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"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.
8/10
