Superhero Media: We Can Be Heroes

At last! The long-awaited sequel to The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, kind of. In a world where Sharkboy and Lavagirl are real superheroes, as opposed to being part of a child's imagination, all of the world's heroes are taken out in an alien invasion, and their children are the next target. Make no mistake, We Can Be Heroes is a film for children, mostly starring children with few moments really targeted at adults, which can make it a dull watch for those just wanting some superhero action, but much like its predecessor, We Can Be Heroes is well made and tries hard to deliver where lesser films may choose to slack off. The world may be silly and more than a little camp, but the setting is internally consistent, characters have understandable (if basic) motivations and no one really pulls new powers out of nowhere. I'm disappointed that Sharkboy and Lavagirl don't have much to do, as I wanted to see what they were like as adults, and for some reason there is no Machete cameo, but I enjoyed the film overall. 

Remember how one of my major complaints about My Hero Academia is that it fails to deliver on the premise of a character with a solid base of knowledge keeping pace with people with actual powers? Well, our protagonist, Missy, despite being the daughter of one of the most respected heroes on the planet, has no powers of her own, and must rely on her brain to become the leader of the other young heroes and save the world. And there isn't even an eleventh-hour "oh wait, turns out I had powers all along" moment to ruin when Missy steps up and puts herself in the firing-line when there is no other option. The cast of kids is wonderfully diverse, and no attention is drawn to it, because it's just normal for the kids, so why would they discuss it? It's one of those things I miss about working with kids, where they don't have any inbuilt prejudice and just accept trans, queer and foreign peers because why be mean to a potential new friend? The kids in We Can Be Heroes do fight, of course, but over kid stuff, not the presence of a disabled child and a non-binary kid. 

The overall message of We Can Be Heroes is that each new generation needs to do better than the last, and that the young should take on leadership roles as soon as possible. And... yes. 100% we should be empowering the youth to facilitate lasting change in the world, rather than rich old men who will be dead before the problems they've created come home to roost. If you have kids and you want an excuse to sit through a superhero film, you can do a lot worse than We Can Be Heroes, which is twee and camp, but never stupid or pandering. At the very least, we get a quick look at adult versions of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, a liquid metal shark in the finale and a cool-looking alien menace to drag into your own games when you need them. I feel like We Can Be Heroes really needed a bigger budget and some more stars, Missy's dad is two steps away from being Ryan Reynolds and, again, where is my Machete cameo?