I confess. I am a fan of all three of the 'Spy Kids' movies. I originally saw the first Spy Kids when I was going through a Robert Rodriguez faze where I thought the man could do no wrong. Being an adult who prides himself on being able to reconnect with his childhood through movies, I could instantly tell that the first Spy Kids movie was going to be a classic on par with Willie Wonka and anything the Jim Henson production company put out. The original 'Spy Kids' was one of those Pixar-esque movies that has broad appeal to both the young and old audiences. There was something there to like for people of all ages. And all the while, it had that exact same cool feel to it that his bloody opus 'Desperado' had. This kids movie was just as stylized and as slick as any movie Rodriguez had put out before.

Even as zany as the Spy Kids movies are, at their core they have a very sweet center. Kids movies always walk a fine line between being preachy and being teachy. If you're a director or writer who makes these kids movies, you want your work to be a subtle teaching experience. You don't want to get all preachy. Preachy is for parents. If you're preachy, you get tuned out. The Spy Kids movies are at their core, about that on going struggle between parents and kids, and trying to have the two reach some kind of middle ground. It's called family. And Spy Kids wears the family proudly on it's sleeve.

Having like the original 'Spy Kids' a lot, I thought that it was more or less my civic duty to give 'Spy Kids 2' a shot. I joke as it being my civic duty, but I love going to the movies so much, that if I love a first film, I almost always give the second movie a chance. While not quite as good as the original 'Spy Kids', the sequel had it's fair share of really cool action pieces. One of the main appeals of the Spy Kids movies is that they are like little peaks into Rodriguez's imagination. He directs, writes, produces, scores, AND does the special effects for each of the Spy Kids movies, so what you're basically looking at is exactly what Robert Rodriguez wants you to see. There appears to be no middle man to tell him, "no, this doesn't work." The Spy Kids movies are just as zany and wacky, and ultimately sweet as he wants them to be. While the first movie had lots of appeal to both adults and kids, the second one started to move more into the kids territory.

When I heard that Rodriguez was making a third Spy Kids movie, I was a bit skeptical about how well it would work. Third movies are always tricky because usually the audience is getting kind of tired of the franchise by the third movie. That is especially true in the era of the Blockbuster. The formula is this: the first movie is usually the best. The second movie is usually just a cheap knock off, bigger, louder version of the first. How your "franchise" gets viewed in history will always depend on the third movie. If you do it correctly, then you may just have a Lethal Weapon on your hands. Do it poorly, and you have a Jaws, Rocky, or Rambo franchise on your hands, where each movie gets progressively more awful, and you forget why you liked the original in the first place.

So my skepticism was tempered a bit when I learned that Rodriguez would be pulling out all the bells and whistles by filming his third (and final) installment in 3-D. I had never seen a 3-D movie before. I had seen plenty of 3-D IMAX movies before. But IMAX movies are usually more documentary in nature. I was looking forward to seeing an actual movie in 3-D.

As for the effect of 3-D in 'Spy Kids 3-D,' it was overall pretty cool. The glasses that they handed to us at the ticket counter were very obviously made for kids aged 12 and under. So I had to Macguyver the glasses to fit over my own glasses, and found myself readjusting my 3-D glasses the entire time. If 3-D is done correctly, the image can literally pop out at you from the screen. The Spy Kids 3-D was not quite up to the standards that I've seen from other 3-D movies. The times when the 3-D worked the best is when there would be some kind of background that looked far away. It's a bit hard to describe. When the characters would punch towards the screen it would look cool, but I never found myself doing the cliched "ducking and covering" from what they were doing on camera. I instead found myself being pretty amazed at how the backgrounds looked and moved on screen. It reminded me of a few fun nights I've had in college. ;-) One of the drawbacks of 3-D is that the "red and green glasses" variet of 3-D will completely distort the images and colors on screen. Vibrancy is mostly eradicated, and we are instead left with dull grays and yellows. Not bad, I'd just like to see it get perfected so that I can see the colors that were intended to be seen.

The Special Effects in 'Spy Kids 3-D' were the best effects used yet in a Spy Kids movie. Rodriguez really has mastered his little sfx shop that he has, supposedly in his garage. I liked all the subtle homages to Tron, Blade Runner, and Star Wars that he put into the movie. It added a more adult element to the movie. I figure that a lot of people who take their kids to see this movie are probably people my age who grew up on these sci-fi movies. It's almost like this movie will be something that future generations remember in the same way that my generation remembers movies like Tron and The Last Starfighter. It's not quite as substantial and an event as say the Star Wars movies were, but the Spy Kids movies have definitely secured themselves a place in the pop culture pantheon.

I liked how the end of the movie pulled together characters from all three of the Spy Kids movies. They all came together to "get the bad guy" and send the franchise off on a high note.

Speaking of the bad guy, Sylvester Stallone was a joke in this movie. I couldn't quite tell what they were doing with him in the movie. Having Stallone play the bad guy was more or less just a name recognition type of thing. He had a few funny moments, but overall, there wasn't much to his character.

Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugina had more or less, cameo roles in this movie. This movie was rightfully in the hands of the two child actors, Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara. This is a Spy KIDS movie after all.

It's good that Robert Rodriguez and crew are quitting while they're ahead. They are ending the franchise perfectly. The kids are not going to be kids anymore and pretty soon, it'd be Spy Teens 4. I hope and pray that a movie like that never sees the light of day. The Spy Kids movies are fun, but please let them be as they are and not release any further adventures.