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For the most part, directors tend to stick with the one style and the one audience that best suits them. But that’s not the case for Robert Rodriguez, whose films range from ultra-violent R-rated action movies to quirky adventures for kids. Though he’s been focusing on his grown-up movies for nearly a decade, he’s switched gears for the out-of-this-world action of Netflix’s We Can Be Heroes.
We Can Be Heroes finds the fate of the planet in the hands of a group of kids. When the world’s superheroes are all called in to battle a band of aliens that are invading Earth, their children are all brought to a safe place. But after the aliens kidnap the heroes, they set their sights on the kids, too. Though she’s the one kid in the group without superpowers of her own, Missy Moreno (YaYa Gosselin) steps up to try to bring the bickering kids together to save their parents…and the world.
While Missy and the rest of the band of super-kids race off in on their quest to evade alien capture and find their super-parents, they face all kinds of extreme challenges. But if you’ve seen any of Rodriguez’s other kid-friendly action movies, that’s no big surprise. They’re generally campy and melodramatic, with cheesy effects and exaggerated performances. Basically, they’re cartoons filmed in real life. And that’s certainly the case here, too.
Missy is just a normal kid without super powers, but she’s surrounded by eccentric characters with random powers and plenty of personality. There are kids who make funny faces, kids who can move time back and forth, kids who can transform their bodies like rubber, and kids who control things by singing. Together, they face one challenge after another, racing to get to the alien ship to save their spotlight-loving parents.
Meanwhile, their story takes all kinds of bizarre twists and turns—and, honestly, when it all comes together, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But the one thing that matters to young viewers is that it takes a motley group of kids and lets them take control for a change. And that—together with its action and loads of silly humor—makes it a total kid-pleaser.
Is We Can Be Heroes a great movie? Not at all. Is it smart or sophisticated? Again, no. Everything about it feels cheesy and, well, cheap—like a home movie made in your backyard over summer break. But, sometimes, that kind of silly, brainless playfulness is just the kind of entertainment that kids need.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
