Zoom - Academia de Super-Heróis

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.

"Zoom" is a fun movie for two audiences. It's a comedy sci-fi flick that was made for kids, with a far-out allusion to the super-heroes group from the age of comic books. The humor appeals a little bit to we older movie buffs. But of more interest and entertainment for the older movie crowd are the two characters, Dr. Grant and General Laraby.

Chevy Chase is a hoot as the government scientist, Dr. Grant, and Rip Torn is very funny in his frequent role as a cantankerous commander of some sort from films of the past. Tim Allen and the younger cast who play the super heroes are okay and should amuse the younger of the young crowd who follow the superheroes. Of course, once they reach about eight years of age, the kids are no longer dazzled by these more comical, kid-friendly characters. They're ready for the tougher, rougher, more daring super hero flicks. They want the "real thing" like the adults. You know, Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Wolverine and Captain America.

My grandkids, the youngest ones anyway, get a kick out of flicks like this.

I have seen a number of movies from Revolution Studios, and with almost all of them I have found them to be souless "product" - movies put together with ingredients that seemed to guarantee a big hit, but lacking soul. With movies like this (a box office flop, partly due to the fact it was not screened for critics, a sign audiences know usually means a stinker), it's no wonder that Revolution Studios closed its doors a year later.

What went wrong with this movie? The main reasons the movie is a stinker can be traced to the script. We have four youths on the team Allen is leading, and we learn next to nothing about them. They are pretty interchangeable. The rest of the characters are poorly written as well. The bad guy of the movie doesn't appear until the last 15 minutes of the movie, leaving no time to develop him.

This poor writing of the characters may explain the awful performances from the adult members of the cast. I agree with the Leonard Maltin movie guide that Allen seems to be phoning it in. He seems to have a contempt for what he is surrounded by, making his character very unlikable. As for Chevy Chase, he doesn't even TRY to be funny.

The movie tries to inject emotion by playing popular pop songs on the soundtrack, but it doesn't work. The sets and various indoor and outdoor locations are okay, I guess. But the CGI used is third-rate, giving the movie a cheap look when it occurs. Kids may not mind that. But will they like the rest of the movie? If I saw this as a kid, I probably wouldn't have liked it - the movie lacks spirited characters and a sense of wonder and excitement. There may be some (very) young kinds who might like this movie, but I don't think it will be a movie that they will want to watch again and again.

The soundtrack having 5 smash mouth songs really fits the tone and overall quality of the movie.

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.