Zoom - Akademie für Superhelden

Remember how in the 70's you could tell the production value of a film by how often you saw the boom mike fall into view of the actors- well thanks to boom operator Darryl Purdy and the laziness of Peter "I apparently never watch the dailies" Hewitt, you can see the boom mike fall into view 3 separate times. That said allow me to point out that the cute little girl who acts as badly as her speech impediment can't save the film in the same way that the Brady Bunch would not have been popular with a the show devoted to Cindy Brady.

There was so much wasted possibility showing us the back ground of these characters the over use of montage and collage editing would not have been needed.

Also the film has three apparent villains in the film except none of them are bad and we never know why two of them are necessarily considered bad- but that's o.k. because the story was written by someone with ADD or perhaps short term memory loss as significant as the character in "Memento".The story has no continuity- Tim Allen hates the kids he plays with the kids he feels sorry for the kids no wait he doesn't understand why he's there to train the kids_ FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!! Nothing in this movie fit together- and in the end the super evil villain (whom we have waited 90 minutes to see) gets a scolding in the last 6 minutes of the movie and then it's over.

Didn't Peter Hewitt read the script before filming oh no wait this is the same guy that gave us "Bogus Journey"- you remember- the sequel that ended the Bill and Ted franchise. Not to mention the Garfield Movie.. a comic strip so revered for 30 years they made it into a Saturday morning cartoon but the movie that couldn't keep the audiences attention for 90 minutes (success based solely on a lack of other children films during its release and parents who grew up with Garfield the previous generation)...WHY DOES PETER HEWITT GET WORK, why?? Afterall,it is the directors responsibility for many things including having a working script and a vision before starting a project ( the exceptions being Andy Warhol who's audience base was too stoned to notice and Francis Ford Coppola with "Apocalypse Now" who had several million dollars to keep his dream afloat.

Peter Hewitt should be ashamed of himself for this crap.

My kids thought it was a great show. They ran around for the next week pretending to be really fast/invisible/strong.

I wasn't very impressed. As ever the effects were adequate, even the story was good. The character development was lacking and the acting was wooden.

The movie has a couple of guys who should be really funny; Tim Allen & Chevy Chase. They just weren't made use of in a funny way. Courtenay Cox was funnier and for her that's saying something.

The climax was anticlimactic but I think this links back to poor character development. We just didn't get to know the bad guy enough to really care about him.

First off, a tiny bit about me. 1) I took my daughters (13 & 10) to this movie. 2) I tend to enjoy children's movies and I love SciFi. 3) My wife & I mostly agreed about the quality of this movie. 4) I've never rated a movie before.

Although I agree with many points from the first posting, I do think this movie *had* promise. It seems to me that if all characters were developed properly, that the screenplay had been more carefully thought out, that the technical filming of the show had gone better (boom mic!), that there was cohesiveness to the whole story, and that the actual plot had been more fully developed that this movie could have been spectacular. I was even willing to accept the story line until the kids were mysteriously found dutifully waiting in their room when they were supposed to be hiding. After that, it went downhill quickly for me.

I would have liked to see more exemplary development of the kids' powers -- the kind of foreshadowing that is later revealed in how they save the day (ie. A scene of Summer controlling the paint balls would have helped me believe better her focused power use in the end). Why spend all that time watching Cindy throw ton-weights at a target? How did Dylan's ability with the apple help in the end? What did they do with Tucker to help him learn to control his bloating? How is "mind sight" related to invisibility? Don't even get me started on Ms. Cox character (which I thought she played well).

The pacing and development of the two predictable romances was fair, but why not let Summer have a little tirade with Dylan for knowing he had "seen" her dancing? Followed up with Dylan's peace offering of the necklace pendant -- drama & release -- make the relationship grow on us.

The human stories here have to do with the kids as outcasts in life. Let's develop that more than the two short bits about the girls and Jack finally relating to Dylan. Zoom needed to grow with each kid to show his own growth and bring out his determination to succeed.

Then again, succeed at what? I think Tim Allen does a great job with the "unknown" aspect of the plot. He has no motivation, he gives none. But without a believable reason to drive the plot of the kids' training, we get what we saw. Also, there's nothing socially "dangerous" about the threat of Concussion - it seems a personal vendetta or overblown fear that Larraby is concerned about -- hardly enough to make me feel for him or his cause, and, unfortunately, the movie.

Finally, let's chew on continuity and technical prowess. I was thinking I saw the boom 5 times (but let's not quibble). Aren't people paid to notice these things (the director, even) during production? Let's keep track of where the characters are and give them a reason to go/be somewhere else. Let's give the characters more reason, heck even a strategy, to want to make and close a vortex. Let's see Rip Torn say the line that we watch him ventriloquize {sic}.

Would I watch it again? Maybe just to watch Zoom stumble again, see Houdini throw another punch, or see Summer be radiant -- OK, Cindy's got the tough-cute factor that can be enjoyable in moderation (pull up a chair, whydontya).

I actually watched this movie before I read any of the reviews or comments on this site which is rare for me; I tend to value the reviews and rankings of the other members. This is the first time I am left scratching my head wondering what exact movie did you people watch to give it such low reviews??!! This movie is what it is and a very good job of it. It is a movie that makes fun of super hero movies. Take a bitter misfit ex-superhero who can't be any less interested in training new recruits and make it funny. Zoom has his reasons to be bitter and they are CLEARLY explained, if people don't get the plot, they weren't really paying attention. The acting in this movie is very good by a well collected cast. Allen and Chase deliver slapstick one liners throughout the whole movie that are truly reminiscent of their comedic classic styles. If the one liner isn't enough to make you laugh, add the highly adorable factor from Ryan Newman as Cindy Collins is tops. The rest of the cast works very well together and even though there is a lot of predictability in the movie, it is still very funny and worth the watch. This is not a literary classic brought to life, so don't expect it to be. The negative comments about Allen are unjust, as his character wasn't' that far off from his style in the Santa Clause movies. This movie was enjoyable and I laughed out loud many times and I don't do that often with movies because they just aren't as funny in the same style. If you want to just relax and laugh at a silly movie, the Zoom on over to your video store and pick this one up.

I seriously had a bad feeling when I hurried to get out of the video store that I had to do a wise pick on a kiddie like movie. I thought when I first rented this movie it would be pretty good and funny since Tim Allen was acting in it. But what can I say when I started watching it, it was to do with four kid super heroes and their leader Zoom from a comic book came to life in such a crude humoured film! I mean I need to say they introduced the characters like the four kids which was a little six year old girl who could lift up to ten pounds of weight, a fat chubby boy who can make his body go even fatter and bigger and can squash anyone in his way, a teenage girl who has the power to stare and control any like object or thing with her eyes and a boy who could turn invisible and use his mind to see things from a far distance. The only thing I liked about this movie was just about the end of the film, where there was quite a impressive battle with Jack's evil brother Conner and he finally showed off his zooming power to plan on making his brother part of his family again. But trust me I'll warn any viewer if you really want to see this movie you likely only need to see it once or even half of it since it's like the worst movie ever created in the history of the universe! Period!