The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3D DVD Review
MOVIE REVIEW
The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl is an acid trip formulated in 2005 by director Robert Rodriguez and inspired by the dreams of his son Max featuring characters of the same names. The plot centers around a child named Max who goes to school and tells the stories of Sharkboy and Lavagirl to his class out of his dream journal. Max tries to convince everyone that his two friends are real, much to no avail. But that changes when one day, Sharkboy and Lavagirl blast into Max's school and bring his to their home planet Drool, which apparently contains all of Max's previous dreams. Their issue, the dreams are dying/being invaded by darkness, and Max is the only one who can stop it. What follows is a journey fraught with Macguffins, enemies, and larger-than life locations.
Did you follow that? Well, there's even more to the story than just that. And quite frankly, I don't have it in me to elaborate on it even further. I don't even really know where to start this review. I finally got around to reviewing a film starring real people, but it turns out to be even more childish than all of the animated films I've reviewed in the past. The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl is an nonsensical and often utterly bizarre mess that's loosely held together by some well-intended messages about the importance of dreams and working to make sure those dreams come true. But even those messages come across as ultimately pretty weak because the dream mechanics on display are more confusing than those from Inception. That being said, this is the type of bizarre mess that truly must be seen to be believed. And why that is, I can easily elaborate on.
Now, credit where credit is due. The idea for this movie isn't inherently a terrible one. We all remember when we were children and the lines between imagination and reality could get a bit blurry. And during that time, we'd all come up with some very wacky stuff. A film could certainly be made that expands this concept in a way that children can find entertaining and the adults simultaneously could find slightly fascinating. And actually, the first 15 minutes of the film seemed to be building up to something like that. But when Max gets visited by Sharkboy and Lavagirl at his school and taken to planet Drool, it's really all downhill in terms of plot. From here, the story is basically stumbling from weird setting to weird character to weird setting with little to no explanation for anything. And when they attempt to do so, it's usually through plot mechanics so vague it leaves you with more questions than answers. By the time you reach the climax, the stakes are so unclear it leaves you slightly bewildered. That's all not even to say how frequent yet incredibly cheap-looking the CG effects are.
Yet that's where I come into a bit of dilemma in terms of recommending Sharkboy in Lavagirl because while all the above elements don't make it by any means a good movie, it does make it quite memorable and entertaining in its own right. There's an abundance of outlandish elements and what I'd call "so bad it's good" moments that add up to so much insanity that you can't helped but be mesmerized by it. Just the title of the movie lets you know you're in for a one-of-a-kind thrill ride. I've seen quite a few films in my time, but seldom have I seen one where Jacob from Twilight does a whole sing-and-dance number to try and get someone to sleep, nor does an army of sharks start walking on land via their fins, nor does a villain look anything like this (until Ant Man 3, but no one talks about that). And of course, very little of that would be possible without the iconically bad CGI Robert Rodriguez's kids films have been known for. Tack on some flashy 3D effects that try to throw everything out at you, and you have yourself quite the experience.
If you're looking for a wholesome, innocent kids flick with some imaginative visuals for the kids yet also have enough coherence and heart for the adults, look somewhere else. Sure, the messages of Sharkboy and Lavagirl are generally pretty wholesome and the overall product is innocent enough. But the film takes off in so many ridiculous directions that even the children might not finding themselves digging the movie's charm the same way they probably dug Spy Kids's charm. And of course, there's practically nothing here for the grown-ups. However, if you're looking for a film to poke fun of with a group of friends, Sharkboy and Lavagirl makes for the perfect bait. It's got everything you need: bad animation, a poorly thought out story, subpar acting, and enough insanity to fill an asylum. I say it's worth checking out just for that alone. It's a classic for all the wrong reasons, but a classic none the less.
OVERALL FILM RATING: 2/5
3D REVIEW
I'm not sure if you could tell from a simple Google search, but apparently, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl was not just sold back in the day as a kids movie, but also heavily a 3D movie. This is Robert Rodriguez's second array into 3D filmmaking after Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. And just like his previous effort, Sharkboy and Lavagirl really takes advantage of the 3D technology at every turn. That's the upside, though. The downside is that the only reasonable way to view the 3D version of this movie is on 3D DVD with the red and blue glasses. I did actually find a 3D Blu-ray double feature including this film and Spy Kids 3D, but copies of it sell for upwards of $100, a price I wouldn't be willing to pay for The Shawshank Redemption let alone a couple of mediocre kids movies. I talked about problems that come with red/blue anaglyph 3D in my reviews of Shrek 3-D (or Shrek 4D) and Santa vs. The Snowman, including the ample ghosting, the ruined color palette, and the 3D ceasing to work half the time. And whatever issues I had with those couple of short films are greatly exemplified over the movie's 85 minutes runtime. Apparently, according to critic reviews, the red/blue anaglyph 3D is how this movie was presented in the theater. So I'm technically watching the film the way it was intended. But I'm sad to report that for once, I agree with Roger Ebert on 3D for once: the 3D here acts as a net loss to the film overall (if there was really anything to lose in the first place).
