After the success of his Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl reboot, We Can Be Heroes, Robert Rodriguez is returning to Netflix with another reboot of one of his kid-friendly franchises: Spy Kids. Although an attempt at a theatrical reboot in 2011 already crashed and burned at the box office, this franchise might yet have life left in it for a streaming medium, as Spy Kids: Armageddon is genuinely fun, understanding what made the franchise work in the first place.
Unlike many recent reboots, Spy Kids: Armageddon stands out in that it is not connected to the other films in the franchise. It’s a hard reboot that uses the basic concept of the series — kids whose parents are spies become spies themselves — to present a fun, family-friendly adventure that feels like it fits within the series despite being its own thing.
Rodriguez’s two heroes are played by Connor Esterson and Everly Carganilla. While the duo doesn’t have the same breakout potential as Alexa PenaVega and Daryl Sabara or Taylor Lautner and Taylor Dooley (although did anyone *really* break out other than Lautner?), both of them are really charming, and Rodriguez is clearly skilled at working with child actors in a way that gets a delivery out of them that is both funny and endearing.
Spy Kids: Armageddon is flawed but silly fun
The two big name stars in the movie are Zachary Levi and Gina Rodriguez, who play the main duo’s superspy parents. Although their performances are hardly to the level of Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino in the original films, at least they aren’t phoning it in like Jessica Alba in All the Time in the World. Levi and Rodriguez also have excellent chemistry with Esterson and Carganilla, selling the family dynamic perfectly.
Also Read: Spy Kids Cast: Then vs. Now
The biggest highlight of the movie is Billy Magnussen, who understands the assignment, absolutely hamming it up as the villain. In his roles in movies like Ingrid Goes West, The Oath, and Aladdin, Magnussen has gotten to show a bit of his flamboyantly sinister side, but in the fifth Spy Kids movie of all things, Magnussen shows that he has the chops to be an amazing villain.
It will come as no surprise that the production values on Spy Kids: Armageddon are not super high quality. Rodriguez employs several of the techniques that were used in the initial trilogy, like heavy green screen. While these may have been ahead of the game in the early 2000s, when they were made, the fact that this fifth film very visibly feels like it was shot in its entirety on a soundstage is concerning. However, there are a few inspired visuals, like some Jason and the Argonauts-esque hybrid animation (albeit more modernized), and there’s an undeniable sense of energy to the movie’s visuals.
Similarly, it’s hardly unexpected that the action choreography is rather rudimentary. Of course, a lot of it is being conducted by kids, so you wouldn’t anticipate there being anything particularly high-effort there. However, even the action by the adult performers — Levi, Rodriguez, and Magnussen — feels exceedingly slight.
Yet, despite poor production values that feel like they are past their time and a script that sticks extraordinarily close to the formula, there’s something ineffably charming about Spy Kids: Armageddon. Maybe it’s just the nostalgia of being a kid who grew up on Robert Rodriguez’s movies (even the ones that were made for adults), but he knows how to make a nice little romp. And hey, it’s a heck of a lot better than Hypnotic.
Spy Kids: Armageddon is now streaming on Netflix.
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Rating: 6/10
