The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)

Posted : 1 year, 5 months ago at Aug 19 16:57

*WARNING* ~Contains Spoilers~ Definitely not a film I wish to see again. Freddie Highmore has never been a favorite of mine, far from it in fact, and having two of him was just a little much. Although I have never read the books (or even wish to now) the plot was very plain and disappointing. The graphics were fine, but the cliche humor practically reeked. But what really got to me was the stupid decisions that were made by the characters. 1) When the Idiotic main boy (Can't even remember his name) decides to take the "Book" and go outside the safe boundaries to show it to the elderly daughter of the author. Why did he do that? It was safe inside! He could have explained their dilemma to the daughter. 2)When the Troll chases them down the tunnel. Ahem... The Troll is a HUGE Mo...Read more

Rating : 3/10

Posted : 1 year, 7 months ago at Jul 4 10:22

I read a couple of reviews before seeing this movie on various blogs where the blogger did not like the movie at all, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. While I really wanted to see this movie, I normally do not enjoy book adaptations very much. I was pleasantly surprised. I read the books about four years ago, and while I loved the illustrations in the books and the general idea of the story, the books themselves did nothing for me. The narration wasn’t enjoyable and there was no real character development. If I had been in the age group these books were aimed at, I would’ve loved them, but as an older reader reading them, they just didn’t do anything for me. Since then, I’ve gone back and looked at the illustrations (because they are beautiful) but haven’t reread them. Th...Read more

Posted : 1 year, 9 months ago at Apr 21 3:48

"Vengeance or death!... Hopefully vengeance." In tradition with usual children's fantasy features like Bridge to Terabithia or The Golden Compass, I found The Spiderwick Chronicles to be a whole lot better than I originally thought it would be. Usually with this genre there's a bunch of stupendous plot points and a clichéd story, but this film was somewhat different. I will admit that the sub-plot concerning the divorce of parents was extremely clichéd, but it will never be a drawback on an otherwise highly entertaining fantasy film. Based on the series of books of the same name, The Spiderwick Chronicles is the story of a family who move to the run-down old Spiderwick Estate. The family consists of twin brothers (Jared and Simon; both played by Highmore), their sister Mallory...Read more

Rating : 8/10

Posted : 1 year, 9 months ago at Apr 18 9:52

Definitely be cautious about taking your kids to see this film. I'm a grown-up and some scenes were quite scary to me! A new family moves into an old house. One of the twins discovers an enchanted book which brings to life a whole new world of goblins, fairies, and other monsters. The CGI is well done, the monsters felt very much "alive" and all are quite scary it's so well done. I myself jumped in my seat a few times ! I didn't know this was based on a book, but should have known - with the popularity of movies like The Chronicles of Narnia, and Harry Potter, it was obvious the Spiderwick Chronicles would be adapted to the big screen. In any case, the movie made me want to read the books as I felt a lot of the action was too fast, and something was missing. Still quite an ente...Read more

Rating : 7/10

Posted : 1 year, 11 months ago at Feb 27 0:59

I really enjoyed this movie. I read the series and was curious how they would adapt the books to the big screen. I think they did a pretty good job of doing the adaptation. Some key events in the book were left out (ie. big sister being rescued from the goblins lair), but I don't think this took away from this being a fun movie. I've been impressed with Freddie in his previous roles and thought he did a great job playing the twins. He played each brother so that you could tell that they had their own personality just like the books. The animated characters were believable and very realistic. The voice talents were excellent and added to the fun. One word of caution: if you have little children or ones that are scared easily, I would be cautious about taking them to this movie....Read more

Rating : 8/10