"The Family That Spies Together Saves the World Together"
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What You Need To Know:
Streaming on Netflix, SPY KIDS: ARMAGEDDON has some exciting, funny moments. However, the movie is sometimes clunky and superficial. Also, it doesn’t develop the original concept in a meaningful way. SPY KIDS: ARMAGEDDON’s biggest saving grace is its
wholesome depiction of a healthy nuclear family, a rare phenomenon in Hollywood these days. Terrence and Nora have a loving, thriving marriage. Also, their children, despite some misbehavior, love and respect them. SPY KIDS: ARMAGEDDON also has a strong redemptive message supporting repentance and a strong anti-authoritarian message supporting individual liberty.
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SPY KIDS: ARMAGEDDON updates the hit children’s movie for the Digital Age as a rebooted version of the original family fights villains from a popular video game for the fate of the world as they know it. When crack spies Terrence and Nora Tango-Torrez are captured by the power-hungry Rey Kingston, their children, Tony and Patty, must learn how to infiltrate Kingston’s lair and rescue them. Streaming on Netflix, SPY KIDS: ARMAGEDDON has some exciting, funny moments, but the movie is a bit clunky and superficial, though it has a strong moral, pro-family, redemptive, uplifting worldview that promotes healthy family relationships, marriage and fighting authoritarian evil.
Tony and Patty, the children of crack spies Terrence Torrez and his wife, Nora, accidentally help a power-mad video game designer, Rey “The King” Kingston, steal the Armageddon Code. The code allows Kingston to use his video games to take control of every electronic device on Earth. Kingston, whose father was brought to justice by the Terrence and Nora years before, kidnaps the parents. Their children must learn how to become spies, infiltrate Kingston’s lair, rescue their parents, and foil Kingston’s plan.
The core concept of SPY KIDS hasn’t aged in 22 years. SPY KIDS: ARMAGEDDON is the exact same movie, just with all the names changed (except for spymaster Devlin, formerly played by George Clooney), and video game villains instead of Saturday morning cartoon villains. The movie has some exciting, funny moments, but it doesn’t develop the fundamental concept of “children with elite spy training performing covert government operations because they are more competent than the entire adult corps of U.S. secret agents” in any meaningful
way. It certainly could. There are absolutely ways to interrogate the considerable implications of that idea. How do the other stakeholders in the intelligence community feel about sending minors into the field? What makes these children better spies than the average adult? What psychological and development effects does engaging in life-and-death clandestine operations have on young people? SPY KIDS: ARMAGEDDON doesn’t ask. Maybe if it had, the movie would’ve ended up feeling like a more worthwhile reboot, and not just another unwanted cash-grab that is about as close to cinema as a dinosaur-shaped chicken nugget is to a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Also, the movie’s dialogue is a bit clunky.
SPY KIDS: ARMAGEDDON’s biggest saving grace is its wholesome depiction of a healthy nuclear family, a rare phenomenon in Hollywood movies these days. Terrence and Nora are in a loving, thriving marriage. Also, their children, while not above occasional misbehavior, love and respect them. Though these characters have little to no complexity to make their family relationships more interesting, they do present a nice ideal of how loved ones should always try to treat one another. The movie also has a strong redemptive message. The Spy Kids appeal to the villain’s better nature and moral conscience to defeat him. Finally, SPY KIDS: ARMAGEDDON an anti-authoritarian message supporting individual liberty from megalomaniacal control.
