B-

“You have to give him points for imagination,” one character remarks with mixed emotions about flamboyant villain Fegan Floop (Alan Cumming), who hosts a bizarre children’s TV show, in Robert Rodriguez’s “Spy Kids.” The same can be said, at least in part, of the writer-director. After heretofore specializing in glossily overwrought action flicks like “Desperado,” “From Dusk Till Dawn” and “The Faculty,” he’s now turned his attention to the kiddie set and made a movie filled with extravagantly surrealistic visuals, elaborate (if sometimes charmingly tacky) special effects, and his customary whiz-bang camera tricks (zoom shots, whirling lenses and the like). The result is a picture that has a distinctive look and lots of visual pizzazz: it’s wildly colorful and playfully weird, not unlike such oddball classics as “The 5000 Fingers of Doctor T” and “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” If that were all that mattered, the picture might be great. It’s a pity, though, that Rodriguez’s imagination didn’t extend past the surface to the realm of content. He’s concocted an energetic, noisy chase story that captures the tone of the Saturday morning live-action TV series children love, but ultimately is just a very simple, repetitive, none too original tale of two ordinary youngsters (Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara) who become action heroes in order to rescue their captured mom and dad (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino), ex-super spies brought back into service after nearly a decade’s retirement to save the world from destruction. This is a premise that’s been used before–remember 1988’s appalling “The Rescue”?–and though Rodriguez adds a lot of humor and some uplifting messages about the importance of family and learning to have confidence in oneself, they don’t make it any less thin; even the villain’s plans for the abducted agents–they’re mutated into helpless plasticene characters–is second-hand, having already appeared in last year’s “Rocky and Bullwinkle” fiasco. The picture’s inventiveness is pretty much confined to its externals, and as impressive as they are, they’re not really enough.

Moreover, while making his movie attractive to kids, Rodriguez obviously didn’t want to alienate their older siblings and parents. So he’s added elements to appeal to them–portraying the kidnapped mom and dad, for example, as a hot Latin couple, and dropping in periodic allusions to past flicks and other shards of popular culture. But this has drawbacks. Some of the gags will sail past the urchin crowd and probably bore them, while the picture’s more cartoonish elements, which the youngsters will enjoy, aren’t likely to engage older viewers much. By aiming to please both segments of the audience in such very different ways, “Spy Kids” could end up fully satisfying neither, proving a bit too childish for adults and a bit too adult for children. Still, there’s enough for each group to enjoy to make it better-than-average family fare. And aside from a couple of mild poop jokes, it’s almost completely inoffensive.

You also have to give Rodriguez points for the unabashedly Hispanic character of the enterprise, and for emphasizing the strength of the female side of the central family. At a time when entirely too many of the Latino figures in movies are bosses of drug cartels, the Cortez clan here is a paragon of virtue and respectability, and their life cheerfully affectionate. And in the family, it’s the women who take charge. Mom Ingrid (Gugino) is always getting the cocky but rather inept Gregorio (Banderas) out of jams, while in the next generation it’s Carmen (Vega) who’s the natural leader, though her brother Juni (Sabara) eventually overcomes his fears in the course of their adventure. All four performers are pleasant enough, even if Banderas overdoes the Latin lover bit and Sabara can sometimes seem all too winsome for comfort. Cumming has a high old time playing a guy more interested in his TV show than conquering the world (and by the close he’s allowed a conversion), as does Tony Shalhoub as his aide-de-camp. Unhappily, the supporting cast also includes shrill Teri Hatcher as a duplicitous intelligence operative, stiff Robert Patrick as Floop’s patron, and dull Cheech Martin as the kids’ false uncle. Danny Trejo, on the other hand, is nicely gruff as their real one.

Secret agent flicks are increasingly hard to pull off, especially when kids are brought into the mix (see “The Rescue” again) or spoofing is involved. (Can anyone unfortunate enough to have seen it ever forget Bill Cosby’s lamentable “Leonard Part 6”? Even the “Austin Powers” movies are really nothing more than “Get Smart” with sex and vulgarity added. ) Rodriguez’s effort, mercifully, never descends to such depths, and it avoids the grossness that fills so many purported children’s pictures nowadays. Despite the fact that it has lots of characters zooming around on rockets and jets, however, it doesn’t soar as high as it might; while it’s sometimes visually enchanting, it remains rather earthbound in the narrative department. So “Spy Kids” doesn’t match the finest of the last few years’ family films–“The Iron Giant,” for example, or “My Dog Skip”–but it certainly leaves drek like “See Spot Run” in the dust. As was the case with the recent “Recess Movie,” it’s amiably pleasant without–apart from its stylish appearance–being really outstanding.