Netflix’s Spy Kids: Armageddon levels up the franchise for a new generation
Netflix’s new Spy Kids movie bears the burden of a million expectations.
Robert Rodriguez’s 2001 original was iconic. He built a children’s movie around exactly what he knew kids wanted to see: themselves as the heroes of the kinds of exciting genre movies the adults were watching. In Spy Kids, children aren’t tagalongs or mascots — they get to save their parents, play around with fancy spy gadgets, and do all sorts of cool, exciting things. With two direct sequels focused on the same characters, a soft reboot/kinda sequel in 2011, and a short-lived 2018 animated Netflix show, the Spy Kids franchise is already familiar with new additions.
Still, fans of the first Spy Kids might wonder if Netflix’s new reboot film could ever match the highs of the original movie. The answer is simple: If you were a kid when you first watched Spy Kids, of course the new one won’t feel the same. But that’s OK, because Spy Kids: Armageddon recaptures the magic for a new generation. It’s meant first and foremost for viewers discovering this series for the first time.
Rodriguez is still acutely tapped into what makes movies exciting for kids. The elements of the original that were so evocative — the gadgets, the training, the campy special effects — are all back in his revamped movie. While Armageddon’s adult cast isn’t as captivating as Carla Gugino and Antonio Banderas were in the first movie, Rodriguez and his son Racer, who co-wrote the script, deftly expand their focus this time out, giving the latest Spy Kids movie a timely message.
[Ed. note: This post contains slight setup spoilers for Spy Kids: Armageddon, as well as spoilers for the old Spy Kids movies.]
Like the original Spy Kids, Armageddon follows two kids — this time out,
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