WE CAN BE HEROES

WE CAN BE HEROES is a TV movie streaming on Netflix about a group of children of superheroes in America who must save their parents and the world from an alien invasion. WE CAN BE HEROES is marred by a mediocre presentation and an obnoxious twist ending that says children are more wise and more “evolved” than their parents.

The movie opens with all of America’s superheroes trying to stop an alien invasion. The superheroes fail miserably and are kidnapped by the aliens, who look like purple octopi but can assume human form.

Meanwhile, the government agency running the superheroes has safely locked up all their children in a government facility. One of the children, Ojo (“Oho”), which is Spanish for eyes, can’t speak and only draws pictures to communicate. Another child, Missy, doesn’t have any powers, but she’s a born leader. Missy figures out that Ojo’s pictures can tell the immediate future. She shows the other children that one of Ojo’s pictures predicts the aliens will be coming through a large vent in the room where they’re being kept.

Led by Missy, the children barely escape as the aliens invade the room and the government facility. Missy guides the children to her grandma, who trained all the children’s parents, including Missy father, Marcus Moreno.

Grandma Moreno starts training the children how to use their powers and how to fight. The training has no sooner begun when an alien spaceship comes after the children. A fight ensues where the children manage to take over the alien spaceship.

The children decide to fly to the alien mother ship to find a way to rescue their parents and save the world.

WE CAN BE HEROES has some funny, exciting moments. It’s written and directed by Robert Rodriguez, who wrote and directed the SPY KIDS movies and a 2005 superhero about Sharkboy and Lavagirl. However, WE CAN BE HEROES is too clunky compared to those movies, with some cheap-looking special effects. The movie is also marred by an obnoxious twist ending that says children are more wise and “evolved” than their parents. The movie’s Romantic, Non-Christian ending teaches that young children and teenagers have enough wisdom and experience to take over from their parents and rule society. The movie’s references to evolution just make this message more obnoxious. For this reason, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution for WE CAN BE HEROES.

Scientific evidence, experience, simple wisdom, and common sense teach us that children and teenagers go through several immature stages of cognitive development before they become mature adults. Children, teenagers and even most young adults clearly don’t have enough wisdom and experience, not to mention knowledge, to be deemed mature enough to take the reins of power from their elders. That’s why society has determined that people have to be 18 to vote and 18 or 21 to drink alcohol. America’s Founding Fathers, one of the wisest generations in human history, determined that people have to be 25 to be able to be a U.S. representative, 30 to be a Senator and 35 to be President. As Psalm 1:8,9 advises us, “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.”