Pretending I'm a Superman: The Tony Hawk Video Game Story (2020)

Pretending I’m a Superman captures something rare: the way a video game can bottle a moment in culture and then quietly reshape it, all while feeling like a blast to relive. With the easy, infectious energy of a great hangout story, it stitches together skaters, creators, and the era’s soundtrack into a nostalgic rush that’s genuinely intriguing even if you’ve only ever half-remembered landing a few virtual kickflips. The film has an inspiring, clear-eyed affection for how the Tony Hawk games opened doors—into skateboarding, into community, into creativity—without turning into a corporate victory lap. If you have zero interest in skate culture or games, it may not convert you, but for anyone even slightly curious, it’s a fun, impactful ride that reminds you why this phenomenon mattered.

Pretending I’m a Superman clearly wants to celebrate the lightning-in-a-bottle moment when skaters, developers, and a killer soundtrack turned Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater into a cultural reset. The problem is it often plays like a greatest-hits recap rather than a documentary with teeth: lots of familiar anecdotes, not enough deep digging into the messy realities of development, business decisions, or lasting impact. It also hops between topics in a way that can feel scattered, so if you’re hoping for a tight, investigative story, you may leave unsatisfied. Still, if you mainly want a warm nostalgia hit and a breezy reminder of why the games mattered, it delivers that without overstaying its welcome.