SKY HIGH

Yeah, I watched a Disney movie. What of it? It has Bruce Campbell and Dave Foley & Kevin MacDonald from Kids In the Hall, plus I'd read some positive things about it, so why not?

Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston play The Commander and Jetstream, the two greatest superheroes on the planet. They get married and have a kid, Will, and have secret identities as real estate salespeople. Will has just been enrolled in Sky High, a high school for children of superheroes. Problem is, he doesn't have any superpowers and so during orientation, when kids are put into HERO or SIDEKICK groups based on their powers (or lack thereof), he becomes a sidekick and becomes friends with some nerds. From that point on, he falls in love with a girl while completely ignoring his female best friend, gets into a fight with the school bully, disobeys his parents, but ultimately gains his powers and defeats the villain of the film and ends up doing the right thing. Hope that didn't give away anything.

Basically, it's a high school film made for people who haven't even entered high school yet. It's all bright colors and dutched angles and goofy dialogue and life lessons all coated in a superhero sheen. There are some inspired moments with the teachers abusing their powers and the kids are decent enough, but it kind of felt like I was watching a made for TV Disney film. The final showdown, especially, feels a bit chintzy. But, again, it IS a kid's film, so I guess it's okay. Kids aren't really gonna care.

Two things, though, that irked me: One, the film keeps talking about secret identities and whatnot, but we NEVER see how the non-superhero community relates to the supers. One of the great things about superhero stories is how normal people react to such mighty beings.
The other is the soundtrack. 90% of the songs used are covers of popular 80's tunes. What was the reasoning behind this? I thought it was an odd choice.

So, in the end, it's a live-action Disney movie and it's pretty much exactly what you'd expect from that title. It's very benign. It's neither good or bad. It just is.