ZOOM

By: Rachel Reitsleff
Review Date: Tuesday, August 15, 2006

ZOOM is oddly appealing in its way on the one hand, anybody with the ability to make the comparison can't miss that it feels essentially like a watered-down version of X-MEN. On the other hand, barring the occasional burst of gross-out humor (never been a fan), I suspect if I'd seen this when I was about ten, I'd have loved it.

ZOOM, based on Jason Lethcoe's book ZOOM'S ACADEMY, is the tale of four kids, ranging in age from 17 to about six, who have individual special powers. These have made them the targets of hostility at school and of interest in the government. They (along with six others who don't make the cut) are whisked off to Area 52, where they are ostensibly to be trained to hone their abilities by Jack Shepard, aka Zoom (Tim Allen). Jack has some issues from his own days at Area 52, including being zapped with massive doses of radiation to boost his own powers, which he seems to have lost. Once he's offered $500,000 and promised that his charges will be spared radiation treatment (and threatened with jail if he refuses), Jack agrees to oversee the newcomers, but his participation in their education is grudging. The quartet are annoyed by Jack's attitude, but fortunately bond well enough with each other. What none of them, including Jack, knows is that there is a rapidly approaching menace they're being unwittingly groomed to face.

ZOOM works best in its moments of joy and, oddly, in quieter moments, although filmmaker Peter Hewitt and writers Adam Rifkin and David Berenbaum seem not to fully trust the latter. When Allen is wordlessly taking in the possibility that the kids might really be irradiated after all, the movie achieves a bit of heft that lets us take it a little more seriously than we might imagine. Michael Cassidy as the fellow who can become invisible, Kate Mara as a telekinetic empath, Spencer Breslin as a boy who can expand individual body parts and especially very young Ryan Newman, as a super-strong little girl who really knows how to get her way, are all very good. Courteney Cox is game as Jack's klutzy, enthusiastic liaison with the brass.

The special effects especially one with a flying saucer sometimes are not all one might hope for. Then there's the matter of tone. The military response to the impending threat is so broad that it's never allowed to build up any sort of resonance, and because exactly what the menace did last time it was active is kept deliberately vague in discussion (and completely off-screen), we never feel that anybody's in real jeopardy, which is clearly a problem in a story of this kind.


As a result, ZOOM feels somewhat like it's riffing in place, either a pilot that escaped television without the rest of its run or like a training film for very young people who want to grow up to be fans of the superhero genre. Even so, it has moments of genuine charm and even genuine wonder.