Nowadays, it's really difficult to be surprised by a new movie anymore. Ofcourse, the small movies are still able to surprise, but big movies are so overhyped that it is almost impossible to miss them. The hype machine kicks into gear already months and months before a movie is released (often even before filming has started), and the press departments of the movie studios have turned it into an art to send out press releases for every small thing that is happening on their movie. You have to wonder: are we really interested to know the tiniest details about a movie, long before it's release? According to PR: yes ofcourse! The sooner that people know about their latest blockbuster, the better. Tell them about a movie now, and if they are interested, people can be kept up to date by giving them more nuggets of news, which they can then pass on to their friends. And if people are not interested, you still have a long time left to win them over.
Back to the old school
So it's quite unique to be shown the trailer of a movie that is coming out pretty soon, especially of a big summer movie, and to then wonder why you have never heard of that movie before. Okay, maybe that is not entirely true. I have heard tidbits about Sky High, like the fact that it stars Kurt Russell and Bruce Campbell, and that it's about a school of superheroes, but that's about it. No special teaser trailer six months ago, no leaked pictures, no hyped up press conference at some big comic convention, where the stars tell all about how much they love the story and how making this movie made them live out their biggest fantasies. In the case of Sky High we go back to the old school. The release of a trailer, two months before the release of the movie, and from here on out the hype will have to slowly start building.
Wonder Woman
You know, I can understand why Disney is taking this route with Sky High. In a summer where almost every movie is based on a well known property, it is an uphill battle to be able to make people notice your original movie. And when you are making a superhero movie, there is no use starting the hype when people are still anxiously awaiting Batman Begins and Fantastic Four. I'm pretty sure Disney is crossing their fingers that Fantastic Four will turn out to be a disaster, so that they can start letting people know that their superhero flick is a lot more fun, and coming out in only a couple of weeks time (after the release of FF)! Looking at the trailer, it seems that Sky High really could be a lot of fun. It mixes elements from Harry Potter, X-Men and Spy Kids, adds some fan favorite actors (Russell and Campbell), amps up the special effects and spices it up with the slightest touch of sex appeal (Kelly Preston as a hot Wonder Woman type character) to make a mix that could prove irresistable to moviegoers.
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"When you have somebody like Kurt Russell wondering whether or not dropping his son in a vat of toxic waste will turn him into a superhero, you know that fun is almost guaranteed."
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The most powerful superheroes in the world
Sky High introduces us to Will Stronghold. Will is just your regular teenager, save for one important aspect: his parents are the most powerful superheroes in the world. His dad (Russell) is Captain Stronghold, saviour of the world and practically unstoppable. Think of a cross between Superman and Captain America and you're there. Will's mom is Josie Jetstream, wonderful mother by day, fanboy fantasy at night. Like the rest of the world, Will looks up to his parents, but only reluctantly, because so far no powers have manifested themselves in him. His dad would love for him to take over the family business, but so far Will looks completely unable to do anything special. To try and remedy this situation, Will's parents send him to Sky High, a superhero school hovering high above the ground, where all the kids are tought how to be the best heroes they can be. Unlike Harry Potter, this school is well known also to non superheroes. In the society of this movie, superheroes are well accepted and a part of everyday life.
At his new school, Will soon makes new friends, but also new enemies. Having enemies at school is no fun, but if you make enemies at school full of superheroes and you have no superhero powers yourself, you're in trouble.
Still, Will get's plenty of chances to prove himself when his parents are kidnapped by his dad's arch-nemesis and it's up to Will to save them. You don't have to be a genius to understand that some superhero powers will manifest themselves in Will (though it would have been fun if that aspect would not have been spelled out for us in the trailer).
High octane fun
Said trailer is two minutes of high octane fun, that should be good enough to convince people that this is a movie they want to see. It's full of moments that will tickle the fancy of any comic book fan, like students battling it out in special arena's, bad guys who seem all powerful, and female superheroes who seem to abide by the credo: the more cleavage, the better (thought this movie also seems to be for girls, with many of the female characters having their own cool superpowers). The concept of a superhero school is a no-brainer (it is featured heavily in many different comics, X-Men for example), and the kids with all their different superpowers will guarantee that everybody will be quick to pick their favorites. There's a kid that can fly. There's a kid that can freeze her opponents. There's a kid that can stretch his body. There's a kid that can shoot fire (how is it that in this type of movie, there are never two people with the same superpower?). People who have read a comic or two can probably name dozens of other superheroes with the exact same powers, but it does not really matter. This movie is not trying to set the world alight and to create something original. It tries to create an environment and characters that are exciting, and that people would like to see. After the successful release of the Harry Potter movies, you only had to wait for the first school for superheroes, and Disney beat all the other studios that came up with the same idea to the punch. It does not really matter whether or not this movie is entirely original, it exists within a movie realm where all that really matters is how much fun something is. And when you have somebody like Bruce Campbell labelling the kids either heroes or sidekicks, and somebody like Kurt Russell wondering whether or not dropping his son in a vat of toxic waste will turn him into a superhero, you know that fun is almost guaranteed.
Patrick Rijnders
pleas make a second sky high im begging i loved sky high ppppppppppplllllllleeeeeeeeaaaaaaassssssss
Posted by: cole taylor | May 10, 2006 at 02:34 AM