The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D
Writer/director/editor/special-effects-supervisor Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids, Desperado) continues to storm the movie world with The Adventures of SharkBoy and LavaGirl in 3-D. A young boy named Max (Cayden Boyd) finds the real world crashing into his dreams: His parents fight, bullies harrass him at school, and his teacher advises him to get a grip on reality. But Max's faith in his fantasies is so strong that his superheroic creations SharkBoy (Taylor Lautner) and LavaGirl (Taylor Dooley) crash into Max's classroom and take him off to rescue the fantastic planet he dreamed up. Towards the end, SharkBoy and LavaGirl crumbles with clumsy story gaps and bland moral advice, but most of the movie explodes with visual invention. A clockwork villain with electrical limbs commands an army of extension-cord snakes; SharkBoy uses his claws to engrave a diagram of the solar system into a chalkboard; LavaGirl's burning feet melt an ice bridge as she runs across it. It's disappointing that Rodriguez's storytelling flounders, but sections of deliciously fluid movie-making make The Adventures of SharkBoy and LavaGirl in 3-D worth seeing nonetheless. Also featuring David Arquette (Eight Legged Freaks), Kristin Davis (Sex in the City), and George Lopez (Real Women Have Curves). --Bret Fetzer
