n many ways, Spy Kids 3D: Game Over exhibits the same kind of colorful, larger-than-life approach to storytelling that was evident in its two predecessors. And, as with the earlier movies, full creative control rests in the palm of Robert Rodriguez, who wears more hats than a baseball player during a season: director, writer, producer, cinematographer, composer, editor, production designer, and visual effects supervisor. However, if you sense a "but" coming, your intuition does you credit. It's a big "but."The problem is the decision to present 2/3 of this movie in 3D - a format that has long since been rejected by serious movie-goers as a cheap gimmick. There are two fundamental problems with the kind of 3D that Rodriguez employs here: it requires cardboard glasses (with one red lens and another green), and the visuals inevitably appear washed out and monochromatic. The former is a bigger problem than the latter. In order to view Spy Kids 3D the way the director intends, you have to don these irritatingly uncomfortable glasses for more than an hour. I gave up after about 10 minutes and ended up watching the majority of the 3D scenes in blurry 2D, with triple images. That was preferable to keeping the cheap cardboard glasses on. Had this movie been released in good old-fashioned 2D, it would have earned a solid recommendation, rather than a half-hearted one. Hopefully, for the DVD release, Rodriguez will make both 3D and non-3D versions available. I would like to see what this movie looks like with full color restored. Then, the experience of watching would be more of an enjoyment and less of a chore.This time, the film centers around the younger, male Spy Kid, Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara), whose services are required when his older sister, Carmen (Alexa Vega), disappears while investigating the corner of cyberspace occupied by the new video game from a master programmer known only as The Toymaker (Sylvester Stallone). Carmen is trapped on level four, and Juni must go in, find her, and shut down the program before it captures the minds of the world's youths. Accompanying him is his grandfather (Ricardo Montalban), who has an old score to settle with The Toymaker. Inside, Juni finds other allies, including a trio of beta-testers and a rival player, Demetra (Courtney Jines), who could end up being girlfriend material. But winning may not be what's best for the world, because it furthers The Toymaker's goals.It's clear that Rodriguez has an intimate knowledge of the current state of video games, because his cyber-world looks pretty much like one would expect from a virtual reality adaptation of a Gameboy title. It's more advanced that what we were presented with in Tron, which was made in an era when Pac Man was near the zenith of electronic game complexity. It's kind of fun watching Juni struggle through the various levels of the video game, grabbing power-ups and engaging in action-oriented challenges. Rodriguez has some fun at the expense of the games and those who play them, but these are the jabs of someone with more than a passing familiarity with the material.