Release Date: July 25, 2003
Starring: Daryl Sabara, Ricardo Montalban, Sylvester Stallone, Alexa Vega, Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Salma Hayek
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Written by: Robert Rodriguez
Distributed by: Miramax Films
MPAA Rating: PG (action sequences, peril)
Watching Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, it’s worth noting that while the Spy Kids films have been unqualified successes, the first two movies in the franchise -- which is clearly on its last legs, as No. 3’s subtitle suggests -- didn’t need to resort to gimmickry like the half-baked three-dimensional effects in this movie. Whether that’s because the characters have reached their limits or because writer-director Robert Rodriguez has run out of stories to tell is something best decided by the viewer. But one thing is certain: the 3-D medium is a limit in itself, turning what should’ve been a lively, action-packed conclusion to this franchise into a dull and murky last gasp for the Spy Kids.
Those who see Spy Kids 3-D will almost certainly have seen the first two films, so there’s no need to explain the characters’ backgrounds. In the third installment, Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara), who has left the top-secret OSS, returns when his sister Carmen (Alexa Vega) gets trapped in a virtual reality video game designed by the tyrannical Toymaker (Sylvester Stallone). The Toymaker himself was imprisoned in the video game many years ago by Juni’s grandfather (Ricardo Montalban), but he now threatens to take over the world from within by manipulating the minds of children who play the game. So it’s up to Juni and his grandfather to go into the game themselves, save Carmen, and shut the game down once and for all.
The 3-D effects come into play whenever the characters enter the video game, which is a highly imaginative world reminiscent of the virtual realities that moviegoers have visited before in films like the 1982 sci-fi classic Tron. Following visual cues on the screen, viewers don the familiar red-and-blue 3-D glasses to turn the flat images into a supposedly more exciting cyberscape of adventure.
In fact, the 3-D effects do little to make the movie more enjoyable. The viewer will find that the movie is substantially more frustrating to watch, because the 3-D glasses do more to obscure the special effects than enhance them -- perhaps because the overlapping red-and-blue images are a thing of the past when it comes to three-dimensional photography. Such films are more common in IMAX theaters (and occasional mainstream theatrical releases, like 2003’s Ghosts of the Abyss), which make use of a special double image that doesn’t require the discolored glasses. Spy Kids 3-D might’ve been more enjoyable if that technology was put to work here.
As it is, there’s not much to enjoy about the story, three-dimensional or not. Juni and his grandfather, along with several other supporting characters, make their way through one adventure after another in the video game, and though the kids in the audience might find this fascinating, it will probably only make them eager to leave the theater and get back to their PlayStations and Game Cubes at home. A number of the sequences, including a race on futuristic, motorcycle-like vehicles, are somewhat entertaining, and there is the sense that with a decent budget, Rodriguez’s film might’ve forgone the 3-D effects altogether and been twice as enjoyable.
Like the previous Spy Kids films, there are a number of well-known actors in the wings. George Clooney and Salma Hayek make appearances, and Star Trek fans may recognize Juni’s grandfather, played by Ricardo Montalban, as the titular evil genius Khan from Star Trek II. The most substantial, though, is Sylvester Stallone, who hams it up as the movie’s main villain, the Toymaker. Much like Demi Moore in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, Stallone (whose career is foundering just as much) seems to think that appearing as the bad guy in what is otherwise a completely silly movie certainly can’t hurt his career. And in truth, it probably won’t, though the number of ridiculous lines and scenes he’s forced to take part in -- such as when the Toymaker invents three different apparitions of himself so he has someone to talk to in his virtual reality prison -- only serve as a reminder of why Stallone is no longer a coveted actor.
The rest of the headlining cast is back, as well, although three of the stars -- Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, and Alexa Vega (who play Juni’s father, mother, and sister, respectively) -- seem to have returned only on the condition that they didn’t have to donate a substantial amount of time to the production. The film could have been just as aptly named Spy Kid 3-D, because the star of the show here is Daryl Sabara as Juni Cortez. But with any luck he’ll soon realize what his three longtime costars already know: that a Spy Kids 4 wouldn’t be worth anyone’s time.
-- Craig Roush (crr225@nyu.edu)