We Can Be Heroes Movie Review - Child Prodigies

We Can Be Heroes is a very watchable kid-friendly superhero film that knows what it wants to be.

What a filmography Robert Rodriguez has! He is a man who has shifted gears from R-rating (Sin City, Planet Terror, Machete) to PG (Spy Kids, Alita: Battle Angel) frequently. His motto seems to be: Why make movies for a particular demographic when you can reach them all? There is something admirable in his attempt to change himself from one mood (adult) to another (child). In We Can Be Heroes, Rodriguez is in a childlike mood operating on simple yet essential themes like teamwork and friendship. What he is also trying to say is that every child is special and born with unique gifts, separating him/her from the others.

It's a sweet, noble thought executed against the backdrop of superheroes and aliens. The plot is charged typically: Placing alien spaceships into the Earth's orbit. The spaceships are first identified by Miracle Guy (Boyd Holbrook) and then Tech-No (Christian Slater). Within no time, all the superheroes are ordered to assemble, including Marcus Moreno (Pedro Pascal), a master swordsman who looks like Hawkeye, summons his swords in the same way Thor calls his hammer and leads the team like Captain America. Ms. Granada (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) commands everyone from the Heroics Headquarters. This everyone features a line of superheroes. Apart from Miracle Guy and Tech-No, we have Lavagirl (Taylor Dooley, reprising her role from Rodriguez's The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl), Sharkboy (JJ Dashnaw), Blinding Fast (Sung Kang), Ms. Vox (Haley Reinhart), Crimson Legend (J. Quinton Johnson), Red Lightning Fury (Brittany Perry-Russell), Invisi Girl (Jamie Perez), and Crushing Low (Brently Heilbron). Notice I didn't describe their powers because it does not matter. Soon they are kidnapped by the aliens and put in a cell on the Mother ship. Even in their brief fight scene, they are not allowed to flex their powers and are captured in the most feeble way possible.

That's natural because We Can Be Heroes is about the superheroes' kids. This array consists of Missy Moreno (YaYa Gosselin), Ojo (Hala Finley) who can draw the future, a stretchable Noodles (Lyon Daniels), the brainy Wheels (Andy Walken), A Capella (Lotus Blossom) who can control objects by singing, Slo-Mo (Dylan Henry Lau) whose name says it all, the super cute and powerful Guppy (Vivien Blair) who can make weapons out of a liquid, two siblings Rewind (Isaiah Russell-Bailey) and Fast Forward (Akira Akbar), Facemaker (Andrew Diaz), and Wild Card (Nathan Blair) who has zero control on his powers. Among all of them, only Missy has not discovered her powers yet. With their parents kidnapped, the children take the responsibility to rescue them and save the planet from the alien forces. Not even a bunker or Ms. Granada's lockdown can stop them from achieving the objective.

We Can Be Heroes is zany, and it owns every bit of it. Be it the almost cartoonish CGI or the goofy gadgets, We Can Be Heroes leaves no stone unturned to become an over-the-top package. After escaping from Heroics Headquarters, the kids end up with Missy's grandmother Anita Moreno (Adriana Barraza). She is also the trainer of the Heroics, which gives an excuse to set up a training montage. It's cheesy, hilarious, and exciting. You can say that about the whole film. Apart from being unapologetically eccentric, We Can Be Heroes pokes fun towards the other superhero franchise. Someone mentions how the battle generally happens in a populated area leading to expensive capital damage. There is also a comment on the ridiculousness of the costumes and how it isolates the superhumans from the normal humans, making the task easier for the aliens to single them out and capture them. A scene where the adult heroes put their arguments aside to pose for the camera shows the obsession of filming superheroes in a low angle mighty formation. Or, as The Boys pointed out, the supes get together just for the camera. If none of this cuts deep, that's because more than satire, it is tongue in cheek, keeping We Can Be Heroes grounded and light-hearted. This is a film made for children, after all.

There are adequate amounts of twists to keep things shocking and engaging. The twists get more agreeable if you accept to enter its childish zone. Anchoring it are the wonderful performances from actors who believe in the absurd material. It's a group effort as everyone is on the same level of craziness, supplying zest to something that could have easily got boring. We Can Be Heroes sets an aim and hits on it. Rodriguez knows what he wants to deliver, and he doesn't cheat.

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