The Background
Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara) and his older sister Carmen Cortez (Alexa Vega) are the junior members of a huge spy family including their parents Gregorio (Antonio Banderas) and Ingrid Cortez (Carla Gugino) and their paternal-uncle Machete Cortez (Danny Trejo). Now a new addition to this family is their Grand Father (Ricardo Montalban) who too joins their action in OSS.
Juni is all dejected because of his loneliness caused by their parents’ commitments and leaves OSS only to become a ’’Private Eye’’!!. In the meantime a new Virtual Reality game called ’’Game Over’’ is driving all kids to the stores and get hooked on to it. This is created and controlled by a psycho-power-hungry villain ’’Toy Maker’’ (Sylvester Stallone) who wants to control all the kids and then take over the world (why do every movie villain’s aim is world-wide-dominance, cant they be happy with money, babes, cars and little crime?). The best part of this game is if you loose then you are trapped inside the game!! Carmen who was sent to shutdown the game is trapped in Level 4.
The Story
Juni is recalled by OSS and sent inside the game to reach the Level 5 and then retrieve his sister and then attempt to shutdown the game without letting the ’’Toy Maker’’ outside the game into the real world!!! He is assisted by his wheel-chair bound grand father who becomes a powerful giant robot inside the game, and also has a personal score to settle with the ’’Toy Maker’’.
Now the analysis
Story (4/5)
Compared to the second edition of the Spy Kids (The Island of Lost Dreams), SK3D has a more fresh story because it eliminates the real world and ventures into the virtual reality. But one cannot miss the uncanny similarity this story has to the Cartoon Network serial Johnny Quest. Having said that, this story deals much about the character Juni’s unrealized ability to do the right thing at the right moment, but all the while not sure what to do!!! (Didn’t get what I meant, read more in the Direction part). In that aspect this story might not be as best as the Part 1 because always the Part 1 is an unbreakable landmark for any successful Franchise movie, for the simple reason it is new and fresh. At the same time this one is much much better than SK2:TILD the previous edition.
Plot (without Climax) (3/5)
The plot unfolds very smoothly and there is no slack or rush till you reach the climax. Each levels of the game which Juni finishes was thought out imaginatively (or was it picked up from some Arcade Game). Though there might have been many instances which would have teased the Vulcan mind for the absolute absence of Logic, but in sort of gets out of focus by the special effects. Just before the climax, one will wonder what is Elija Woods doing just appearing for one scene, which was totally unnecessary.
Climax (1/5)
One will think the movie is over almost 15 minutes before the titles. But for some unexplained reason the director wants us to be seated and tolerate one of the stupidest climax only best known to Bollywood directors/writers. The only purpose of the climax was to bring the whole ’’Cortez Family’’ extended or otherwise into one plane and say ’’The End’’. That’s why the split in the plot.
Special Effects (4/5)
The hero of this movie is the special effects created by the SoftImage Inc. Though the 3D aspect was added to mesmerize the kids and also add an extra ’’Star’’ to the ratings which otherwise would have resulted in a regular rating for this movie. Be it the Motion based Robot fights or the virtual bike race, the special effects sweeps you off the feet. I was lucky I had an old Paper 3D glass (from old comics books!!) I could enjoy the effects to an extent even on my computer screen!!. But would recommend to see this movie on screen for full effect. Seamless mix of virtual and real character though is no more a big thing, atleast this movie didn’t flunk in that. Just two words on the special effects : Good Job.
Cast (3/5)
Had a feeling throughout that Daryl is no more the cute small kid as in Spy Kids (Part 1). He is little plump and tall but still has that innocence and the ’’fear of the unknown’’ which makes us too think he might just fail in each level.
Alexa Vega though looks older, is still that active, effervescent spy girl as we saw in Part 1, 2. This time around her role is very limited, only the last part of the movie.
And our action hero Stallone manages to prove us that he too can act as a Kid Movie Villain. Actually his performance is very commendable and quite a few scenes he manages to steal a laugh or two from us. Salma Hayek plays OSS agent Cesca Giggles. (It is creepy that you find Antonio in Salma’s movie and Salma in Antonio’s, anyone have any idea..) Rest of the crew was just there because the whole movie is concentrated on Daryl.
Direction (3/5)
Robert Rodriguez is the Writer, Director, Co-Producer, Photography and Composer (typical Tamil movie director T.Rajendran style!!!).
He passes with good marks in all portfolios other than Direction. Why? Read Climax above. That spoilt the whole movie. But then with Antonio co-producing this movie I’m sure this last addition was put in by him, who knows... Otherwise a splendid job.
Final Verdict (3/5)
If you have an 6-10 year old, then this movie will make their day. They will love the 3D, actually even you might enjoy it too.
With a decent story line, imaginative special effects that rivals Johnny Quest, good action by Daryl this movie might not break records like the Part 1, but still manage to keep younger viewers, if not all, enthralled atleast just before the climax. Watch it once. Dont forget to get out before the last 5 minutes... Cue: When Juni calls in ’’Family’’ in the last scene!!!