The Spiderwick Chronicles

Director Mark Waters does a fine job meshing the fantastical with the quotidian.

A fast-moving adventure with more than dynamic glitz to recommend it.

Suffers slightly from that not-so-fresh feeling.

Anyone looking for handsomely presented, kid-friendly thrills need look no further.

A world designed for children, and most of the grownups involved don't quite understand it - on or offscreen.

Maybe it's fantasy fatigue, but for all the pretty effects and breathless chases and goblin war battles, the sense of wonder and magic is lost in the shuffle.

Instead of the kind of inspired imaginative synergy that distinguished the “Lord of the Rings” and later “Harry Potter” pictures, this movie, directed by Mark Waters (“Mean Girls”), feels more like a sloppy, secondhand pander.

despite its dark tone, this movie impresses me as a fan of reading those books.

It has great atmosphere and setting, cinematography, set design, CGI and music and the actor playing Arthur Spiderwick is great. However there is a big focus on the dysfunctional family. Mallory is constantly whining and fighting with her brothers and arguing with their mother making it extremely unconformable for quite a big chunk of the movie. I didn't think the books were that involved with the emotional aspects and was more about the fantasy which is where the movie shines. Even though the movie is based on 5 books each are quite short, in total on the shorter end of young adult books, but still the film is over quite quickly. The ending comes too easily and some of the other aspects a overly heavy for a children's movie. Points gained for the fantasy, points lost for the drama and overly serious undertones and tonal inconsistency. Freddy Highmore plays two people in this film which might surprise you, thinking they were identical twins. Personally I think they should have gone with two separate actors because if you know the trick then the two characters start to blur together.

Better than most films of its ilk with better acting and a more inspired aesthetic.

gotta admit i thoroughly enjoyed this vivid, colorful mess. the cited references to some 80s classics like the Neverending Story, Labyrinth, The Goonies are all right but again the CGI graphics are too expected to reveal the complete fantasy aspect and in someplaces are downright disgusting. 60%

The Spiderwick Chronicles excels. The integrity of the movie isn't very high considering the immense changes from the book. With that being said the movie is a very solid adventure flick with good young actors and a solid screenplay adaption.