DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| **** (out of 5 stars) STARRING Antonio Bandaras as GREGORIO CORTEZ Carla Gugino as INGRID CORTEZ Alexa Vega as CARMEN CORTEZ Daryl Sabara as JUNI CORTEZ Ricardo Montalban as GRANDFATHER Sylvester Stallone as THE TOYMAKER Rated PG Studio: Dimension Directed by: Robert Rodriguez Back to DVD Review Home |
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The last 3-D experience I had was with James Cameron’s “Ghosts of the Abyss” in the IMAX theatres, and the problem with seeing an IMAX 3-D movie is that it spoils you for all further 3-D films. Fortunately, the “Spy Kids 3” DVD comes with both 2-D and 3-D versions of the film. Since televisions cannot project in polarized 3-D, you’re left with an anaglyph 3-D film.
As you might expect, the gimmick of “Spy Kids 3-D” was it’s biggest weakness. Many of the complaints I’ve heard are about the anaglyph 3-D process (which uses the colors red and cyan rather than polarized light). Inferior to the polarized process, anaglyph often retains a dim double image even with the glasses on, causing quite a bit of eye strain.
In his director’s commentary, Rodriguez defends his decision for anaglyph because he needed a wide release. He also gives some good tips for enhancing the viewing experience of the DVD, such as watching it on a computer rather than a television because computers use an pure RGB color scheme, yielding a crisper 3-D image.
However, even if you can achieve a crisp 3-D image, the color saturation is always gonna look murky and strange. Ultimately, after the novelty of 3-D in the home wears off, it is the best way to watch “Spy Kids 3” in 2-D. The transfer of the film is excellent, taken directly from the digital file, and Rodriguez implies that he might even enhance the movie later `on as technology improves. The 2-D version is the only one that retains the crisp, bright colors that usually fill Rodriguez’s “Spy Kids” films.
The story is relatively simple. OSS Spy Carmen Cortez (Alexa Vega) is trapped inside a virtual reality video game designed by the psychopathic Toymaker (Sylvester Stallone). Her brother Juni (Daryl Sabara) must come out of retirement as a spy to go into the game and save her. Originally conceived by Rodriguez as a stand-alone movie, he applied it to “Spy Kids” in order to forgo any needless exposition with the characters. This may not have been the wisest decision because it made the plot just a weak excuse to get Juni into the game and start the cool 3-D effects.
As movies go, “Spy Kids 3-D” is a better second sequel than most I’ve see, but it’s still just a sequel. Rodriguez pats himself on the back in his commentary and “10 Minute Film School” for how he was able to use such a large, diverse cast because he could shoot everyone separately against a green screen and composite them together later. However, this digital wizardry will never be a substitute for having your actors actually act against each other in real life, and this really is driven home in “Spy Kids 3-D” with pointless appearances by Antonio Bandaras and Carla Gugino.
Like the new “Star Wars” movies, “Spy Kids 3” was shot on high-def video cameras, with most shots against a green screen. Most of what you’ll see is computer generated, and Rodriguez gets away with some less-than-photorealistic effects because so much of the movie takes place within the game itself.
There’s an informative “Making of” feature as well as a good commentary track, which is always excellent when done by Rodriguez. Additionally, like most Robert Rodriguez DVDs, he includes an installment in his “10 minute film school” segment. Normally, this is an invaluable learning tools for the independent filmmaker. However, with the $39 million budget for “Spy Kids 3” (still considered a pauper’s budget by Hollywood standards), the wisdom of Rodriguez is much less practical.
He gives some great advice if you happen to be making a $20-$30 million action film. But even then, most of his advice can be boiled down into simple rules to shoot economically on a small green screen set. Ultimately, this segment of the “10 Minute Film School” peters out at about 6 minutes, so Rodriguez pads it with advice on how to use sound effects and off-the-shelf 3-D software to make cool home movies. All this is interesting, but not nearly as insightful as his original “10 Minute Film School” on “El Mariachi.”
Other special features include a multi-angle clip showing the development of special effect and obvious promotional opportunities for Alexa Vega’s singing career. There’s music videos of her in concert at the “Spy Kids 3-D” premiere, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at her laying down the tracks. Oddly enough, you see more of Alexa Vega in the special features than you do in the film. Rodriguez explains that he underplayed her part because she really wasn’t a kid any more. Still, Vega was such a good comedic actor in the first two films, it would have been nice to see more of her in this one.
One really interesting feature to note is the 3-D set-top game, which puts the viewer in the race segment of the film. This is the first DVD game I’ve encountered that actually is fun to play. I wouldn’t throw out your X-Box just yet, but the reaction time that allows you to steer your racer with the directional keys on your DVD remote is very smooth and quick in response.
The bottom line is that the novelties and nice slate of extras on this DVD and special effects in the film is enough to give it a pretty high rating, which actually supersedes the quality of the story.
Specifications: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Widescreen (1.85:1), enhance for 16x9 televisions. English, Spanish and French language track; Spanish subtitles; English language subtitles for the hearing impaired. Includes 4 sets of anaglyph 3-D glasses and instructions on how to order more.
