So, I went to the cinema for the fourth time in my life today. There are of course only four films I have ever watched in there - Titanic (it was doing so well in the box office, my parents couldn't say no), Mulan (some people said it was good, so my mother said we should go), Flightplan (to celebrate the end of the PMR exams) and Sky High (just for fun, now that my mum has her own car). Of these four films, I'd say only Titanic and Sky High were worth the money. Mulan was not that great, and neither was Flightplan, despite its thrill-factor and never-ending implausible plot twists.
In that particular sense, Sky High is the complete opposite of Flightplan. Every single thread of the plot can be seen barreling at you miles away. Every time there was a new development, I had predicted it 15 to 30 minutes before. I remember reading once some wise words - there are only about 7 (or 12? My memory fails me) stories that have been told. The mark of a storyteller is his ability to tell one of them in a way it has never been told. In that sense, Sky High does an incredible, and I mean, incredible (no pun intended; The Incredibles have nothing to do with this film) job of storytelling. Despite every clichéd story in the book being used, despite every plot device having been beaten to death, Sky High made them come to life again.
Oh, the plot's quite simple really. Stereotypical teenage kid starting school, parents are these great people with high expectations of him, kid can't live up to them and makes friends with the under-class of his school, including *gasp* a pretty girl obviously madly in love with him. Then, lo and behold, he's suddenly this great guy who has outdone himself and his parents' expectations! (And he's still oblivious to the girl's affections.) He begins hanging with the cool crowd, who want to make him lose his old friends. (Insert the traditional cool crowd bullying nerd kids part here.) Meanwhile, he makes enemies with a stereotypical evil-looking punk dude who wants to kick his butt. At the same time, a malicious plot is afoot to destroy him and everything he holds dear. CAN HE SAVE THE DAY? CAN HIS UNDERESTIMATED CHUMS PROVE THEIR WORTH TO THE COOL KIDS? WILL THE "EVIL" GUY TURN OUT TO BE GOOD? WILL HE GET THE GIRL? Yup, nothing new there. Even the superhero premise of a kid with no powers from a family with lots of them is nothing new. I watched a corny Disney TV movie five years ago entitled Up, Up And Away! with a similar plot, only at least that time, the writers decided to be a bit imaginative and take the road slightly less taken. You certainly can't say that about Sky High. The masterstroke of its creators is their ability to make the old look new.
And in a sense, that's what good entertainment and good business is about. Elvis introduced rock and roll, but it took The Beatles to perfect it. Small mom-and-pop stores, K-Mart, Home Depot, and assorted supermarkets came up with brilliant ideas on their own, but it was Wal-Mart who stole all of them to make a successful multinational business.
Sky High also contains lots of interesting references to traditional superheroes and their stereotypes, making fun of things like sidekicks (and how fast they can change into costume), radioactivity and its effects on superheroes, etc. For those who know of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman, there's a hilarious reference to it at the end.
If you can't tell already, yes, I love this movie. It's quite possibly the best teen flick of the past five if not fifteen years, and it does all this with a plot that retreads ground ploughed by a million movie makers. The actors are brilliant, and I'm very pleased that the movie makers' one original bright spark was taking the high road by hiring largely unknown talent instead of opting for the usual talentless posers like Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan, et. al.
Although clearly pains have been taken to make this child-palatable, with no blood or deaths, the movie is also surprisingly adult-enjoyable. In spite of the plot's unoriginality, it is hardly childish in presentation, and you almost forget you're watching a bunch of teenagers and some actors past their prime zooming around on the screen. Perhaps the only demographic group this film won't appeal to are the elderly, hardcore punk-ish, and the hopeless romantics who made Titanic a success by repeatedly going to theatres to see Leonardo di Caprio's wet nipples.
