Robert Rodriguez maintains his perfect record with Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams, the sequel to his first foray into the realm of parental guidance suggested. While not as tight as the original film, Spy Kids 2 crackles with wit, charm, and, most importantly, joyful moviemaking.
As per genre regulations, the film starts with a mini-adventure that sends Juni and Carmen Cortez (Daryl Sabara and Alexa Vega) up an amusement park ride to rescue the president’s daughter. Of course they save the day, but bratty Spy Kids Gary and Gerti Giggles (Ryan O’Leary and Emily Osment) take the glory by snatching the mysterious Transmooger device.
This sets up the rivalry that fuels the bulk of the film as the Cortezes and the Giggles, both young and old, race to recapture the Transmooger. The mission takes them to the titular island where none of the spies’ nifty gadgets work. As if this weren’t enough, the island crawls with bizarre hybrid creatures created by Doctor Romero (Steve Buscemi doing his mad Moreau best).
Just like the impossible thrill machines that populate the flick’s opening, Spy Kids 2 moves at an impossible pace through breakneck corners yet somehow we all manage to come out intact and smiling. If anything, it proves one thing: making unimportant films doesn’t mean that filmmaking is unimportant.
Note that I should put the film in filmmaking in quotes as Rodriguez has given into the dark side and abandoned sprockets for pixels with, surprisingly, only a marginal loss of picture quality. Granted it helps that the pictures bristle with nursery bright colors and CG-ed monsters, but the blue-screen scenes still look as bad as any 1940’s rear projection. One thing an old-school effects fanboy like me can appreciate is the style in which Rodriguez animates those monsters.
The creatures all move with the patented shudder that signals that 8th Wonder of the Screen, Dynavision! Created by stop-motion genius Ray Harryhausen, Dynavision allowed the heroes of classics like Jason and Argonauts and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad to battle colossal metal men and reanimated skeletons. Although computer generation allows for smooth (often too smooth) movement, Rodriguez seems to have demanded that the frame count be brought down so the skeletons that Carmen and Juni fight seem to be the same ones Harryhausen once moved a frame at a time.
In the original Spy Kids the prevailing theme was that of family. This theme remains intact and even expands with the inclusion of spy grandparents Holland Taylor and Ricardo Montalban. Strangely for a film that’s process has embraced the most cutting-edge tech, the other theme centers on over-reliance on technology at the expense of creativity. With their gadgets out of order Juni and Carmen have to rely on themselves and low-tech solutions. It’s an attitude that Rodriguez practices as well as he preaches, proven by the fact that he turned down a $60mil budget in favor of a $36mil just to force himself to be creative.
While Rodriguez shows plenty of creativity, his style does suffer somewhat, but I suspect this is more from having to frame shots for over 1000 digital effects than from an atrophy of skills. Such extensive effects must hinder Rodriguez’s patented One-Camera-Many-Set-Ups-One-Shot style. (For those of you lost on that, check out his “10 Minute Film School” on the El Mariachi DVD.)
Of course there are lots of real-life humans in the movie too. Supporting players Floop, Minion and ‘Uncle’ Felix all return from the first film and are joined by some new ones. The most inspired/oddest casting of the film is the appearance of Christopher McDonald as the President of the United States. Any world that features President Shooter McGavin is a world I fear and yet embrace. At the same time Mike Judge fills the role usually reserved for McDonald as the grown-up rival of the Cortez family. Judge does fine in his role, but fails to stand out in any way.
Ricardo Montalban charms as the wheelchair-bound Spy Grandpa, but to my surprise he’s the maternal grandparent and only related to Antonio Banderas by marriage. This leaves me with a question as to who, if not Kahn himself, could have sired the suave Gregorio Cortez. I have a personal fanboy casting for the other two Spy Grandparents but I want to hear if you guys have your own theories. I don’t want any, “Oh, I heard it was gonna be so and so.” This is straight up old school film geek fantasy casting. You tell me from living actors who is best suited for G-ma and G-pa Cortez.
Overall the movie succeeds. The jokes get laughs, the adventure thrills, and the sentiments actually hit home. Unlike this week’s other spy release, this one has a heart. XXX may have Danny Trejo wielding a machete, but if you want solid entertainment then go for Spy Kids 2 featuring Danny Trejo as super cool Spy Uncle Machete.
