Sky High: A Movie Review

I bought a DVD before leaving work today. I hadn't heard anything about the film I was buying, but I saw it on the shelf, read the back cover of the case and figured I'd give it a shot. After all if it turned out to be crap, well there are a couple of places in town that buy second-hand DVD's. The film is Sky High, which is a high school comedy/drama with a twist. The school hovers a couple miles up in the sky, and is a special learning facility for super-powered teenagers.

The idea of a superhero school is hardly new; cartoonist Aaron Williams writes & draws a comic book called PS238 for instance, which has the same central premise (though that school is deep underground). And (more famously) there is the Xavier Institute from the X-Men comics/films/cartoons. But a couple things convinced me to give this film a try:

1. The film stars Kurt Russell who is one of my favourite actors. This is the guy who did Stargate, Big Trouble In Little China and Escape from New York (among many others). Seeing him playing a superhero. Yeah that sounded cool.
2. The film also stars Bruce Campbell who never fails to be cool in any role he plays, though his most famous role is, of course, Ash from the Evil Dead movies.

The movies plot centres around young Will Stronghold, the son of the worlds two most legendary heroes Commander (Russell) and Jetstream (Kelly Preston) starting at Sky High school. There's just one small problem... Will has no super powers! He has been hiding this from his parents, who fully expect him to join them in the family business.

No such luck at school though and when he has to admit to being powerless, Will is placed in Hero Support class aka Sidekick Training, much to the dismay of his father. There is the usual high school cliches of course: the couple bullies who pick on the sidekicks, the bitchy cheerleader, the angry rebel kid, and the girl best friend with a crush on the boy next door. None of that detracts from what is a fun film. Yeah the plot is wafer thin really but I didn't care.

The film is funny and entertaining and I enjoyed it. For that it gets a 4/5 rating from me. It doesn't pretend to be anything more than light entertainment, and it is exactly that. I hope they make a sequel!