Zoom - Academy for Superheroes
by Peter Hewitt
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Actor: Chevy Chase, Courteney Cox, Kevin Zegers, Spencer Breslin, Tim AllenDirector: Peter Hewitt
Brand: Sony
Producer: Jennifer Todd
Producer: Joseph Boccia
Producer: Julie Ragland
Producer: Neil A. Machlis
Writer: Adam Rifkin
Writer: David Berenbaum
Writer: Jason Lethcoe
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 83 minutes
Published: 2007-02-01
DVD Release Date: 2007-02-13
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Zoom - Academy for Superheroes
DVD Review: These Wannabe Superheroes Need To Grow Up...
Summary: 2 Stars
With the explosion of the superhero genre of recent years due to the various successes of the 'Spiderman' and 'X-Men' franchises and the recent additions of "Superman Returns" and "Batman Begins", movie studios around Hollywood are finding themselves trying to capitalize on the recent craze with either adaptations of existing comic book material or original content. For the most part the studios have been successful with their adaptations of various existing comic book characters, sadly the original creations are not faring as well. Disney learned this the hard way (in my opinion) with the lackluster, kid-friendly, tongue firmly planted in cheek, superhero comedy "Sky High" starring Kurt Russell a couple of years ago. I thought the movie was a pathetic attempt by Disney to cash in on the superhero genre, appearing to disregard what made the previous comic book movies successes (ie. a respect for the core audience, blending reality with fantasy, and plenty of action and drama with some humor thrown in at times), what Disney made was a slapstick comedy filled with sight-gags and essentially just poking fun at the genre. This choice would have been fine if it would have been properly executed. Come forward a couple of years and Sony Pictures is attempting to correct Disney's mistakes and make a superhero movie work with an original team not based on any existing characters. The movie was the Tim Allen action/comedy vehicle, "Zoom: Academy For Superheroes"; the result was a movie that was somewhat better than it's predecessor "Sky High", but still nothing to watch twice, and I'll talk more about that later on, for now, I'll move on to my story synopsis for the movie.
Bright colors and simple stories of classic, campy superhero comics are the template for "Zoom: Academy For Superheroes". Gone is dramatic, realistic storytelling that comprises most recent superhero movies. The story begins with retired superhero Captain Zoom (Tim Allen) getting pulled out of his dead-end job where he's chosen to hide since disappearing from the media spotlight, when the government decides to assemble a new team of super-powered kids to thwart an impending disaster. The motley quartet includes a herculean little girl, an invisible slacker, a telekinetic hot chick, and a chunky lad whose body inflates to enormous size. Now, Zoom, a has-been of a superhero, must rediscover the power within that he's long forgotten and lead an an all-new generation of superheroes to save the world.
This movie had potential, by choosing to not base the story on an existing comic book, Sony Pictures were provided with an opportunity to create their own universe and superhero mythology where anything was possible. To accomplish this, all they would have had to do was take things more seriously, a little humor here and there would have been ok, but not every other scene. Especially when the humor was one sight-gag after the other, and some of them repetitive. I mean, throw in a joke that's actually funny and aimed a little higher than the level of a 5 year old, just do something to break up the monotony. The special effects were a mixed bag of good and bad CGI. There were times that they were impressive to see, and others where it was painful to watch, and made me wonder if I had switched from watching an actual theatrical release to wathcing a B-movie, made for the Sci-Fi channel. This hodge-podge of CGI assisted in the hampering of some of the attempts at humor on the filmmaker's part because some of the gags relied on the kids learning their individual powers, therefore requiring CGI. When the CGI is lacking in quality, the gag, no matter how good it might have been, will suffer.
The casting was alright, the choice to use Tim Allen as the has-been superhero was a pretty clear indication that Sony was not attempting to make a serious movie, but I still held out hope that there would be more drama which would make the movie feel more balanced and entertaining to adults as well as children, something like Tim Allen's previous sci-fi work in the action/comedy "Galaxy Quest". The kid/teenage actors that comprised the rest of the superhero team were adequate in their respective roles, though their character arcs were predictable the moment they were introduced, no surprise there. The rest of the supporting cast was comprised of good actors, who like Tim Allen, must have signed on to just collect a paycheck, because this movie will do nothing for their careers or self-respect. Out of the entire cast, Chevy Chase offered the most laughs (and even they were few and far between), but his appearance felt like a last-ditch effort by an aging and out-of-touch comedian to find a new audience and be relevant again. Sorry, Chevy no such luck of a career resurgence with this flop of a movie.
As I said earlier, "Zoom: Academy For Superheroes" was better than Disney's "Sky High", but still nowhere near the quality of comic book movie as "X-Men" or "Superman Returns", and if it was merely trying to be a spoof, there have been far better efforts at spoofing movies, the 'Scary Movie' franchise is a prime example of a spoofing success story. Now, please understand if you have a young child in your family they probably will find this movie incredibly entertaining and will want to see it again and again, but otherwise no one else will find much joy from the experience.
"Zoom: Academy For Superheroes" is rated PG for fantasy violence.
Description of Zoom - Academy for Superheroes
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