Sky High

Sometimes, I revisit movies from my childhood just to see what they were really like. Occasionally, they inevitably end up dissatisfying me and are only worth the watch for the nostalgia factor. Other times, however, no matter how many films I've watched since then or how much film history and theory I've studied, some of them simply turn out to be well made movies that still have the capacity to delight and impress me now, many years later. I'm proud to say Sky High falls into the latter category. 

Sky High follows Will Stronghold, the son of the world's most famous superheroes, The Commander and Jetstream, in his quest to discover the true meaning of heroism, a particularly hard lesson for him to learn since he did not inherit any powers like his mother's flying abilities or his father's super strength. In superheroland, this means that once he enters his new school, the titular Sky High, he's relegated to the ostracized sidekick community, which is full of lovable oddballs with subpar superpowers (like glowing, turning into a ball, and melting) who are taught to worship and serve all heroes. At first, Will is bummed that he is not as special as he once thought, but he eventually finds out that sidekicks can be heroes too. Awww. 

Broadly outlining the story yields almost no surprises. Like any high school movie, Sky High comes with bullies (one super fast, the other one extremely elastic); stuck-up cheerleaders that just seem like an omnipresent force in all schools; a goth chick with a heart of gold; the awkward hero; his girl next door best friend; his nemesis; and his senior-year crush, a beautiful girl with a sinister secret that betrays her flowery clothing, her charming musical motif, and the soft-focus three point lighting reserved for her. Spoiler, she's the bad guy.

Sky High instead embellishes this broad, universal story with little grace notes and pitch perfect execution. Watch the painful attempts Will makes at hiding the fact that he has no powers so that he can avoid the inevitable heartbreaking conversation with his parents. Notice the beautiful encouragement his best friend Layla provides on how to break the news to them. “When life gives you lemons,” she tells him... I won’t spoil the punchline, but it is surely sweet and unexpected. A conversation that takes place in a Chinese restaurant in which a villainous character reveals a little wisdom and a lot of previously unseen kindness is a favorite of mine, and it is but one of many charming touches that elevate Sky High above the standard superhero popcorn fare. 

The performances are mostly good, with remarkable work, as always, by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who for some reason remains a largely unknown and underrated actress. Throughout, she shows small hints of the anger and psychopathic lust for revenge behind the high school sweetheart stereotype her Gwen seems to embody, until, in the end, she just unleashes the madness that is Royal Pain. Danielle Panabaker gives Layla an openheartedness and an earnestness that make her irresistible. In a movie full of superheroes hiding behind their false identities, superpowers, and labels, Layla is the only completely honest, innocent character, something Panabaker pulls off without ever seeming pretentious or frail.  She's the MVP of the movie. The action, too, is worthy of praise, since at least director Mike Mitchell has a clear sense of pacing and spatial relations that make the action sequences enjoyable and stand in stark contrast to the headache inducing, anarchic, handheld shaky-cam free-for-all that characterizes modern action filmmaking. The final battle that crosscuts among several one on one superhero duels throughout the school while the structure comes crashing to the ground is pure, manic fun yet never disorienting or overindulgent. 

Burdened with nine year old special effects that look embarrassing today and Mitchell's odd fetish for canted angles -- the film’s major flaw, presumably used to make slower scenes visually exciting and the action even more frenzied -- the movie still fares well compared to a lot of "action" films of today. One more thing about Sky High: it has fun with superheroes, and it embraces the silliness of men in tights punching things. Remember, not every superhero movie (or most, even) should be modeled after The Dark Knight! I have absolutely nothing against that film, but sometimes I wonder if it did more harm than good to the genre. Scripts like this one, full of sly jokes and witticisms, silly superheroes and evil duplicitous villains, should get more attention as potential sources of inspiration. Anyway, the script is pure fun, with some great wordplay to boot, yet another of its many appeals; Even if Sky High tells a largely traditional story, it goes about it in an unconventional, emotionally moving way. I couldn’t ask for much more from an old favorite. 

Verdict- 3.5/4 (Bumped up an extra half a star because of what this movie has meant to me since I first watched it in the theater.) 

Sky High (2005) 1h 40min. PG