Star Kid

** 1/2

I had honestly never heard of this one. It has the kid from Jurassic Park (1993) and Lost World (of the same year, 1997), Joseph Mazzello, as a shy boy picked on by this stereotypical bully in backwards cap (Joey Simmrin) and liked by a cute girl (Lauren Eckstrom) who sees that he is into the same comic book hero as her. Joseph’s teacher, played by Corinne Bohrer (she is one of those character actresses you know the face from countless television and commercials), tries to mentor him regarding his innate shyness and fear against bullies by showing him a spider and how she is no longer scared of it (as she was as a child). Unbeknownst to Joseph, a war between species is going on as a cybersuit with artificial intelligence finds its way to Earth with a creature (its appendages can morph into weapons!) following behind. If the creature can communicate to its species about Earth colonization could return spelling doom for mankind. Joseph doesn’t realize that the suit talking to him isn’t a robot as it first appears, opening as a way to encourage his approach, soon locking him inside! As Joseph adjusts to the suit and the presence that coexists with him inside it; the creature plans to destroy them and then set its sights on the entire planet.

Family sci-fi action is pure comic book, meant for kids. My son personally loved it, having quite a good time, and why not? It has the cool cybersuit that talks to Joseph while he is inside guiding it around, with mishaps including trashing his kitchen and accidentally getting his head caught in the refrigerator which causes quite the bit of damage. The creature is a giant rubber suit and looks like something that lives on the ocean floor, perhaps inspired by Kaiju monsters. Joseph is a likable kid and his character is still trying to recover from the loss of his mom as his father is a bit of a workaholic trying to situate his family without the matriarch of the family. Joseph’s sister (Ashlee Levitch) is so planning on a date with her hipster beau (Danny Masterson of That 70s Show) until dad (Richard Gilliland, another character actor you have probably seen in lots of television) ruins things by telling her she’ll need to babysit due to pressing matters involving his job. As she sneaks off anyway, Joseph gets trapped in the cybersuit (its name he calls Cy) and eventually becomes symbiotic, a fun relationship that should appeal to kids of about ten, I guess. You get the climactic battle in a vehicle junk yard/car graveyard between Cy and the creature, called Broodwarrior. Broodwarrior does gain advantage as it uses its weapons to damage the exoskeleton of the suit, with Joseph (and eventually bully Joey who joins forces with him after the two settle their differences) running around the junk yard trying to find ways to get its attention and keep Cy from enduring too much punishment. Joey is a punk for a majority of the film until he goes to pick on Joseph and Joseph gets even by returning a nice punch that knocks Joey to the ground. They will both use the available resources in the junk yard to ward away Broodwarrior from Cy, concluding with its nasty end inside a crushing machine. Cy’s creator and the alien race he’s built to protect arrive to check on their cybersuit, with Joseph and Joey celebrating their victory. Joseph gets a pin from Cy’s creator for a job well done, and soon the family arrives (along with Corinne who helped Joseph, when he was trapped in the suit and needing to badly urinate!) to check on his safety.

I dug the special effects for Cy, and there is enough use of him (and Joseph operating him) to wow some older folks I think. This is probably best recommended to fans of robots and adventures for kids of a certain age near my son’s, as mentioned before, around ten or so. The idea of a kid gaining possession of an alien cybersuit, ala Power Rangers (which this seems to relate to), is perfect fodder for tykes. Without the special effects of Cy, though, the film is very television in its production…I do think the majority of the budget went to effects as the presentation is something akin to what you might see on syndication television (Stargate; Babylon 5, etc.) of the 90s. I’m not saying that’s necessarily a knock against it, but I seriously had never heard of Star Kid so it must not have made any serious impact. The opening has a war on this distant planet, with a cool five or so minutes just loaded with computer effects, until the story finds its way to a school playground as Joseph tries futilely to avoid Joey as he plays for the crowd. Corrine comes in to put Joey in his place and later to speak with Joseph alone about how to break from the restraints that conceal him in his meek shell. No doubt, this is Joseph’s story so he gets exclusive rights to the attention of the film, with the cybersuit the main star, obviously. The ending is longer than I thought it’d be. The transformation effects for Broodwarrior are of their time so many might consider them less fantastic considering what you see in those Transformers films today with all that burning green devoted to them by Hollywood wealth. But I considered the cybersuit a neat comic book visual dynamo so the film didn’t bother me. It plays for those around the age of its child hero so keeping that in mind would be wise. But I have to imagine that’d be obvious with a title like Star Kid.