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Movies like Spy Kids and Catch That Kid, which put youngsters on the middle of massive blockbuster-esque plots, have a tough activity. It’s laborious for a film to concurrently attraction to youngsters and to an grownup viewers — more durable than it’d seem. Lean an excessive amount of into the child journey with out including sufficient substance, and the film simply turns into one thing adults placed on within the background. Lean an excessive amount of into the grownup stuff, nevertheless, and the film dangers being out of contact with the supposed viewers. Paramount Plus’ superhero journey Secret Headquarters is the most recent movie to fall into this particular class of pleasing each youngsters and adults.

For probably the most half, administrators Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (whose work collectively consists of Catfish and Paranormal Activity 3 and 4) handle to create a worthy addition to the kid-friendly film style. While the visuals might pop extra, and the plot sometimes slows down because the adults face off in opposition to one another, the guts of Secret Headquarters stays with its child heroes and its central household relationship.

[Ed. note: This review contains slight setup spoilers for Secret Headquarters.]

Photo: Hopper Stone/Paramount Pictures

Secret Headquarters kicks off with abnormal dad Jack Kincaid (Owen Wilson) stumbling throughout an extraterrestrial power supply, which instantly bonds with him. Ten years later, Jack protects the Earth as a mysterious superhero often called the Guard, however Jack has change into estranged from his household. He and his spouse have divorced, and he solely sees his son, Charlie (Walker Scobell), throughout custody visits — which he continuously cancels when superhero-related enterprise comes up. Charlie, although, is the Guard’s largest fan. After a “work emergency” calls Jack away for a few days, Charlie decides not to name his mother to choose him up, as a result of he needs to ask his pals over to an empty home for a small get together, and as a substitute stays at his dad’s place.

While exploring that place, Charlie and his pals — his bestie Berger (Keith L. Williams), social-media-savvy Lizzie (Abby James Witherspoon), and rebellious Maya (Momona Tamada) — by accident come across the Guard’s secret headquarters (ba-dum tss!) in Jack’s residence. At first, it’s all enjoyable and video games as they fiddle with the high-tech devices. But quickly, they be a focus for protection mogul Ansel Argon (Michael Peña), who needs to harness the Guard’s tech for himself.

The film’s largest flaw is the tasteless design. The Guard’s total visible aesthetic completely attracts inspiration from the Marvel Cinematic Universe model of Iron Man, from the HUD show as Jack flies by the sky to the center-of-chest arc gentle and the armor plating. His costume appears to be like fairly cool, but it surely’s additionally acquainted. The identical will be mentioned for the titular secret headquarters, which additionally looks like a recycled asset. The indisputable fact that the majority of the film’s battle takes place in that HQ doesn’t assist. Because it’s so dimly lit and cramped, the motion scenes mix into each other. Thankfully, they decide up when the combat transitions to Charlie’s center faculty on the night time of the massive faculty dance. The scenes the place the Guard faces off in opposition to his adversary in a college gymnasium filled with dance decorations are a number of the film’s most memorable, juxtaposing the high-stakes combat with the extra acquainted backdrop of the varsity’s hallways.

Photo: Hopper Stone/Paramount Pictures

Secret Headquarters nearly finally ends up falling into the same lure as Enola Holmes and Secret Society of Second-Born Royals: It introduces heavier themes with out ever totally addressing them. (In these latter two films, it’s “Oh man, maybe it’s bad that Parliament is exclusively ruled by rich, white, landowning men, but we’re not actually gonna do anything” and “Oh huh, I guess I shouldn’t rally for my country’s monarchy to be dissolved, now that I patched things up with my sister!” respectively.)

In Secret Headquarters, Argon factors out that one individual shouldn’t be accountable for saving the entire world. But it’s made clear early on that he’s principally saying that to control different folks, and his main concern is making a revenue. That hypocrisy is briefly addressed afterward, however fortunately, the movie primarily facilities on the fractured relationship between Jack and Charlie. As the movie’s essential driver, the household drama retains the stakes small, but completely lifelike, which permits the film to be relatable even when not one of the folks watching have secretly superpowered dads.

Photo: Hopper Stone/Paramount Pictures

Even although Jack is absent for the center of the movie, Charlie continues to grapple along with his combined emotions about his father’s secret id. Without Jack round, the main focus shifts to Charlie and his pals, and that finally ends up being the film’s strongest facet. The youngsters check out the cool devices however use them for juvenile functions, like passing checks and successful baseball video games. The youngsters all have pretty enjoyable, well-rounded personalities that work nicely collectively. Lizzie, particularly, might simply fall into imply, popular-girl tropes, however finally ends up being probably the most academically inclined of the principle forged and adept at escape rooms. When they use their modern considering to evade the dangerous guys, the film is equally enjoyable — but it surely slogs when the combat focuses extra on the adults and sidelines the children.

When Secret Headquarters indulges the enjoyable of children with superpowered devices, it shines. When it narrows the main focus to the battle between Charlie and his dad, and the toll that being a masked vigilante takes on household life, the film stands out from different entries within the “kids discover superpowers and/or super-gadgets” subgenre. It might use rather less give attention to the intense grownup problems with all of it, however when Joost and Schulman slender the plot to smaller stakes and sillier antics, Secret Headquarters proves itself to be a enjoyable, heartwarming romp.

Secret Headquarters is out on Paramount Plus on Aug. 12.