WE CAN BE HEROES (NETFLIX) (2020)




 

SYNOPSIS: When alien invaders kidnap Earth's superheroes, their kids are whisked away to a government safe house. But whip-smart tween Missy Moreno (Yaya Gosselin) will stop at nothing to rescue her superhero dad, Marcus Moreno (Pedro Pascal). Missy teams up with the rest of the superkids to escape their mysterious government babysitter, Ms. Granada (Priyanka Chopra Jonas). If they're going to save their parents, they'll have to work together by using their individual powers — from elasticity to time control to predicting the future — and form an out-of-this-world team.

MOVIE REVIEW:

If you find the overall aesthetic of We Can Be Heroes kind of familiar, yup indeed it comes from Robert Rodriguez, the brainchild behind the Spy Kids franchise and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl. A name that is synonymous with kiddie flicks and violent cult classics liked Sin City and From Dusk Till Dawn.

We Can Be Heroes is presumably a stand-alone sequel to The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl although you can simply sum it up as a cheap action hero movie. Rodriguez always have the wildest imagination ever and his so-called “Mariachi-style” of filmmaking is once again put into good use, this time round with the help from some of his offspring who provided production assistance at his own Troublemaker Studios.

In We Can Be Heroes, a team of superheroes dubbed the Heroics are captured by octopus-like aliens and their children led by Missy (YaYa Gosselin), daughter of Heroics team leader, Marcus (Pedro Pascal) has to convinced the rest of the offspring to work together to rescue their parents and battle the aliens before they destroy our world.

With names liked Miracle Guy (Boyd Holbrook), Tech-No (Christian Slater) and Blinding Fast (Sung Kang), you can be sure the world is going to be in safe hands. But the answer is no of course because this bunch of grown-up superheroes with lame names don’t really know how to work together to fend off the enemies. So it’s up to the kids who are equipped with cool powers such as elasticity, rewind and fast-forward time, manipulation of liquid, vocal prowess and more to save mankind. Ironically, Missy has no superpower of her own and their leader, Wild Card has yet master the ability to control his numerous power.

Will they or will they not save the world in the end?

We got to give it to Rodriguez who continues to entertain the younger audience with his fast and furious zany gags and juvenile humour. Obviously, this is tailored made for kids who are too young to fully appreciate the complexities of the Marvel and DC superheroes flicks. None of the characters portrayed are in any life-threatening predicaments and you can expect them to escape unharmed every single time in playful manners. Even the supposed antagonist, Ms Granada (Priyanka Chopra) is mostly cheesy and hokey. Rodriguez even finds time to insinuate President Trump.

There is nothing liked an old well-meaning message to impart to the younger generation at the end of the movie. In other words, a trope to conveniently wrap up everything before the sequel surfaces. Rodriguez seems to be pulling in all the favours he can get to gather so many familiar faces for their three-minute appearance especially a very busy Pedro Pascal who popped up in two other big productions this year.

This is overall a cartoonish looking movie to entertain the kids. Netflix simply needs this in their vault to compete with Disney+. The adults can safely leave this on while they continue with their daily chores.  

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee


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 ABOUT THE MOVIE

Genre: Action/Comedy
Starring: 
Yaya Gosselin, Lyon Daniels, Andy Walken, Hala Finley, Lotus Blossom, Dylan Henry Lau, Andrew Diaz, Isaiah Russell-Bailey, Akira Akbar, Nathan Blair, Vivien Lyra Blair, Priyanka Chopra, Pedro Pascal, Boyd Holbrook, Christian Slater, Taylor Dooley, Jeffrey J. Dashnaw, Sung Kang, Chris McDonald, Adriana Barraza
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Rating: PG
Year Made: 2020
Official Website: 

 

 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Languages: English
Subtitles: English/Simplified Chinese/Traditional Chinese
Running Time: 1 hr 40 mins