Now, the 3D isn't present throughout the film's entire runtime. The real world scenes at the beginning and the end are in 2D and the movie lets you know when to put the glasses on and when to take them off (and in one instance, the notice is integrated in the story in a super cheesy way). So the amount of 3D screen is about 65 minutes which honestly, I'm pretty cool with. Let's get the positive parts of the 3D out of the way. For starters, the pop outs, which are made to be the highlights of the whole 3D show, are near constant. They're all done in a very gimmicky in-your-face type way that fits in with the film's very gimmicky tone. It's a fashion I don't think I've seen since in a 3D film since those Journey to the Center of the Earth movies. Granted, the red/cyan 3D adds in some problems that hinder the film's pop outs, but we'll get to that later. So what kind of stuff comes out at you? Truth be told, it'd be easier to list the stuff that doesn't. We get everything from menacing electrical cords, sharks, pieces of cookies, various people's hands, sparkles, goo splashes, water splashes, lava splashes, rocket ships, iron bars Sharkboy bites off and spits at you, and much much more. The climax involves butterflies, locusts, bubbles, and even brains, which at one gets thrown onto and stuck to the camera. There are probably plenty of more pop outs that I'm forgetting about, but I've hopefully covered most of the basic and most memorable ones. Aside from that, though, nothing ever looks "wrong" like it does in Clash of the Titans. Even with the ample amount of ghosting on display, everyone is placed in proper 3D space and everything carries proper 3D depth. This is due, of course, to the film being shot natively in 3D. And it goes to show how natural 3D is the best option every time. Elsewhere, there's also plenty of shots with decently 3D composed elements such as tornados, bridges, a tall ice structure with a jewel on top, mountains, great heights, and menacing characters.
Of course, however, when you're dealing with red/cyan 3D, problems tend to arise. And sadly with Sharkboy and Lavagirl, the negatives more often than not outweigh the positives. For starters, the 3D gives off a ton of ghosting. That's a usual issue with anaglyph 3D. But with this film in particular, it distracts from some otherwise really fun shots. Not only that, in certain portions of the movie, the 3D sometimes almost ceases to work. While the elements in the foreground and slightly behind the screen do appear properly in 3D space most of the time, scenes with vast background where the parallax is extreme don't often register with red/cyan 3D and instead give off a weird double-image effect. This issue can be partially resolved when you sit far enough back, like I suggested for short films like Shrek 3-D. But for an 85 minute movie, that's not an ideal situation to be in. Besides that, there's also the usual problems such as a color palette of strictly red and blue that ruins your eyes after a while, and plenty of eye strain that results from having to make sense of the image in extreme parallax. All of these issues combined over the length of a full length feature film made the overall experience much more unpleasant than it should be.
About halfway through the film, I was on bubble on whether or not to give the 3D effects on the 3D DVD of Sharkboy and Lavagirl a "not good" or "ok". It certainly wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. On one hand, yes, the anaglyph 3D presentation introduced an array of problems that put the eyes through misery and doesn't even really allow 3D to shine during the moments involving lots of in-screen depth. But on the other hand, the 3D was as much a part of this film's process as Christianity was a part of the Narnia series. And the 3D does try to thrill you, it does deliver the thrills. That makes it even more of a shame that the overall presentation is hindered by the issues from being in anaglyph 3D. I figured all things considered, it goes into the category of "not good." I imagine the 3D Blu-ray of this movie would look great, or even borderline excellent. But as for the 3D DVD, I don't recommend it. If you don't have $100 to spare but still want to see the movie and not get shamed for watching it in 2D by all the stuff it throws at the camera, then the 3D DVD can give you a glimpse of what this film was striving for. But don't expect it to blow you out of the water, or be easy on the eyes.
3D RATING: NOT GOOD
OTHER SOURCES THAT REVIEW THIS MOVIE'S 3D:
DVD Talk Review #1: https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/17914
DVD Talk Review #2: https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/17862
(I was getting a little desperate, ok?)
FINAL THOUGHTS
If you're coming into The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl looking for a decent story with likable characters, a coherent plot, and a degree of fun charm to it, I imagine you'll be quite disappointed. There isn't that much here beyond bright colors, non-sensical action, and some half-baked messages about dreams becoming reality if you work hard enough. Everything else is simply bonkers. However, it is oftentimes the so-bad-it's-good type of bonkers. So if you're in the mood to turn on something utterly brainless and ridiculous yet so memorable, this is a spectacle that you ought to treat yourself to at least once in your life. Now about that 3D DVD? Well, if your eyes are weak or you want to get the most out of the color palette and don't care much about trading that for the gimmicky pop outs, the 2D version will be recommended version of the film. And honestly, for as 3D brained as I am, I'd understand you. The anaglyph 3D presents too many issues to make it an easy recommendation for 3D enthusiasts or common moviegoers. That being said, between the problems and the gimmicky pop outs, the 3D presentation for Sharkboy and Lavagirl seems about on par with the movie itself. So I say if you want to get the most out of this film's constant array of insanity, you probably ought to watch it the way it was intended, warts and all. Just like the film itself, don't expect goodness, just dumb but fun gimmicky weirdness.
BUY IT HERE
The problem is that you absolutely can’t fairly assess this film’s spectacular 3-D until you watch it on proper 3-D Blu-ray. I found a copy of the double feature for $60 and it was well worth it. Both films are an absolute low-rent psychedelic scream in 3-D, and that’s a great thing. I hope you manage to get a copy and re-review it.