The Spiderwick Chronicles Reviews

I wish people would stop comparing this to Harry Potter, because this is a dark and hugely entertaining film, that both kids and adults will enjoy. I am not saying Harry Potter isn't entertaining, it just is a little unfair to compare movies that are completely different, with the fact they are fantasy being their connection. The film itself looks just stunning, with beautiful sets and costumes.(the house in this film reminded me of the house in The Others) Young children will find Mulgarath a bit too sinister, especially in his ogre form, but he was essential to the plot. I think how he died, getting eaten in the form of a crow by the good goblin(can't remember his name) a bit disappointing, as I've known villains to die better than that. The script is very like Princess Bride in terms of wit and imagination, with the book and all the other basic ingredients. The story is very imaginative, with a boy finding a book and accidentally unleashing the evil goblins who want the book for themselves. What made this movie was the cast, Freddie Highmore, Mary Louise Parker, Nick Nolte, Joan Plowright and Martin Short, all giving first rate performances. While not his best work, James Horner's score was appropriately fitting to the action. Another thing, before I round off, is that I found the ending with the father and daughter reunited really poignant, I almost cried at that bit. All in all, a beautiful and inventive movie, with a 8/10. Bethany Cox

I saw this with my wife and the kids when it came out in theater. Following the success of 'The Lord of the Rings', 'Harry Potter' and 'Narnia', they started to adapt many fantasy books into movies but, even though a few were successful, most of them failed and were forgotten pretty quickly. This flick was one of those. First of all, I must say that it was not that bad and actually pretty good. It starred Freddy Highmore who was pretty popular back then and the rest of the cast was actually pretty cool (Mary-Louise Parker, Nick Nolte, David Strathairn, Seth Rogen, Martin Short). I think the main issue with those movies is that they try to mix our World and another Fantasy world. As a result, you waste a lot of time during some boring introduction until they finally get in this other dimension. I mean, in a book, it might not be a problem because you can develop those elements but, with a movie, it is just way too much exposition. That's one reason why 'The Lord of the Rings' is the best of those adaptations,. Indeed, with LOTR, right from the start, you get into Middle Earth instead of spending 30 minutes or more with some modern kid who eventually get stuck into another world. Still, this movie remains a decent and entertaining familly feature and it is definitely worth, especially if you like this genre.

I feel bad whenever I have no choice but to give a negative rating to a movie that so obviously has good intentions, but there's no avoiding the truth: The Spiderwick Chronicles is inferior to most children adventure stories. The idea behind the story lacks creativity, the suspense in the action-based scenes is lightweight, and a lot of the answers/solutions to things are irrefutably lame. When the family of four (minus dad) moves into the mysterious house, the movie even rushes straight into the fantasy-oriented plot rather than giving us much of a preface to anything concerning these people we just met. The way this is done is quite jarring, to say the least, and though there are some things that happen throughout the film that attempt to rectify this, they never amount to much.

The only elements that at least make this an adequate movie (at best) are the film's earnest performances (particularly that of Freddie Highmore playing twin brothers Jared and Simon), a few scattered funny moments, and the GLIMMER of a subplot involving the protagonist's father that might get us to care about Jared if it occupied, say, 15% of the movie's plot as opposed to 5% of it.

If there weren't so many children adventure stories (like last year's Bridge to Terabithia) that were so much more entertaining and inventive than this, then I'd be able to say that The Spiderwick Chronicles is good, but it's impossible to say that when not only is there a lot that is better out there, but also, these filmmakers could've done a heck of a lot better. I mean, tomato sauce? Come on.

"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 (Bolger) and their mother Helen (Parker). Jared finds within the house a book written by his late great uncle (Strathairn). The book is a field guide full of detailed information about creatures like goblins, ogres and fairies that inhabit the forest outside the estate. But reading this book awakens said creatures including a horde of goblins lead by the vicious Mulgarath (Nolte). They aim to recover the book, but by doing so it will doom mankind.

It's impressive to comprehend the fact that Freddie Highmore plays two characters in the one movie. But face it - Highmore is mildly cute but his acting skills need work. He's wooden for most of the time and his lines sound so contrived. Some may excuse this because he's merely a child actor, but this was the main obstacle in the film being anything more than a good fantasy for the kids.

The CGI is impressive, but quite underwhelming. Most fantasy films don't appear to care much for steering away from CGI, and it hurts the film quite severely. Most of the creatures look so cartoonish and horribly artificial. I don't think there were any scenes that I actually found the creatures to look real. Again, we can overlook this because it's aimed at the little ones. But honestly, some filmmaking that mirrors Jim Henson's work could have done some good. (that is, puppets and marionettes) I guess today's younger audiences do not warm up to the old school effects common in 80's fantasy films.

The script was pretty good. Some of the dialogue needed work, the ended seemed unbelievably rushed and there were a number of plot holes...but in all honesty the film is at least entertaining. It moves at a brisk pace and contains loads of creative ideas.

Overall, Hollywood's recent obsession with these fantasy movies (adapted from books) has produced some turkeys and some successes. In my opinion, The Spiderwick Chronicles is one of the better fantasy movies to hit our screens for a while. It's not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination, but it's guaranteed to keep its target audience entertained. Just be aware of a number of frightening scenes that will make the kids grab the hand of an adult in fear. But rest assured, it is a good family movie if the kids are in the age range of about 4-10. Females of any age should enjoy it, but adolescent males will probably detest it.

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 entertaining movie for the family.

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. I sat in front of two families that had younger children asking their parents if they could please leave. The computer animated characters are so realistic that they become very scary. These kids really had a hard time watching the movie. My kids are a little older and they had a blast watching the movie. I think this is a great family movie and worth the price of admission. Hope you enjoy it.

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