From Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Nerds love to debate which superhero movie is the best, and get into downright nasty arguments about whether, say, Avengers: Endgame or Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man are the best films in the genre. With respect to all the true believers out there arguing about which Tights and Flights movie they should see next, the best superhero movie has nothing to do with the Marvel Cinematic Universe at all. The best superhero movie is, of course Sky highand streaming it now on Disney+ is the best way to discover how beautifully this film has aged.
Sky high rises
The premise of Sky high is simple: The film focuses on a kind of superhero academy (the titular Sky High), in which the talented young people of today are trained to become the superheroes and sidekicks of tomorrow. Our main character is the son of a superhero power couple who doesn’t seem to have any powers of his own, which makes it difficult for him to fit in or make friends among all these talented guys. Eventually he discovers a power he didn’t know he had, but it may or may not be enough to stop a powerful enemy from the past who has found a new way to terrorize the present.
If you’re a fan of superheroes or genre media, the cast is a veritable who’s who of big names, including Kurt Russell as the Superman-like patriarch and Bruce Campbell as the strangest gym teacher in the world. Wonder Woman herself, Lynda Carter, plays the principal of Sky High, and Dave Foley stars alongside a former pal turned teacher Children in the hall Alumnus Kevin McDonald (who plays a science teacher with a comically oversized head). As for the younger stars, the main character is played by Michael Angarano, who stars alongside future superhero genre legends Danielle Panabaker and Mary-Elizabeth Winstead.
At the box office, Sky high proved to be a modest success, grossing $86.4 million against a budget of $35 million. The film was also a modest success with critics, as the film currently has a critical rating of 74 percent Rotten tomatoes. In general, these critics felt that the film was a bit corny, but still managed to entertain from start to finish.
Why Sky High is the best
Now it’s time to address the caped elephant in the room: Sky high The film didn’t achieve the highest box office grosses in the world and didn’t exactly wow the critics either. So why do I call this the best superhero movie on Disney+, a streaming platform where you can watch the entire MCU at any time? On the one hand, this film embodies the pure, silly fun of the genre. While the MCU was much more light-hearted than the DCEU (and thank goodness for that!), some of its better films are often buried under the weight of being either too realistic or too overused.
And for this longbox lover: Sky high is so much stronger because it embraces the sillier side of comics rather than trying to look cool. The MCU has done annoying things before, like replacing the over-the-top Mandarin comic villain with a drug-addicted method actor and changing Ms. Marvel from a rubbery hero to one with mild powers who would conveniently look less goofy on screen. In the meantime, Sky high The characters take a school bus to a flight academy and a superhero father seriously considers throwing his son into a vat of toxic waste to help the young man finally develop powers.
Sky high is of course not a perfect film, but every scene is better than the sum of its parts. It succeeds as a superhero film, but also works as a great comedy and a very unconventional coming-of-age story, offering the kind of great chemistry and character development that the latter MCU films have sorely lacked. Plus, the experienced actors have so much fun looking at the scenery that you’re guaranteed not to get bored before the credits roll.
You will find Sky high is enough, or are you going to fail this movie and watch a few more Marvel movies instead? You won’t know until you stream it on Disney+. And if director Mike Mitchell manages to create a sequel set in the MCU, then perhaps this cinematic universe will get more of what it so desperately needs: laughter and heart.
