Joy. We're finally of an age to take Katherine to movies she wants to. Which meant, yesterday, a jaunt to see that sparkling comedy, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D.
Well, no, it's not a sparkling comedy. It's a 3-D (at least partially) adventure, from the folks who had something to do with Spy Kids (which I would hope the owners of that trademark would object to being mentioned -- to the point of legal action).
Okay, so it wasn't that bad. But it was certainly an hour and change I've permanently lost from my life that I do sort of regret, not having gotten anything for it save a mild headache from badly implemented 3-D.
SBLG is about a kid, Max, who had an active dream life, and who keeps all his dreams in a dream journal, which include the characters of SB and LG. He uses these dreams as the basis for reports he gives out, which neither endears him to his teacher, Mr. Electricidad, nor to the typical school bully types in class like Linus. Nor does it make his mom -- a professional realist who's increasingly disenchanted with Max's dad, a wooly-headed "writer." When SB and LG show up at Max's school, though, and take him off to save the dream world of Planet Drool, though ...
SGLG can't decide whether it's action-adventure, fx-fest, charming examination of the imagination, cheap psycho-babble, sophisticated psycho-drama, homage to Little Nemo, or what. Plot elements bubble up then vanish, characters come and go with either zero set-up or with eye-rolling predictability. Things happen for reasons that make no sense -- when it doesn't make sense. Mr. Electricidad is alternately compassionate, cruel, realistic, cartoony, and turned into one of the chief villains on Drool. A song is sung, but it's not a musical. The parents are alternately scary, goofy, conflicted, and lovey-dovey. About half the time when odd things happen, it seems chalked up to a dream, even when it's not clear that's really the csae.
And the final message? It seems to be to keep your dreams, but work to make them real, but make sure they're good dreams, but don't let people take them from you, but be ready to let them go, but they're important, but don't let them get in the way of reality, but sometimes they become reality, but everyone lives happily ever after.
I think.
Katherine, of course, enjoyed it, and followed the cues to put glasses on/off perfectly. Her favorite parts:
Katherine pretty much enjoyed it, though a few places were sort of scary/suspenseful for her 5-year-old self.
The 3-D was done with the classical red-blue glasses, and was used mainly for sequences on Drool. This meant that the majority (and most fx-ful) portions of the movie suffered from muddled color and light balance, but that aside, the 3-D effects were pretty decent, with only a minimum of spear-shooting-at-the-screen exploitation -- though seeing folks spew food got awfully dull.
And may I say that I have officially grown out of the demographic that finds fart jokes universally amusing? Which is a shame, I guess, because both this movie and pretty much every movie previewed before it highlighted just that particular brand of humor.
And now it's time for your Sexually Ambiguous Nomenclature Trivia Fact for today: the actors playing both Shark Boy and Lava Girl are named "Taylor." As in, their first names.
That must have made for a few funny times on the virtual set.
The acting is occasionally well done (Taylor Lautner -- Sharkboy -- sometimes looks to have the makings of a decent action hero), but for the most part it's the sort of lame, over-the-top thing that someone probably figured kids would like.
And if you don't have a young kid, I strongly urge you to give this one a pass.
Ah, well -- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is coming out on 15 July ...
Filed under :: Media - Movies
Thanks for the warning.
I saw a preview of Charlie and the chocolate factory and the Michael Jackson look and mannerisms Depp has affected really creep me out.
Huh. I hadn't drawn the MJ parallel. Creepy, yes, but the character himself in the book is kind of creepy, too. (Heck, Gene Wilder made him creepy, and that was Gene Wilder being poorly directed!)
Still, looks pretty cool, and they certainly have a lot of the plot elements from the original on display.
The tale I heard tell was that the executive producer was in his pool with his kids and his son was telling stories of his imaginary friends Shark Boy and Lava Girl. The phone rings. The EP picks it up and its the studio saying the results are in for Spy Kids 3D and are you ready to make a sequel.
Why yes, replies the EP, I have this script for two characters named Shark Boy and Lava Girl...
Only in Hollywood!
As for previews, we're looking forward to the Wallace and Grommit movie. We also saw a second preview for the Chicken Little movie and it looks (plot wise) totally different from the earlier previews we saw. A change in script? We'll see!
W&G looked mighty fine.
There's also a CG movie coming out under the Disney label having to do with pigeons in a WWII-like setting. Hadn't heard anything about it up until now.