Video/DVD Review: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
Rated by 1 member
What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that this movie has constant action
violence, including a character who explodes. The movie has
good portrayals of minority, disabled, and female characters.
Families can talk about Juni's grandfather, who wants people to
look at him when he is in his wheelchair the same way they do
when he can walk. They could also discuss what he says to the
Toymaker about forgiveness. The Toymaker's game has "the
children's attention" and wonders what they are learning. Who
has your family's children's attention, and what are they
learning? One interesting point that almost disappears in the
noise is whether Juni is "the guy", a sort of chosen leader,
like Neo in
The Matrix or Luke in
Star Wars
. It's worth talking to kids about whether it matters to Juni,
to the other kids in the game, or to the outcome if he is "the
guy" or not. Families can also talk about the
reality/perception/fantasy issues raised by the movie. Why is
it important that the kids Juni meets in the game look so
different when he meets them in real life?
In SPY KIDS 3-D: GAME OVER, an evil man called the Toymaker (Sylvester Stallone) has created a computer game called "Game Over," and Carmen Cortez (Alexa Vega) somehow gets lost inside the game. If her brother Juni (Daryl Sabara) cannot shut down the game before it goes on the market, the game will enable the Toymaker to take over the world or worse. In the game, Juni meets up with beta testers and battles Demetra (Courtney Jines) in gladiator-style combat. He develops a crush in both senses of the word as he slams her avatar-robot around in between gazing longingly at the way that fetching lock of hair keeps falling in front of her determined but sparkling eyes.
The special effects may be in 3-D, but the story is flat, and there is very little of the quirky humor of the first two movies. This one is just non-stop loud, hurtling, special effects, most of it is like one long computer game, with one set of pixels fighting another.. To be scrupulously fair to the sensibilities of its target audience, I must admit that halfway through this movie my 8-year-old godson leaned over to me and whispered, "This is AWESOME!" I wish I could say that I felt the same way.
The first two Spy Kids movies combined brilliantly imaginative visual effects, thrilling (but not too scary) action, silly fun, and a lot of heart. With this last in the series, writer-director-editor-producer-composer Robert Rodriguez is either so enthralled or so overwhelmed by the 3-D technology that he forsakes the essentials of plot and character. We also miss the characters of the first two. Many of them appear only in brief cameos that are merely distracting. Stallone plays four parts-- all of them badly.
Spy KidsSpy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams
The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D
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