Movie Review: Sky High

A break from Katrina news…

This weekend Hubs and I were looking for a movie the whole family could enjoy. We didn’t find it, since I didn’t think The 40-Year-Old Virgin or The Wedding Crashers were appropriate for DD#2 (12) or DS#2 (15). I’m sure they would have enjoyed either of them. Or pretended to, in order to seem “sophisticated.” Unfortunately for them, I’d rather they not be too “sophisticated” too soon.

We ended up at our local multiplex to see Sky High, which actually got a B+ in the local paper. Reviews at our house, however, were decidedly mixed.

Sky High is about Will, a high school freshman, whose parents are the two greatest superheroes in the area. Will’s dad is an alum of Sky High, a floating high school whose location changes so super-villains won’t harm the students. The students all have super-powers. Except Will, who can’t bear to tell his parents and disappoint them.

Students are divided into two groups, based on their powers: heroes or sidekicks. Will ends up a sidekick, a group that is regularly bullied by the heroes. As if that isn’t enough, the father of one of the students was a super-villain who was caught by Will’s dad. And this student happens to be a hero.

Does Will ever find his superpowers? Does he remain true to his sidekick friends? Does he figure out that Layla, the girl-next-door who can make plants grow, has a crush on him? Is this a Disney movie? It is—so the answers should be obvious.

But this movie has a sly sense of humor. Lynda Carter—yes, that Lynda Carter—is the principal of Sky High. Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston play the superhero parents who also are dynamite real estate agents. The actors who play the students seem like typical students.

DD#2 laughed out loud through the whole movie. Her comment: “It’s better than I thought it would be from the previews.” Hubs and I smiled a lot. DS#2 thought it was “okay, but not that great.” (He’s a high school freshman himself, so some of the situations may have been a little too close to reality for him.)

On the March Hare Movie Review Rating System: 3 tickets and go to the bargain matinee.