Michael's strength in H20 is massively underestimated
I engaged in a discussion about this with another fellow Redditor yesterday, and it just hit me. Michael in H20 is incredibly underrated when it comes to pure physical strength. A lot of people like to claim that the Michael portrayed in H20 is arguably the weakest in the franchise, even to the point where some believe that it's a copycat killer donning the mask. But they seem to fail to notice just how strong he is in this movie. In fact, I would argue that his display of strength is greater here than that of what was shown in the first two movies. Here's my main argument to support this:
There is a scene in H20 where he lifts up his entire body weight with one arm, enough to be completely conceal himself from Laurie's view. This is an incredible feat of strength if you actually think about it. Just go watch the scene of him doing it. It’s one thing to lower yourself down from a thing with one arm (which, in and of itself, is already a very difficult thing to do), but there are four other pieces to consider as well.
Balance: Look at his body. It’s not leaning to one side or wobbling or anything. He is somehow holding himself perfectly straight, which would require an almost unfathomable amount of strength.
Ceiling height: The pipe that he’s lowering himself down from isn’t more than a couple of feet from the ceiling. And Laurie walks right underneath while he’s hiding. That means he had to be holding the lower half of his body parallel to the ceiling, like how gymnasts do on the rings, except he had to do it with only one arm.
Patience: Laurie was actually outside with her son and his girlfriend when Michael climbed up onto the ceiling pipe., which means he must have waited up there for at least a solid two or three minutes.
Vertical: There aren’t any chairs or steps or anything else like that in the general area. That means Michael had to jump up to the pipe all by himself. The guy who played Michael in the movie (Chris Durand) is 6-foot-2, and the pipe was somewhere around 12 feet off the ground, meaning Michael had to have about a 48-inch vertical.
He repeats this exact same move in Resurrection as well, not once but twice. In conclusion, Michael in the H20 timeline is no joke when it comes to physical strength. And if it really is a copycat killer, then Michael has some serious competition in his hands.