 Synopsis:
Freddie plays Jared Grace
along with his twin brother Simon. Jared,
Simon and their older sister Mallory move with
their mother, Helen, to a semi-abandoned house
in the middle of the woods. Helen, fresh
off of a separation from the children's' father
takes work in a nearby town and decides they
should all live in the abandoned house her aunt
grew up in.
 Jared, the problem child,
is quick to explore the house and begin to cause
trouble. Finding a secret book, Jared
ignores the warning explicitly written on the
book and begins to read it. By doing so,
he unleashes the power of the magical world the
book chronicles on himself and his family.
The Spiderwick Chronicles follows Jared and his
siblings as they attempt to keep the book out of
the hands of the evil ogres in this magical
place and prevent the world as we know it from
ceasing to exist.
The Freak's
Rating: C- : The
Spiderwick Chronicles is the latest "magical"
family film to be adopted from a children's
book. Without the anti-religious fanfare
of The Golden Compass, Spiderwick attempts to
capitolize on the genre's popularity by telling
us yet another story of a mystical magical world
only steps away from our own, ala Chronicles of
Narnia, Harry Potter and even Pan's Labrynth.
Also managing to squeeze the very last drop out
of Freddie Highmore's childlike cuteness, it
throws him in as the main character.
The Spiderwick Chronicles,
much like
Mr.
Magorium's Wonder Emporium, has all the
potential of a great family film. You have
an attractive cast, a decent storyline and a
curiosity generated by the magic elements at
work. Once again though, there just isn't
much to work with in storytelling.
Spiderwick
has a number of problems. I never
understand why there has to always be a stupid
parent. The mother of the story is
extremely dumb and you know right from the
beginning that you'll hear her say at some
point, "I should have believed you!". Cute
creatures are required for family fare these
days, but the two good guy creatures aren't as
lovable as they should be. There is also a
moment when an acid-like substance melts a
troll's face on screen! Small children and
parents of small children beware. Though
the violence is rare, some parts are probably
extreme enough to not be seen by little ones.
The violence just didn't match the tone of the
film. Plus, if you are going to spoil your
child and allow them to digest violence, at
least pick something good like The Neverending
Story. There are many holes in Spiderwick,
but I can't rate it entirely poor. I was
comforted that there wasn't an obligatory scene
where the kids fetch a bumbling small town
policeman to help them, only to have him spout
off "crazy kids" as he drives away without
finding anything.
As pathetically written as
the film was, not giving us any real reason to
care about the magical creatures that would be
destroyed if the villain won, you were still
entertained. The special effects were
adequate, the acting par for the course and the
storytelling was enough to satisfy a basic
"entertainment only" film goer. For those
seeking a great family film, pickup Jumanji or
pretty much anything from Pixar and leave this
one alone.
Jen's Rating: C :
This movie was ok. Like most ok movies, it had a great concept but
didn't do enough with it. This boy is supposed to have this special power being
able to see into this unknown world of creatures. Well, they mention at the
beginning that there are good creatures but also evil creatures. Unfortunately
most we see are the evil kind. I was looking forward to seeing all the
different unique kinds of creatures...disappointing.
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