Image courtesy of www.impawards.com
Director :
Robert Rodriguez
Cast :
David Arquette……….Dad
Cayden Boyd……….Max
Jacob Davich……….Minus
Kristin Davis……….Mom
Taylor Dooley……….Lava Girl
Taylor Lautner……….Shark Boy
Sasha Pieterse……….Ice Princess
George Lopez……….Mr. Electricdad/Mr. Electric
Robert Rodriguez is a director who has had a career of polar opposites. He came into the spotlight with the gritty, Mexican-themed action of the Mariachi trilogy (El Mariachi, Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico). Mix in From Dusk ’til Dawn and most recently Sin City, and Rodriguez’s action movie resume stands out with any director of the past decade. But mixed in with all this R-rated violence are his children’s movies, specifically his other trilogy: Spy Kids. Even those were filled with his trademark brand of violence, except sanitized for a younger set and featuring a refined version of his trademark camera angles.
The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D follows the adventures of three people: Max (Cayden Boyd) and the two super-heroes on the marquee (Taylor Lautner and Taylor Dooley respectively). Max has a notebook full of stories with his two super pals and when he shares it, people assume he’s written fictional stories. His two friends are figments of his imagination, or so the world thinks, until one day they show up needing his assistance to save their home planet. From there it’s a mad-cap rush into the imagination of a child striving against the urge to grow up as Rodriguez turns out another mediocre children’s movie.
Rodriguez is on full display when the movie’s action sequences are on the go; he continues to improve the ways in which he crafts and shoots action each time he steps up to the cinematic plate. The film’s initial action scene has a lot of the same elements from similar events in El Mariachi but done in a much slicker fashion. His style also helps to compensate for the relatively bad acting from the younger stars. While Boyd, Lautner and Dooley can’t be expected to have the same sort of acting abilities their adult counterparts should, Rodriguez is good enough that he compensates for it. He plays to their strengths and keeps you from noticing that the trio is only several notches above Jake Lloyd in the first Star Wars prequel. He allows them to use more of a physical presence than a mental one.
Rodriguez’s knack for playing to his actors’ strengths and the ways in which he shoots them has never been a problem; what stands out like a sore thumb is the 3-D.
The sort of lush environments and effects that could have been used fore great effect are wasted with the concept of 3-D. While it offers certain advantages, in this case the movie suffers greatly from it. For a movie that is based off the imagination it certainly is unimaginative in this aspect. Plush, vibrant backgrounds that dominate the animated world and would surely do wonders here aren’t available because of the inherent difficulties of using 3-D. What should be a fantastic, overwhelming visual effect fair surrounding the story falls flat. What’s even flatter is the main villain, George Lopez.
Lopez is the Latino Wayne Brady; there really isn’t much he can to do to turn an audience against him. Short of digging up the corpse of Mr. Rogers and violating it in front of a nationwide audience, Lopez is the comedian that will always be associated with clean comedy and kid-friendly fun. So having him as the teacher is a good choice; placing him in this dual role, however, is the case of having a square nut for a round bolt.
The movie’s strength is Rodriguez’s strength as a director; he can still tell a good story regardless of the acting. And this is a really good story; at its’ heart it’s about the imagination and how it slowly dies the closer a child goes to becoming an adult.