It's just too bad the Oscars don't have a knack for recognising movies like this. After all, such fare is hardly "serious" stuff like the Godfather, the Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump or even Titanic. While the previous four take themselves seriously, making them good candidates for a Best Picture Oscar (which three of them won), a film unafraid of poking fun at itself and taking you on a jolly good ride isn't even going to make the cut for a nomination. Well, such is Hollywood. Still, this is definitely a two thumbs up, and I give it a nine out of ten.
In that particular sense, Sky High is the complete opposite of Flightplan. Every single thread of the plot can be seen barreling at you miles away. Every time there was a new development, I had predicted it 15 to 30 minutes before. I remember reading once some wise words - there are only about 7 (or 12? My memory fails me) stories that have been told. The mark of a storyteller is his ability to tell one of them in a way it has never been told. In that sense, Sky High does an incredible, and I mean, incredible (no pun intended; The Incredibles have nothing to do with this film) job of storytelling. Despite every clichéd story in the book being used, despite every plot device having been beaten to death, Sky High made them come to life again.
Oh, the plot's quite simple really. Stereotypical teenage kid starting school, parents are these great people with high expectations of him, kid can't live up to them and makes friends with the under-class of his school, including *gasp* a pretty girl obviously madly in love with him. Then, lo and behold, he's suddenly this great guy who has outdone himself and his parents' expectations! (And he's still oblivious to the girl's affections.) He begins hanging with the cool crowd, who want to make him lose his old friends. (Insert the traditional cool crowd bullying nerd kids part here.) Meanwhile, he makes enemies with a stereotypical evil-looking punk dude who wants to kick his butt. At the same time, a malicious plot is afoot to destroy him and everything he holds dear. CAN HE SAVE THE DAY? CAN HIS UNDERESTIMATED CHUMS PROVE THEIR WORTH TO THE COOL KIDS? WILL THE "EVIL" GUY TURN OUT TO BE GOOD? WILL HE GET THE GIRL? Yup, nothing new there. Even the superhero premise of a kid with no powers from a family with lots of them is nothing new. I watched a corny Disney TV movie five years ago entitled Up, Up And Away! with a similar plot, only at least that time, the writers decided to be a bit imaginative and take the road slightly less taken. You certainly can't say that about Sky High. The masterstroke of its creators is their ability to make the old look new.
And in a sense, that's what good entertainment and good business is about. Elvis introduced rock and roll, but it took The Beatles to perfect it. Small mom-and-pop stores, K-Mart, Home Depot, and assorted supermarkets came up with brilliant ideas on their own, but it was Wal-Mart who stole all of them to make a successful multinational business.
Sky High also contains lots of interesting references to traditional superheroes and their stereotypes, making fun of things like sidekicks (and how fast they can change into costume), radioactivity and its effects on superheroes, etc. For those who know of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman, there's a hilarious reference to it at the end.
If you can't tell already, yes, I love this movie. It's quite possibly the best teen flick of the past five if not fifteen years, and it does all this with a plot that retreads ground ploughed by a million movie makers. The actors are brilliant, and I'm very pleased that the movie makers' one original bright spark was taking the high road by hiring largely unknown talent instead of opting for the usual talentless posers like Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan, et. al.
Although clearly pains have been taken to make this child-palatable, with no blood or deaths, the movie is also surprisingly adult-enjoyable. In spite of the plot's unoriginality, it is hardly childish in presentation, and you almost forget you're watching a bunch of teenagers and some actors past their prime zooming around on the screen. Perhaps the only demographic group this film won't appeal to are the elderly, hardcore punk-ish, and the hopeless romantics who made Titanic a success by repeatedly going to theatres to see Leonardo di Caprio's wet nipples.
It's just too bad the Oscars don't have a knack for recognising movies like this. After all, such fare is hardly "serious" stuff like the Godfather, the Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump or even Titanic. While the previous four take themselves seriously, making them good candidates for a Best Picture Oscar (which three of them won), a film unafraid of poking fun at itself and taking you on a jolly good ride isn't even going to make the cut for a nomination. Well, such is Hollywood. Still, this is definitely a two thumbs up, and I give it a nine out of ten.