| Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 26, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 5, 2005

It's terrible 3-D. I think the story is terrible as well.

Full Review | Jun 13, 2005

Script-wise, the film dutifully harps on the importance of dreams and believing in oneself, but it is painfully repetitive and something that is proclaimed more than demonstrated.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jun 12, 2005

A half-baked world no kid would want to visit.

| Original Score: D | Jun 12, 2005

Nothing's scary, and everything's so light it's on the verge of evaporating.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 11, 2005

Sharkboy & Lavagirl feels like a whimsical afterthought, a colorful kid-centric lark filled with admirable ideas and nothing to keep older viewers entertained.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 11, 2005

A movie that fails on nearly every level.

| Jun 10, 2005

Shark Boy and Lava Girl have about as much appeal as a dogfish and a melting Barbie doll.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jun 10, 2005

A rare window into a child's uninhibited imagination and protean playfulness, tricked out with tongue-in-cheek 3-D effects as seen through one blue lens and one red one.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 10, 2005

Parental pride may have clouded Rodriguez's judgment.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jun 10, 2005

You can't get this kind of full-on sensory-jolt anywhere else, not legally anyway.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 10, 2005

It's pretty clear that all those terrific ideas could use a little discipline and maturity before they ever amount to a truly great movie.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 10, 2005

The low-tech film looks like a kid's crude drawing, plays like entry-level Game Boy, and is about as nourishing as a Tootsie Pop.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jun 10, 2005

Squinting through cardboard glasses you get at the door, you see washed-out colors, blurred images and not enough pop-out to merit the trade-off.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Jun 10, 2005

For a movie aimed at children, Shark Boy and Lava Girl is gloomy.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 10, 2005

Great effort for a kid, perhaps, but not worthy of the big screen box office.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 10, 2005

It's not just that this fable about a picked-on kid whose dreams come true is an excruciatingly dumb kids' movie. It's that it returns us to the bad old days of 3D, when the images were rendered too murky to appreciate.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Jun 10, 2005

Watch this movie and you wonder: How did it get made?

Full Review | Original Score: D | Jun 10, 2005

Not only is it empowering to kids just learning to trust their own ideas, but, like Spy Kids, it reminds kids that fighting is not always the answer.

| Original Score: B+ | Jun 10, 2005