Psycho's Movie Reviews #361: Spy Kids 3D: Game Over (2003)

Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (also known as Spy Kids 3: Game Over) is a 2003 American 3D spy action comedy adventure film, the sequel to Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams, and the third instalment overall in the Spy Kids film series. Written and directed by Robert Rodriguez and co-produced by Elizabeth Avellán, it was released in the United States on July 25, 2003, by Dimension Films. The film stars Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Alexa Vega, Daryl Sabara, Ricardo Montalbán, Holland Taylor, Mike Judge, Matt O'Leary, Emily Osment, Cheech Marin, Bobby Edner, Courtney Jines, Robert Vito, Ryan Pinkston, Danny Trejo, Alan Cumming, Tony Shalhoub, and Sylvester Stallone. Despite mixed reviews, the film grossed $197 million on a $38 million budget.

The entire film was filmed in a green screen environment. About 90% of the movie was green screen. Though this was initially intended to be the final instalment in the Spy Kids film series, it was eventually followed by a fourth film, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, in 2011.

Plot

Juni Cortez, 3 years after the events of the second film, has retired from the OSS and now lives quietly, working as a private detective, though on a minuscule salary. One day, he is contacted by President Devlin, the former head of the OSS, who informs him that his sister, Carmen Cortez, is missing after a mission gone wrong.

Arriving at the technological and computer department of the OSS, Juni is reunited with a now reformed Donnagon and his wife Francesca, who explain that Carmen was captured by the Toymaker, a former OSS informant who was imprisoned in cyberspace by the organization but has since created Game Over, a virtual reality-based video game which he intends on using to escape cyberspace via players that reach the seemingly unbeatable Level 5. Juni agrees to venture into the game, save Carmen, and shut down the game, with only twelve hours to win. He is also informed that his sister was last seen on Level 4.

In the game, Juni finds the challenges difficult, having only nine lives within the game and already losing one at the start. While roaming a cartoon-like medieval village, he finds three beta-testers, Francis, Arnold, and Rez, who provide him with passage to the Moon and launch him into space, but mostly to eliminate the competition.

Juni lands on the Moon, consequently losing another life, and receives an opportunity to bring in a fellow ally for assistance. He chooses his grandfather Valentin, who uses a wheelchair and has a personal history with the Toymaker. Valentin receives a power-up which gives him a robotic bodysuit, allowing him to walk and possess superhuman strength and durability. Distracted by a butterfly, he abandons Juni, telling him that they will regroup later. Searching for the entrance to Level 2, Juni ventures into a robot battle arena where he fights a girl named Demetra in order to return to Earth and Level 2. In the fight, he receives a robotic, more powerful suit, and he is placed on a huge mecha to combat Demetra. In the 3-round fight, in which he loses another life, he defeats Demetra and returns to Earth and he is allowed to keep his power suit.

He meets the beta-testers again who believe that he is a player named "The Guy", who can supposedly beat Level 5. Rez is unconvinced and challenges Juni to a "Mega-race" involving a multitude of different vehicles, which will allow them onto Level 3. The only apparent rule of this game is "win, at any cost". Juni wins the race with help from Valentin, and Demetra joins the group; she and Juni display romantic feelings for each other, with him giving her a med-pack with extra lives and her providing him with an illegal map of the game. Upon entering level 3, Arnold and Juni are forced to battle each other, the loser getting an immediate game over. During the fight, Juni loses almost all of his lives, but Demetra swaps places with Juni and is defeated, seemingly getting a game over, in turn upsetting Juni.

The group arrives at Level 4 where Juni finds Carmen, released by the Toymaker, who leads the group on. Carmen notices their grandfather is with them and tells Juni that the Toymaker is the reason their grandfather uses a wheelchair. Juni follows a map to a lava-filled gorge. The group surfs their way through the lava. The OSS finds out about the history between the Toymaker and Valentin. Fearing that Valentin might seek revenge, Donnagon attempts to prevent them from reaching Level 5, but fails, as they fall into the lava and discover that it is harmless, and they reach a cavern where they find the door to Level 5. Outside of the door to Level 5, Carmen informs them that they only have 5 minutes left. After the other gamers start to think that Carmen and Juni are deceivers and Rez threatens to give Juni a game over, the real "Guy" appears and opens the door. However, he is struck by lightning as part of a booby trap set by the Toymaker when the door to Level 5 is breached, which makes him lose all of his ninety-nine lives and get a game over, forcing the group to move on without him.

