Inkheart

It’s a familiar tale, but one told with gusto, wit and visual flare; of particular note is the dilapidated Germanic fortress where Capricorn and his cronies reside, which looks like it was plucked straight from the warped minds of a Gilliam or a del Toro.

For the young people in its demographic wheelhouse, Inkheart packs a welcome amount of entertainment value, creating a genuinely original world of enchantment.

Inkheart is cheerful and amiable, and in the absence of a Harry Potter film this winter, it fills a gap neatly.

Not realizing that Inkheart is based on a famous fantasy novel, I had the foolish hope the movie might be about books. No luck. Wait till you hear what it's about.

The movie begins to seem a little overloaded and gimmicky once characters from children's classics begin turning up (including Toto from The Wizard of Oz), but it's handsomely mounted.

With no unifying sensibility, the magic thuds more often than it soars.

A kids' adventure movie can be a lot of things -- wild and woolly, loosey-goosey, full of foolishness -- but they should never be shabby. And that's the best word for Inkheart.

I've never read the book in which this movie was based on, but as far as fantasy adaptations go, I've read the book and I think this movie followed it quite well. Fact: In the Harry Potter films, they've spent ten years filming all eight of them. Unlike Harry Potter, this movie started filming in 2006, but was later released in Germany and the UK in 2008 and the USA release in 2009. Wow. New Line Cinema spent three years making this film? Boy, that was lucky. Anyway, on to my opinion. The only problems that I had with this movie was the lack of dialogue, the overused clichÃs, and the flaws. I do, however, liked the adventure and action in this movie. They seem to be pretty important it keeps you interested in what's going on like most fantasy adaptations. The casting was superb. Brandon Fraser was talented as Mo, Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent were very entertaining, Paul Bettany did extremely well at his performance, Eliza Bennett's acting was very solid as Meggie, and Andy Serkis was a lot of fun as Capricorn. The storyline was well-paced, the direction did very well to remain true to the novel, the visuals were very creative, and the film score was very emotive. Inkheart suffers from its flaws and dialogue, but has a superb cast, neat visuals, and great fantasy action. 7/10

This is a fairly enjoyable kids/family friendly fantasy film, with some good visual effects (CGI). I quite liked the scenes with Helen Mirrens character, Elinor, as she is rather pompously over the top (that's not to say her acting is off, its more likely the script she was given, to be clear) and I did find that a little amusing, I admit. I also recognised John Thomson (of the TV series 'The Fast Show' fame) and of course Brendan Fraser, from the The Mummy films (not the more recent Tom Cruise version). I believe Stephen Graham is also in it (him of 'Line of Duty' and Shane Meadows 'The Virtues' TV series fame), plus Andy Serkis plays the villian. Anyway, back to the film. Its mildly engrossing I'd say but I wouldn't say it particularly stands out as an entirely memorable film as such. Near the start, there was a scene involving a young girl by a fire that immediately made me think of the film 'The Book Thief'. I felt it had a slight bit of a pantomime feel to it - maybe it is a little over the top but I can imagine youngish kids may enjoy it never the less and its undoubtedly a film meant to appeal to younger audiences, so thats not a big issue I suppose. I enjoyed the plot concept - it reminded me of an episode of a TV series in the 90s called 'Eerie, Indiana' that featured a girl who makes drawings which come to life. It also made me think of the Adam Sandler film 'Bedtime Stories'. It did feel a little cliched and it has a naivety to it but its a fairly easy watch never the less and I think a younger audience would find it ok, hence my rating. I wouldn't expressly recommend this film as such but I wouldn't say its something to be entirely avoided either - if it comes on TV then it may be worth a watch but I wouldn't say its worth paying a large amount of money for, if that makes sense. I hope this helps as a review.

Average entertainment. Easily forgettable, very light, and not that well-done. No one will ever watch this movie more than once. It'll soon get lost in the back everyone's minds.

Fraser is always great but this kids fantasy flick struggles to be original and engaging.

Inkheart is boring. The story feels like a mixture of many other fantasy tales revolving around a magical book. Inkheart is extremely forgettable with bad acting, and little to no originality.