Spy Kids: Armageddon review by Bobby Blakey
In 2001 director Robert Rodriguez introduced the world to his family action comedy Spy Kids. The film was a box office success and spawned 3 sequels, Spy Kids 2: The Island of Dreams in 2002, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over in 2003 and Spy Kids: All The Time In The World in 2011. Sadly the last couple didn’t do as well and it appeared to be the end of the franchise, but now Rodriguez has returned to the franchise with the reboot Spy Kids: Armageddon. The film stars Zachary Levi, Gina Rodriguez, Connor Esterson, Everly Carganilla, D. J. Cotrona, and Billy Magnussen. Could this latest chapter bring it back to the series roots or will it be game over?
Spy Kids: Armageddon follows the children of the world's greatest secret agents who unwittingly help a powerful game developer unleash a computer virus that gives him control of all technology, leading them to become spies themselves to save their parents and the world.
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This series has a special place in my heart as both of my kids loved the original films, as did I. The first two films were great, but I admit that they got a bit cheesy as they went on as it dived all into the kid elements and technology Rodriguez was using in them. On a lot of levels, they were innovative for their time, but just never connected as well with audiences. My kids still loved them so I endured them and would lying if I said that wasn’t still entertained on some level.
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What I never expected was to get to return to this world, but here we are with a new film in the franchise. This time around the film is focusing on a new family with essentially the same ideals of family and the world of spy’s and espionage. You can tell from the trailer that Rodriguez was sticking to the later stylings of the series and I applaud him for putting his vision out there even if it doesn’t always work.
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I am a huge fan of Rodriguez and will give anything he does a chance so was excited to see where he was going this time around and if would deliver. I wanted to love this movie and feel like I should hate it, but honestly I fall in the middle. The parents played by Levi and Rodriguez do a decent job, but of course they aren’t the focal point it’s the kids themselves played by Esterson and Carganilla. Neither of the kids have the same charm of the originals but they do a good job and everyone looks to be having a blast here.
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The film meshes the world of video games into the real world with some decent CGI effects and thanks to the way it is worked into the storyline it works and doesn’t always need to be realistic. The story is cheesy and goofy by design and will likely not work for everyone. My love of the franchise no doubt makes me biased and I am clearly not the audience so I think it works well for the younger audiences that will no doubt have some fun.
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Worse case maybe this film will get a new audience to discover the originals. For those that are fans of the original or just looking for something new for the kids to check out that’s not another cartoon check out Spy Kids: Armageddon streaming now on Netflix.