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Grade: C-

Verdict: Everything the first movie wasn't. Unfortunately.

Details: Starring Antonio Banderas, Alexa Vega, Daryl Sabara and Carla Gugino. Directed by Robert Rodriguez. Rated PG for monster violence and crude humor. One hour, 30 minutes.

See it: Local theaters and showtimes for Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

Rate it: Write your own review

Review: "Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams" is a prime example of what can happen when a terrific sleeper that no one expected to be a megahit gets the full Hollywood franchise treatment.

And it ain't pretty.

Nobody paid much attention when Robert Rodriguez's "Spy Kids" was released last year. It was, after all, a kiddie movie about some regular kids, Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni (Daryl Sabara) Cortez, who had to rescue their secret-agent parents, Gregorio (Antonio Banderas) and Ingrid (Carla Gugino), who'd been kidnapped. Nobody paid attention, that is, except for audiences. The picture ended up making around $113 million.

Now everyone is paying attention ... and it shows. I have no idea how much of the new movie is pure Rodriguez and how much is studio tampering. I also have no idea if Rodriguez was the one who did the tampering ... or was tampered with. However it happened, the sequel is everything the original was not: contrived, overblown and tie-in ready.

In turnabout from the first film, the kids' parents are now seeking them. Juni and Carmen have traveled to a mysterious island to track down some world-destroying gizmo as well as clear Juni's name (he's been discredited as a Spy Kid under unfair circumstances.) See, there's an entire Spy Kids school that we didn't know about in the original. One that suspiciously resembles Harry Potter's Hogwarts, except they use scientific inventiveness instead of magic.

In fact, gadgets seem to be what the movie is all about — until, that is, they reach the island where nothing gizmo-like works. That's a problem since the place is crawling with mutant monsters accidentally created by a kindly but cowardly mad scientist (Steve Buscemi).

Meanwhile Gregorio and Ingrid, who are on their trail, have their own problems. Ingrid's parents (Ricardo Montalban and Holland Taylor), themselves retired spies who never really liked Gregorio, have offered their services.

The island adventures pretty much parallel those in the Ray Harryhausen classic, "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad." Instead of a Cyclops, there's a Spidermonkey (a monkey torso and spider legs). Both have a winged monster that flies off to its nest with someone. And Rodriguez just couldn't resist replicating Harryhausen's famed skeleton swordfight. The borrowings are so blatant that I'm almost sure he meant them as an homage. But how many many kids know Ray Harryhausen?

Other parts seem focus-group generated. Why don't we give the parents parents so kids can see everyone has issues with their parents (or their kids). Why not add a nasty rival spy-kid team, to teach there's a right and a wrong way to compete. Why not add some potential love interests? And why not cast Buscemi, who's now so acceptably cool to such a wide cross-section that he showed up in "Mr. Deeds."

Banderas and Gugino aren't given much to do, so she doesn't do very much while he spends his time doing riffs on the outlandish Latin lover Raul Julia played as Gomez in "The Addams Family" flicks. The kids are good, but they aren't good enough to carry the movie.

Bottom line: your children will enjoy it. You'll probably enjoy it, too. It's got amazing creatures, nifty gadgets, a bouncy opening and some funny bits. But anyone who knows how truly lovely and amazing the original movie was will be painfully disappointed.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution