We Can Be Heroes
Year: 2020
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Akira Akbar, Nathan Blair, Vivien Blair, Lotus Blossom, Lyon Daniels, Andrew Diaz, Hala Finley, Yaya Gosselin, Dylan Henry Lau, Isaiah Russell-Bailey & Andy Walken
Runtime: 100 mins
BBFC: PG
Published: 05/01/21
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Akira Akbar, Nathan Blair, Vivien Blair, Lotus Blossom, Lyon Daniels, Andrew Diaz, Hala Finley, Yaya Gosselin, Dylan Henry Lau, Isaiah Russell-Bailey & Andy Walken
Runtime: 100 mins
BBFC: PG
Published: 05/01/21
When I was younger Spy Kids 1-3 were among some of my favourite films. I look back at them now and realise just how awful they were sure, but as a child they were so full of magic and I adored every second of them. Then shortly after Spy Kids 3 director Robert Rodriguez turned his attention to something new, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl. As a fan of Spy Kids I excitedly went to see Sharkboy and Lavagirl but was left disappointed by a film that I was probably a little bit too old for. I could see through the paper-thin plot, awful CGI, and stilted acting.
The general consensus to Sharkboy and Lavagirl was that it was a terrible film, so I certainly wasn’t alone in my views on it. Rodriguez subsequently didn’t return to making kids films until a fourth Spy Kids film in 2011 (which I have not watched) by which time Sharkboy and Lavagirl were already a long-forgotten memory by everyone that had seen it. So, it certainly came as a shock that after everything 2020 had thrown at us that Rodriguez announced he would be making a sequel to Sharkboy and Lavagirl in collaboration with Netflix, a whole fifteen years after the original film. Originally set to air on Jan 1st 2021, the film got bumped forwards a week and aired on Christmas Day, so I grit my teeth and dived back into to Rodriguez’s frankly weird kids films and had a surprisingly good time with We Can Be Heroes.
Missy Moreno (Yaya Gosselin) is the daughter of former superhero Marcus Moreno (Pedro Pascal) though she does not have any powers. When her father is called back into action as the leader of the superhero team, Heroics, he must combat an alien invasion which subsequently leads to the entire Heroics team being captured.
Missy is put into protective custody at Heroics HQ and along with the children of all the other Heroics members they work together to escape the headquarters, board the alien spaceship, and save their parents.
The general consensus to Sharkboy and Lavagirl was that it was a terrible film, so I certainly wasn’t alone in my views on it. Rodriguez subsequently didn’t return to making kids films until a fourth Spy Kids film in 2011 (which I have not watched) by which time Sharkboy and Lavagirl were already a long-forgotten memory by everyone that had seen it. So, it certainly came as a shock that after everything 2020 had thrown at us that Rodriguez announced he would be making a sequel to Sharkboy and Lavagirl in collaboration with Netflix, a whole fifteen years after the original film. Originally set to air on Jan 1st 2021, the film got bumped forwards a week and aired on Christmas Day, so I grit my teeth and dived back into to Rodriguez’s frankly weird kids films and had a surprisingly good time with We Can Be Heroes.
Missy Moreno (Yaya Gosselin) is the daughter of former superhero Marcus Moreno (Pedro Pascal) though she does not have any powers. When her father is called back into action as the leader of the superhero team, Heroics, he must combat an alien invasion which subsequently leads to the entire Heroics team being captured.
Missy is put into protective custody at Heroics HQ and along with the children of all the other Heroics members they work together to escape the headquarters, board the alien spaceship, and save their parents.
Now I can already tell what you’re thinking. That doesn’t sound like a Sharkboy and Lavagirl sequel! Well, that’s kind of because it isn’t. Rodriguez and news outlets marketed We Can Be Heroes as a sequel to the 2005 flop, but in reality, whilst it does have Sharkboy and Lavagirl as members of the Heroics team, they’re only in the film for a few minutes at most.
One of the supporting characters, Guppy (Vivien Blair) is Sharkboy and Lavagirl’s daughter who has a combination of the two’s powers; but that’s about as much of the duo we get. We Can Be Heroes is for all intents and purposes a standalone entity that just exists in the same universe as Sharkboy and Lavagirl.
On the whole We Can Be Heroes is actually a halfway decent kid’s film. As an adult it certainly doesn’t hold up all that well, much like the Spy Kids films, but also like the Spy Kids films it is packed with enough creativity, cool action sequences, and awesome visuals that I can see kids having a fantastic time with the film.
We Can Be Heroes doesn’t treat kids like they’re stupid, there’s plenty left for them to work out on their own over the course of the film. Things don’t just happen for no reason, lots of foreshadowing is present, as well as puzzles and clues littered throughout that will allow kids to piece the films surprises together in time for the big twists in the final act. As an adult it is very easy to work these things out, but much like the same techniques used in Spy Kids nearly twenty years ago they were what educated me in visual storytelling, pacing and payoff, and good scriptwriting from a young age.
