Stuck in first grade

Sky High is Hogwarts for superheroes. The catchment area is Suburbia, USA, and the reason it is so named is that it is situated on a flying campus, reached by a specially customised yellow bus.

All of which means that, when not rehashing ideas from The Incredibles, this live-action kids film is just another high school flick in disguise.

The story is an over-familiar amalgam of the same-old same-old, as the weedy geeks face up to the school bully.

The whole thing even climaxes at the inevitable school prom, amid issues of who's going with whom. At the centre of it all is Will Stronghold, a regular kid who doesn't think he's anything special - despite having a superman dad and a superwoman mom.

It's not a bad film, but there's nothing new. There are too many comic book puns and too many flashy set pieces, which keep the special effects team busy but barely impact on the plot.

Kurt Russell turns up for his second film of the week (after Dreamer), this time as the superhero dad, and shows why he should never do comedy: the man's got no timing.

On the other hand, Michael Angarano's Will Stronghold is a likeable boy next door in the mould of Michael J. Fox. Otherwise, there's far too much pedestrian, predictable action for Sky High to graduate to anything better.

Sky High
Cert: PG