Pretending I’m a Superman

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By John Gregory

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Some of my earliest memories are skating related. Pushing off the ground towards a ramp and performing some nasty tricks in a warehouse listening to Goldfinger? What a time to be alive. Now, I’ve never actually touched a skateboard to a halfpipe. What I’m talking about, of course, is Tony Hawk Proskater. It can be easy to forget how big of a series the THPS franchise is but, thanks to some wonderful filmmakers, we got a documentary that puts it all into perspective. And they chose the perfect name: Pretending I’m A Superman. The documentary starts off on skating’s popularity in mainstream culture. In the words of many famous skaters that were cool enough to speak in Pretending I’m A Superman, the sport had many ups and downs in the 80’s. It got to a point where one could go for weeks without seeing another skater on the streets. The 90’s was a period where the sport’s popularity was so big that it resulted in the X-Games among many other big deals (five words: Tony Hawk Tarzan VHS commercial). But what about video games? Well, Top Skate hit arcades and was a decent hit. But people wanted more. Being a lifelong gamer, Tony Hawk definitely wanted to see a quality game brought to the mainstream. A failed pitch for a PC game put Tony’s name in the gaming world and bit by bit he got to a point where he teamed up with Neversoft to create the game we speak of today. I’ll leave the summary there since the movie does a solid job weaving the tale that I dare not spoil any more here. Just know that if you’re a fan of THPS, you’ll have fun seeing how it all came together. Non fans, however, may not have the same reaction. A great movie manages not to tell you that something is awesome but to show you why someone could think something is awesome. While PIS does this alright, I can’t help but feel laymen might not get as full of an experience. The moment that sticks out to me is when Tony Hawk lands his legendary 900 which will mean nothing if you don’t understand the world of skating. I would also add that the documentary does drag a bit at the end when discussing the games’ impact. Neither of these aspects break the documentary, far from it, but this is important to bring up should you know nothing about the movie’s subjects. My complaints should not soil you from watching this movie. This is a well paced short doc that finally puts to words what so many fans have been thinking for years. One cannot undersell how important this game was to skating culture. Just think of how normal it is to see kids on their boards. Back then, there were more taboo feelings about that seem so humorous nowadays. Tony Hawk Proskater is similar to The Karate Kid in my mind in that both are big properties that changed society so much that skating/martial arts have become an ingrained part of everyday life. I mean, THPS 2 is still one of the best reviewed and ranked games ever (above Red Dead Redemption, Half Life 2, Halo, Resident Evil 4 and many, many more). If that doesn’t say something about the franchise’s impact, I don’t know what else could.  Pretending I’m a Superman is a fun time for sure, moreso if you have any interest in gaming or skating. If you’re on the fence, I’d recommend waiting for a price drop before diving in. And for anyone interested in more skating material, I’d push Lords of Dogtown your way. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it but anything with Heath Ledger can be worth a look. As for additional gaming documentary recommendations, you can’t go wrong with Raising Kratos (which is free on Youtube). And, as I’m sure was on purpose, Activision recently released an updated version of THPS 1 + 2 that is worth a play if you haven’t picked up the games in some time. I tell ya, whenever that music starts blasting while I perform 720 Tailgrabs, I start to feel a bit like Superman.