C est nous, les heros (We Can Be Heroes)

"I, I wish you could swim
Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim
Though nothing, nothing will keep us together
We can beat them, for ever and ever
Oh we can be Heroes, just for one day" - David Bowie - Heroes

While the theaters remain closed for the most part in the United States and all in France, movie-loving viewers must find something to satisfy their expectations and we can only thank the streaming platforms for offering us excellent films whose potential could have been a real success if they had been shown in theaters, a special case of some of them like Wonder Woman 84 available in the United States at the same time in theaters and on HBO Max.

This Christmas Day, Pixar Soul's new masterpiece on Disney + and Robert Rodriguez's new film We Can Be Heroes are available worldwide. For all fans of comics and action movies, We Can Be Heroes is a perfect mix of science fiction (alien invasion) and superheroes.

When alien invaders kidnap Earth's superheroes, their children must team up and learn to work together if they want to save their parents and the world. Director and screenwriter Robert Rodriguez has a real knack for making films on a shoestring budget, as his excellent debut films Desperado (1995), The Faculty (1998) and his cinematic sagas Spy kids (2001-2011), Machete (2010) and Machete Kills (2013) and his co-directions Sin City (2005) and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2015) have shown. To this day her best film by far remains Alita: Battle Angel (2019) whose script was co-written by James Cameron and Laeta Kalogridis.

His new film marks his return to a film he also produced. His paw is thus felt from the very first minutes of the film in which he proposes a certain continuity to his previous film The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D (2005) but also his way of paying tribute to DC comics and Marvel Comics. He voluntarily directs the target of his film mainly towards a young audience and by offering them a real superhero universe whose powers will remind them of Flash, Superman but also Miss Marvel, Namor and other superheroes.

By placing children who also possess super-powers like their parents at the center of the story, by leading them to work as a team and to master their powers, Robert Rodriguez's scenario does not particularly shine by its originality but proves to be perfectly mastered, thus putting successful special effects at the service of the story. By not resorting to excessive violence, as is often the case in some recent DC Entertainment productions, and by proposing a different approach to a superhero universe, We Can Be Heroes shows that Robert Rodriguez is a gifted craftsman capable of freely creating his films and taking care of the direction as well as a scenario that is conducive to many twists and turns.

Robert Rodriguez also adds a good dose of humor and puts youth at the very center of his film by reminding us that it is our children who will have to ensure that our society continues and that they must be able to support their parents' legacy in order to build a better future. We Can Be Heroes is a very good family entertainment and allows us to find actors that we appreciate such as Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) and Christian Slater in important supporting roles.

We Can Be Heroes
Written and directed by Robert Rodriguez
Produced by Robert Rodriguez
Starring Priyanka Chopra, Pedro Pascal, YaYa Gosselin, Boyd Holbrook, Sung Kang, Taylor Dooley, Christian Slater
Cinematography : Robert Rodriguez
Production company : Troublemaker Studios
Distributed by Netflix
Release date: December 25, 2020 (World)
Running time: 100 minutes

Viewed on December 23rd (Netflix)

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