It was tough figuring out what to review for my last write-up of 2020. I mean, this has been the most productive year in this blog’s history, and I still wasn’t able to get around to everything I wanted to see. So… what do I pick?
The new George Clooney movie? Eh, after Suburbicon, I haven’t been holding out much hope for that working out.
Death Of 2020, Charlie Brooker’s new production? I think this year’s been bleak enough without shining a light on someone else shining a light on how garbage the last twelve months have been. I want to end things more positively than that.
Well, how about Wonder Woman 1984? Can’t go see it in cinemas because of lockdown, and it isn’t streaming over here yet, so that’s out (same with Superintelligence, although quite frankly, I’m not exactly beating myself up over missing out on James Corden no doubt embarrassing himself once again).
Then this little feature popped up on Netflix earlier this week… looks like I got my pick.
The latest from the filmmaker behind my favourite movie of all time, and I’m probably one of the few adults that will admit to liking some of Robert Rodriguez’s kids films (mainly the first two Spy Kids films and… not much else, sorry), and that extends to The Adventures Of Sharkboy & Lavagirl. An ode to the power of children’s imagination that itself is largely the product of a child’s imagination, since Robert’s son Racer was credited for the story and a lot of the concepts came from the younger part of the Rodriguez clan. And even fifteen years later, that holds true here, with Racer credited as producer this time around, and his younger brother Rebel handling the music. It also holds true in that this is all about lifting up the new generation… just in a different way than before.
First off, while this film does contain Sharkboy and Lavagirl, this is a sequel to their film in that regard and that regard only. To the point where you probably shouldn’t think too hard about the logistics of why they’re even here. It’s basically a superhero take on some of Robert’s earlier successes in family-friendly entertainment, with tentacle aliens kidnapping all the world’s superheroes and it’s up to their superpowered kids to save them and everyone else. While the attempts to inject poignancy into the young generation rescuing the old (right down to Christopher McDonald as a thinly-veiled stand-in for a completely different kind of Donald), it manages to reinforce ideas of teamwork and hope for a better tomorrow that… well, quite frankly, I feel like I needed to see after the last twelve months of whatever-the-hell-has-been-going-on.
It helps that the way Robert and co. approach superpowers is pretty cool too. Some of the powers are rather generic, like Noodles (Lyon Daniels)’ super-stretching, but some of the others, like Wild Card (Nathan Blair) having every superpower in the world but basically being too ADD to use them reliably, show some real creativity. Doubly so for featuring characters whose main powers are singing, drawing, and even pulling faces, adding to the title’s fist-pumping inspiration. Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring up Guppy (Vivien Blair), the daughter of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, who might be the most adorable thing I’ve seen all year.
As for the presentation, the whole Mariachi aesthetic of Rodriguez’s films continues to highlight the heights, and the lows, that that style can bring. I quite like the set design, particularly on the alien mothership which has definite shades of Floop’s castle from the first Spy Kids, and the tentacle aliens are definitely creepy as needed… but the same can be said for Noodles’ stretching, which is rendered in equally Uncanny Valley fashion. The CGI work is pretty rough, and even rougher when they involve green-screen movement, but for every wonky moment, there’s how the footage of Sung Kang’s Blinding Fast is perpetually sped-up compared to everyone else. It balances out when all is said and done.
While I could easily pick apart the story for being see-through and generic as such things go, or how the visuals don’t always hold up, or that Christian Slater in a superhero movie really should have left me with a stronger impression than what we get… I had fun, what can I say? I liked the creativity with the superpowers, I liked how the kids mostly did their own stunt work to make the youth empowerment that little bit more tangible, I liked Rodriguez’s characteristically kitchen-sink approach to filmmaking, but above all else, I liked how hopeful this film is. It’s quite on-the-nose about such things, granted, but as basically a parent’s love letter to their own little superheroes, about all that they can achieve if they work together, it won me over.
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