So, Prince Charming, Overwatch and Reverse-Flash walk into a bar…
Not really a bar. More like a street torn up by endless superfights between two equally strong adversaries, locked in a physical and metaphorical battle between good and evil. Unfortunately, as Sidekick shows us, sometimes evil wins. At least for a while.
This stock superhero tale (beautifully rendered in comic book-echoing CGI) is at the heart of a bedtime story that a sick father (Josh Dallas) tells his precocious son (Christian Michael Cooper) in order to explain a valuable life lesson about true strength. In it, the father is reborn as Captain Strong, going punch for punch against the sinister Darkman (Tom Cavanagh) who wants to destroy the city and the love of Captain Strong’s life, The Princess (Emily Bett Rickards)
Written and directed by Jeff Cassidy — a camera tech on Flash and a ton of other series and blockbuster films — the simple story is given larger life by realistic dialogue, a playfulness toward plastic genre tropes, a structural nod toward The Princess Bride, and the dire consequences at its heart. It’s a reminder that tales of oversized powers don’t always have happy endings, and if they do, those endings don’t always extend beyond the borders of your imagination. The real world sometimes involves visits to sterile offices where bad news is delivered in hushed tones while you wait in the hallway.
This is a solid short film. It’s also one more sign that the CW superhero crew knows how to have fun together. When can Shockwave cameo on Arrow?
Image: Jeff Cassidy
