Zoom (2006)

 

Superheroes are usually meant for an older audience. But aiming for a much younger crowd, can be achieved, under the right circumstances. In fact, take a look at 2004's “The Incredibles”, a superhero feature that caters to both adults and kids at the same time. Naturally, many other studios wanted to cash in on this type of success, and thus, Sony tried their hardest to make a superhero feature called “Zoom” in the year 2006. The key word being tried. Because, what ultimately happened was that this movie failed miserably, both at the box office, and with the critics. Is this statement true? Why, yes, yes it is. “Zoom” is an absolute failure from start to finish. From awful acting, poor pacing, and worst of all, a bad script that is based on a book, “Zoom” doesn't work in any kind of sense. There is nothing redeemable that makes it good; this is easily one of the worst superhero films of all time. Whatever Sony was thinking to turn this into a franchise, “Zoom” just wasn't it.

The story follows a group of kids that are recruited to a secret military base in order to become superheroes. These include two teenagers Dylan and Summer (Michael Cassidy and Kate Mara respectively), and two children Tucker and Cindy (Spencer Breslin and Ryan Newman respectively). Together, this quartet are being trained under the tutelage of a former superhero: Captain Zoom (Tim Allen). Unfortunately, Zoom doesn't want to do this, and wants to live his own life. As time eventually goes on, Zoom must find ways in order to make peace with these kids, as well as to be a part of a team once more. And in doing so, they must stop an old villain from Zoom's past before he breaks havoc onto the world once more.

“Zoom” is a really bad film. And here's why.

The acting is awful. Not only just from Allen, who acts like he doesn't want to be here, but from all the other major players that are present in this production. In the movie, we also have access to bad performances from Rip Torn, Courtney Cox, and even Chevy Chase, just to name a few. The kid actors are all right, as are the teenage actors, but nobody turns out a decent performance, as they really don't seem to care whether or not they are here on the set or not.

This can contributed to the direction from Peter Hewitt. It feels like there is no sense of direction from him, as all the actors either do not care, or just do whatever they feel like. And this wasn't the first time Peter was behind the director's chair, but it nearly looks like this was going to be his last.

Next, we have the music. It's pretty much non-existent. What I mean by this is that while the main orchestrated score by Christophe Beck, it's mostly pushed over to the side by a pop soundtrack. Oh, and most of the songs in general are done by rock band Smash Mouth, because that worked so well with 2001's “Shrek”. And even when the orchestration is being delivered, it's not that memorable. For instance, there should have been a lot more action pieces, but instead, we get more of a comedic tone delivered. What were they thinking?

The costumes and set design is also generic and boring. It's your typical lab coats and same matching outfits. Nothing really stands out.

But the biggest crime that the movie serves up is with its story and writing. The story combines a lot of other superhero origins from other narratives, i.e. X-Men and Fantastic Four for example, and it just doesn't work. There are a lot of plot holes, not a lot of character development, and overall, no major buildup to the final confrontation with the main villain. As for the writing,it's formulaic, predictable, and overall not funny. The main purpose of a comedy, is to be funny, but here, it feels like all of the humor is sucked out, and replaced with nothing.

The editing and pacing can be a real deal breaker here. At roughly 90 minutes, the film moves at rather fast pace, and there is no time for the movie to slow down or take a break. If the movie could have added a couple of extra minutes and taken its time, then we wouldn't have the mess that was produced. The editing plays a huge factor in this as well. Everything moves irregularly, and there are times when the editing just wants to do whatever it wants. That just makes this film even worse.

But the sad reality is that this could have worked. Something like could have worked out, and what we would have gotten, would be something good. Given the right direction and script, this would have turned out great.

But as it is, “Zoom” is a bad and terrible superhero film that tries is hardest to appeal to the younger demographic, yet ultimately earns its place in the bargain bin.