Secret Headquarters
review by Bobby Blakey
Owen Wilson has been in pretty much every genre you can think of making his Marvel debut in the Loki series. Now he is stepping into another superhero role with his latest film Secret Headquarters co-starring Walker Scobell, Jesse Williams, Keith L. Williams, Momona Tamada, and Michael Peña. Could this film offer up something fresh and fun to the genre or should it have been kept a secret?
Secret Headquarters follows Charlie and his friends who discover the headquarters of the world’s most powerful superhero hidden beneath his home while hanging out after school. When villains attack, they must team up to defend the headquarters and save the world.
I never saw anything about this film until it came out so wasn’t sure what kind of film it was hoping to be, but dived in hoping for some fun. The tone of the film is similar to that of Spy Kids with a more superhero twist and while Owen Wilson is the titular hero the majority of the film focuses on the kids and their own adventure.
The title is perfect since the entire main plot of the film is following this group of kids of discover the secret headquarters and precede to have loads of fun with all the new gadgets and technology they find like kids do before things get more dangerous for them. This leads to some fun and often silly moments that work most of the time, but also could have been trimmed down a bit.
All the kids do a great job bringing the fun and each bring something unique to their characters even if some are the clichéd teens we are used too. Wilson doesn’t have a ton of screen time, but here when it matters and important to the overall story. It’s fun getting to see him get in on the
action for once and he does a good job, even toning down his usual dry humor. Pena is funny here, but also a bit off as the villain. He is clearly having fun and works fine, but it just gets a bit too silly at times.
Despite plenty of laughs and action this is a family film through and through clearly meant for the younger audience. Not all the jokes work and there are a lot of predictable moments and some clunky CGI at times, but as a whole it still manages to be one that will entertain the whole family if you just let it be what it is.
In addition to the film this release offers up bonus content including deleted & extended scenes, a gag reel, featurettes and more. Grab your copy of Secret Headquarters available now on digital and then on Blu-ray and DVD on December 20th from Paramount Home Entertainment.