One of the supporting characters, Guppy (Vivien Blair) is Sharkboy and Lavagirl’s daughter who has a combination of the two’s powers; but that’s about as much of the duo we get. We Can Be Heroes is for all intents and purposes a standalone entity that just exists in the same universe as Sharkboy and Lavagirl.
On the whole We Can Be Heroes is actually a halfway decent kid’s film. As an adult it certainly doesn’t hold up all that well, much like the Spy Kids films, but also like the Spy Kids films it is packed with enough creativity, cool action sequences, and awesome visuals that I can see kids having a fantastic time with the film.
We Can Be Heroes doesn’t treat kids like they’re stupid, there’s plenty left for them to work out on their own over the course of the film. Things don’t just happen for no reason, lots of foreshadowing is present, as well as puzzles and clues littered throughout that will allow kids to piece the films surprises together in time for the big twists in the final act. As an adult it is very easy to work these things out, but much like the same techniques used in Spy Kids nearly twenty years ago they were what educated me in visual storytelling, pacing and payoff, and good scriptwriting from a young age.
The special effects in We Can Be Heroes do look very janky to say the least. But that’s part of the charm of Rodriguez’s kids films. Everything is so cartoonish and childlike in design that it’s not meant to look real in the slightest. For some this might be off-putting but personally I found it very enjoyable to see unique and visually interesting special effects again, rather than stuff that’s intentionally meant to look as though it belongs in the real world.
I do want to talk about the set design for a moment though because it took me by surprise just how much I love Rodriguez’s set design in his kids films. I almost totally forgot how weird they are, but they look like they are designed by kids for kids to play on. As I was watching the film I had fond memories of wanting to play on the Spy Kids sets, and I have to admit I kind of want to go and play on the We Can Be Heroes sets. They look so cool, in an age where we are bombarded with sleek looking sci-fi stuff because it needs to fit in with modern aesthetics, We Can Be Heroes gets a load of weird looking shapes and throws the most garish colours imaginable all over it. It’s incredible and I had a lot of fun just looking at the sets in this film.
The acting in this film was very overdramatic, especially from the child actors. Again, kind of fits with the whole Rodriguez tone of the film, but it does get kind of grating at times especially because the kids are not the best actors in the world. But even when you look at actors that we know to be good such as Pedro Pascal and Sung Kang, they’re just so OTT and it makes you wonder whether they actually cared about the role.
The only child actor that really stuck out to me in a bad way was ‘Wild Card’ played by Nathan Blair. It may not necessarily be his acting that’s the problem and maybe more the character, but he was just so whatever in his performance that I just got irritated by his presence on screen, plus he kept fiddling with the damn necklace he has on and it was really distracting!
We Can Be Heroes is not a good film when looked at through a critical lens. The story is simple, the twists obvious to the trained eye, CG effects are ugly, and the acting wooden. But I can’t deny that I had a good time with it. It brought out the child in me and I can absolutely recommend this to kids below the age of thirteen. I’d love to see more films like it, and perhaps even Spy Kids make a return if they maintain this level of creativity and fun, something that’s hard to come by nowadays in family films.
I do want to talk about the set design for a moment though because it took me by surprise just how much I love Rodriguez’s set design in his kids films. I almost totally forgot how weird they are, but they look like they are designed by kids for kids to play on. As I was watching the film I had fond memories of wanting to play on the Spy Kids sets, and I have to admit I kind of want to go and play on the We Can Be Heroes sets. They look so cool, in an age where we are bombarded with sleek looking sci-fi stuff because it needs to fit in with modern aesthetics, We Can Be Heroes gets a load of weird looking shapes and throws the most garish colours imaginable all over it. It’s incredible and I had a lot of fun just looking at the sets in this film.
The acting in this film was very overdramatic, especially from the child actors. Again, kind of fits with the whole Rodriguez tone of the film, but it does get kind of grating at times especially because the kids are not the best actors in the world. But even when you look at actors that we know to be good such as Pedro Pascal and Sung Kang, they’re just so OTT and it makes you wonder whether they actually cared about the role.
The only child actor that really stuck out to me in a bad way was ‘Wild Card’ played by Nathan Blair. It may not necessarily be his acting that’s the problem and maybe more the character, but he was just so whatever in his performance that I just got irritated by his presence on screen, plus he kept fiddling with the damn necklace he has on and it was really distracting!
We Can Be Heroes is not a good film when looked at through a critical lens. The story is simple, the twists obvious to the trained eye, CG effects are ugly, and the acting wooden. But I can’t deny that I had a good time with it. It brought out the child in me and I can absolutely recommend this to kids below the age of thirteen. I’d love to see more films like it, and perhaps even Spy Kids make a return if they maintain this level of creativity and fun, something that’s hard to come by nowadays in family films.