In the Level 5 zone, a purple-ish cyberspace, Demetra appears, claiming to have re-entered the game via a glitch but Carmen identifies her as "The Deceiver", a program used to fool players. Demetra confirms this and apologizes to a stunned Juni before the Toymaker attacks the group with a giant robot. Valentin then appears, holding the entrance back to the real world open so the group can escape. However, he cannot come with them since someone needs to hold the door open. Demetra, shedding a tear, quickly holds the door open so he can go with them. Upon return though, it is revealed that Valentin had released the Toymaker with the villain's robot army now attacking the city.

Juni and Carmen summon their family members: parents Gregorio and Ingrid, Gregorio's brother Machete, their Grandmother, and Uncle Felix. With too many robots to handle, Juni calls out for everyone to help, summoning characters from the first two films. All of the robots are destroyed except for the Toymaker's. Valentin confronts The Toymaker, and forgives the Toymaker for what he did to him, which Valentin had been trying to find the Toymaker to do for 30 years. The Toymaker shuts down his robot and joins the rest of the Cortez family and their friends in celebrating their families.

Production

Filming took place December 10, 2002, to April 2003.

Music

The film score was composed by Robert Rodriguez and is the first score for which he takes solo credit. Rodriguez also performs in the "Game Over" band, playing guitar, bass, keyboard and drums, including the title track, "Game Over", performed by Alexa Vega.

All selections composed by Rodriguez and performed by Texas Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by George Oldziey and Rodriguez.

Release/Reception/Box Office

The film was released via VHS and DVD on February 24, 2004, by Dimension Home Video. The film's 3-D effect was not removable on the DVD release, but a 2D version (Spy Kids 3: Game Over) was available on a second disc, and on television airings. In April 2011, the film was re-released on DVD, but only in 2D and named Spy Kids 3: Game Over.

The 2D version was released via Blu-ray on August 2, 2011. On December 4, 2012, Lionsgate released the 3D version as a double feature with The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl on Blu-ray 3D.

Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 45% approval rating based on 143 reviews, with an average rating of 5.42/10. The website's critical consensus states: "The movie will be found wanting if one is not taken in by the 3-D visuals." Metacritic reports a 57/100 rating based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Bob Longino of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote that "the 3-D process will hurt your eyes. The onscreen characters, who also wear 3-D glasses, even say so when it's time to take them off." However, he also stated that it helped mask what he deemed as an overall lack of a story. Jim Lane of Sacramento News and Review called the 3D scenes "murky and purple like a window smeared with grape jell-o." Roger Ebert gave the film one and a half stars out of four, suggesting that perhaps Rodriguez was held back by the film's technical constraints. Ebert also admitted to showing disdain for the 3D gimmick, saying that the picture quality with the 3D glasses is more murky and washed out than the crisper and more colourful 2D films. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle noted Carmen's absence for much of the film and criticized the plot's repeated scenes of Juni attempting over and over again to reach Level Five. Kimberly Jones of the Austin City Chronicle praised the visuals but called the plot twig-thin and stated that the parents' near absence in the story makes Rodriguez's continuing theme of family ties seem much less resonant than in the other films. The reason the characters were in minor roles and cameos was because Rodriguez was filming Once Upon a Time in Mexico while writing the third Spy Kids film.

For his performance as The Toymaker, Sylvester Stallone earned a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor at John J. B. Wilson's 2003 Golden Raspberry Awards ceremony.

Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over opened theatrically on July 25, 2003, in 3,344 venues, earning $33,417,739 in its first weekend and ranking first at the North American box office. It is the series' highest-grossing opening weekend. The film ended its run on February 5, 2004, having grossed $111,761,982 domestically and $85,250,000 internationally for a worldwide total of $197,011,982, making it the best performing film in the series.

