Spykids 3D: Game Over

What's the Plot?

Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara), the youngest member of the famous spy family - the Cortez's - has left the OSS organisation after being "burned" by the spy agency. Now a private investigator, Juni, deals with nothing more exciting than a cat stuck in a tree. All that is about to change when Juni is contacted by the President of the United States (George Clooney) with some terrible news. Juni's sister, Carmen (Alexa Vega), has been lost on a secret mission, and only Juni has a chance of finding her and helping her to finish the job. Carmen's mission was to infiltrate a new video game called "Game Over" before it hits the shelves of toy shops around the world. Designed by the Toymaker (Sylvester Stallone), who was imprisoned in a cyber prison by an OSS agent many years ago, the game will help the Toymaker take over the minds of all the youth that plays the game. Juni must enter the game, find and free his sister, and together they must shut down the game permanently from within. However, a mission such as this may need the whole family to help, but would their grandfather (Ricardo Montalban) be so eager to help find the Toymaker? Could their connection jeopardise the fate of the mission....and the world ?

The Review

3-D. A medium that conjures up images of theme park attractions or 30 minute shorts shown at the Imax theatre. For main movies though, the likes of Jaws 3-D and Dial M For Murder buried the attempts at trying to make it a viable and profitable option for film makers. Robert Rodriguez's (Director/Writer/Editor - you name it, he did it !) bold step to reinvent this novelty genre does work, but not well enough to satisfy all possible viewers needs and desires. For the kids, this will probably make their day with a lethal combination of their "own kind" squarely kickin' ass and saving the day with the added bonus of putting those freaky 3-D glasses on and off during the films running time.

For any accompanying adults however, it doesn't work half as well. Right from the outset, those with the wallets/purses are told - admittedly cleverly and very funnily - how to deal with any discomfort that the glasses may cause: take them off, go to the lobby, buy popcorn and drinks, then return to the screen. The saving factor of this speech is that Alan Cumming's Floop from the first 2 films does it with tongue firmly in cheek, but his appearance is the only one of note from the promised return of all the characters from the previous adventures. Mom and Dad (Carla Gugino and Antonio Banderas) appear for the last 10 minutes with nothing much to do, so do Steve Buscemi, Cheech Martin, Danny Trejo and Bill Paxton.

Most of the 3-D feels forced - people deliberately pointing at the camera etc.- which doesn't help disguise the fact that whole scenes from Tron and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace have been ripped off, along with nods to the likes of Blade Runner (the Toymaker's name is Sebastian). However, as with the other 2 films, the end credits are accompanied by out-takes, and the admission price is nearly worth it just to see George Clooney's impression of Sylvester Stallone. Kids will switch on whilst the adults will tune out leaving this trilogy on a bit of a downer. Shame really.

STEVE'S SCORE