floating model, there’s some good laughs in this film. While I did find the ending a little too quick and too easy, my nieces enjoyed it and it seems geared for their age group, or for people between the ages of 7 to 17. I'd call it a good summer "kid" movie.

My Overall Rating: 3 1/2 - 4 stars **** depending on the age level of the viewer. That is, I think kids will have more fun with it, and will be more willing to overlook the fact some of the plot devices have been done before, than adults might. To put it another way, this movie is entertaining and it doesn’t pretend to be more or less than that. When I walked out of the theater, I wasn’t sorry I’d spent my money on the tickets.



Terry Weide

[I, Brian]

Thanks for the review, Terry - much appreciated.

[Foxbat]

Well, if it's for big kids as well as little kids, it might suit me just fine

And welcome to this little niche of the Net by the way

[terryweide]

Thanks, Brian, thanks, Foxbat. I'm enjoying some of the other reviews as well. Best wishes, Terry

[Princess Ivy]

i've been told that i'm going to watch it

[Winters_Sorrow]

Do you know when it's due for UK release?

[Princess Ivy]

it is on theatre release at the moment. it came out druing the holidays, so probably dvd by Xmas.