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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
3-D, 3 Stars, 25 Mar 2004
As a huge fan of Robert Rodriguez, I really wanted to like this film, and was like a kid myself waiting for the postman to deliver it. When I actually watched the film I was quite disappointed. I know I am not (officially) a kid any more, but I still felt a bit let down, and its hard to say why. The packaging is great, with 4 pairs of 3-D glasses (slight problem for a 5-person family like us..) and 2 discs: one with the 3-D film and a second disc with most of the extras plus a 2-D version of the film. The extras, as usual with RR, are varied and interesting. There is the now customary 10 minute film school which shows how much more there can be to directing than just pointing a camera, a making-of documentary, director's commentary, music footage of Alexa Vega live, and other cool stuff including a game based on the race featuerd in the film. OK, its not going to compare with a Playstation 2 game, but its entertaining enough and its also available in both 2-D and 3-D versions. So far, so good. The package is fine, the extras are better than average, the film is action-packed with lots of neat gadgets but it really lacks a decent plot. Its the end of a trilogy, and everything is thrown into the film, but all the in-game sequences seem to be driven by what effects can be done rather than the story. Also, everyone from the other 2 films appears somewhere but only George Clooney really gets to make the most of his appearance. Blink and you will miss Danny Trejo, Steve Buscemi, Cheech Marin and Antonio Banderas. Stallone as the Toymaker does a good job with his various personas though. The ending is pretty rushed, more than a bit trite, and came as a bit of a relief. Having said all that, our kids enjoyed it which is the main point of the film, but with the earlier Spy Kids films I enjoyed them too. This seemed too much like a warmed-up Tron with a dash of 'pod race' to deserve the sort of rating any of Rodriguez's other films get. This disc is worth buying for the novelty of the 3-D, and for the neat set-pieces. The film itself is only worth 2 stars, but the quality of the extras bumps it up a bit.
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