By the time I saw this movie, I really had no interest in it.
I had wanted to see THE FIRST ONE because I thought it was so cool that tough guy director Robert Rodriguez was making a movie just for his kids to finally be able to see one of his films. Now I smell a quick buck franchise a brewing.
Spy Kids 2: Island Of Lost Dreams lacks the innocence of the original, and I just didn’t find it all that entertaining. I was bored through a lot of it, and kind of annoyed by some of it. I appreciated the apparent tribute to Ray Harryhausen, but found it very poorly executed. I mean, I know this is basically a family movie, but the effects still have to hold up, right?
Most of the cast from the original returns, but I think Alexa Vega is a little too big to pull off her role. This theory holds up if you stay through the credits. I hope there isn’t another installment, but if there is, it’ll have to be Spy Teens, which sounds stupid. So don’t do it. Daryl Sabara still seems more “kid” like, but by the next one he’d be too big too.
There’s another set of Spy Kids in this flick, the bigger played by Matthew O’Leary, the younger by Emily Osment…as in Haley Joel. Uh huh. Spittin’ image too. Well, except for in talent…she’s not there yet.
While it wasn’t a great movie, the original Spy Kids had a sort of sweet fun to it that Robert Rodriguez failed to achieve this time. There were some good parts, and I did laugh a few times as expected, but I just can’t help but feel this movie was just about making money for Miramax. And if enough money is made this time, I guess we can all look forward to Spy Kids 3: The Next Generation?