Budget $38 million

Box office $197 million

My Review

I usually don't enter a film series in the middle simply because it is often difficult to appreciate the third instalment of anything without having seen what has gone before. However, when it comes to a kids' film, I was pretty sure that I could managed to battle through the labyrinth-like plotting of the Spy Kids series! I started watching this film in 3-D (I had a 2 dvd set) but the glasses were a little uncomfortable and the colours looked funny all the way through. After seeing a few items sort of float vaguely around my television I was quite unimpressed and decided just to go with the 2-D disk. The plot is pretty thin (it's never really clear what the attraction of the game is or what the Toymaker even wants) but it sets up a colourful and enjoyable little ride through a computer game - which is delivered pretty well despite all it's silliness!

The main weapon in the Spy Kids' cannon is it's stars - both actors and director. Rodriguez is a very good director when it comes to style and action and his influence makes this film a lot more fun than others likely would. He is slick but also fully aware that he needs to make it `fun' and not just colourful and noisy. It's all a bit silly of course but the 3-D gimmick is a little bit heavy at times (like the old films in the 50's that had actors punching at the screen) but it isn't that bad. The reason the silliness doesn't really damage the film is because the actors seem to play to it - and a very fine series of performances these are. Pretty much all the cast are good fun and their performances are about as hammy and fun as you can imagine. Sabara is great fun - a cool kid without any of the horrid cutesy stuff that can happen. I found Vega less fun as she was a little too smart for my liking, but she was still fun and the rest of the kids were suitably fun with not a bad performance between them. The adult cast will provide much of the fun for the adults watching - there is a large number of Rodriguez regulars in the cast who all overplay to suit the sense of fun the film has.

Montalban is great fun. Forever Khan in my mind, he has a great voice and screen presence and he heavy makes the message of forgiveness work reasonably well and not just being mawkish like it should be! Stallone hams it up and has good fun even if his multiple personalities don't totally work. Clooney has fun in his small role but the rest of the cast are all cameos some of them are used pretty well and got a giggle but others just show their faces. However, they don't detract from the film and it at least will amuse parents to see people like Martin, Trejo, Cumming, Shalhoub, Buscemi, Paxton, Wood and Hayek. The out takes at the end made me realise how good the performances were - it just never dawned on me that, although I knew it wasn't real, that 95% of this was shot on greenscreen - making acting to anything that little bit harder.

Overall, this is a silly film but it is one that kids will love. The sheer sense of fun that Rodriguez brings to it is infectious and makes for a great 90 minutes with the kids. The star cast made it more enjoyable for me and helped the sense that everyone was just enjoying themselves. It is hardly a great film but it does just what you expect it to do and who can ask anymore than that?

I did like the first two movies, which had a sense of fun, but despite a wonderful idea, Spy Kids 3D fails to live up to the standard of the first two movies.

I will say though that the 3D effects are more than decent, and there are spirited performances from Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara. And I did really like the idea of the story, it was a very original idea, sadly the execution was patchy.

The storyline was sadly very predictable, and despite the impressive images on screen, it failed to have a sense of wonder. Another problem was that the script was very devoid of humour, and while the first two movies were well written and had some funny moments, this instalment had one or two laughs scattered here and there, but overall was a bit limp, and the finale was rather disappointing.

The acting certainly wasn't awful, it was just a little uninspired. The two leads are fine and Ricardo Montalban is surprisingly very good as the grandfather, and while Antonio Banderas, Steve Buscemi, Tony Shalhoub and George Clonney did their best, the uneven script disallowed them to have any sense of fun. The actor I was most disappointed with, sorry guys, was Sylvester Stallone. Now I like Stallone, and I consider Oscar(1991) one of the most unfairly underrated movies ever, and I like a fair majority of his work. But here I felt he was out of character playing the villain. Hamming it up, a phrase I usually despise describes his acting here perfectly, and he overdoes it shamelessly at times.

Overall, Spy Kids 3D isn't terrible, it is just mediocre, and could have been much better. 4.4/10 for the 3D effects, and the efforts of the cast.