not as good as all the hype

Dreadfully Boring

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

I didn't know anything about this movie going in, I simply picked the DVD off a library shelf to watch with my granddaughter, she wanted something themed for Halloween and it seemed to complement a couple Scooby Do adventures positioned close by. Personally, I like fantasy stories myself, and this one turned out to be fairly creative and unique. It had it's share of unusual goblin-like creatures and had I not seen the film I would never have known that a brownie turns into a boggart when it's angry. That business with the seeing-eye ring was a clever device, and whoever came up with this stuff in the first place was pretty imaginative. The only thing that seemed a bit of a letdown after all the buildup was how easily Hogsqueal managed to defeat the Mugarath simply by eating him. I would have expected more of a battle. All in all though, a nicely paced, colorful story about a family that finds closure over the Mom's failed marriage, although I don't think anyone on the writing staff considered the home repair bill they'd be faced with following the closing credits.

This movie starts as many do, with a good-looking white family composed of a group of adolescents who seem to have undiagnosed mood- disorders, and a pretty but highly negligent single-mom. They are moving into a creepy old house, which we as a culture know, is a BAD IDEA. Creepy old houses are always a mistake. One of the two twin boys discovers that there are mystical creatures living in and around the house. First off, these two twins are obviously played by the same actor. Were Mary Kate and Ashley not available for the role? Also you could tell the kid playing them was British, because he had a stupid British face and I immediately hated him. Secondly, why is this rural Connecticut town the epicenter of supernatural creatures?? Like, the king of the goblins, most powerful goblin of all (Mulrath) lives in the woods behind an AMC Theater and a family dentistry practice? This is unrealistic. Also the daughter fences, which is not realistic because what kind of a weird freak child takes fencing lessons (THE British?????) Anyway, the evil creatures are looking for this book that contains creature secrets, and the kids have to destroy it to get the creatures off their backs. They break their senile old British aunt out of a sanatorium and she helps them. I stopped paying attention when they started using tomato sauce to kill the goblins.Basically this movie proves that children are big dumb-dumbs, and like very stupid things. Children should never be president and maybe should be kept in caves hidden away until their brains form enough to realize that this movie is stupid. Also I don't trust the British, their accents are annoying and their jokes are bad and their faces are so mushy from years of imperialism.

I have to admit that when I sat down to watch this movie, I knew pretty much nothing about it, not even that it was based on a series of books. All I knew was that it was a family movie, so this adult was prepared for the worst. To my surprise, I found myself pretty entertained throughout. One reason was that the characters, as flawed as they are (there IS a lot of yelling and arguing by them, as some other posters have pointed out), are much smarter than characters in many other family movies. They do make some mistakes, but their mistakes are believable and even understandable. Another positive attribute is that the story moves very swiftly (though wisely not TOO swift) and that there are no lulls. There's a lot of action and excitement, but there are also some thoughtful moments here and there. And the special effects, while often obvious CGI creations, are all the same fun to watch. This adult was certainly entertained, so I think a lot of kids would be entertained as well. Though I feel I should mention that there are a few dark and scary moments that might freak out some more sensitive youngsters aged eight or under, so be aware.

First, I'm surprised that most negative reviews (<5 rating) are only from viewers that know the books (or at least one), cause the movie is not good for itself. IMHO one of the biggest mistakes are the characters of the kids. I don't know the book but I can't imagine the children were introduced like this in the original in terms of character development. Whiny, hateful, aggressive, etc... and NO, the breakup of their parents doesn't explain it at all. At least not at this intensity.After the first half-hour I was really like "meeeh, don't care what happens with them". Another thing that added to that was the bad acting (but the adults were not better at all). Maybe that's a subjective matter, but I know a lot of movies with child actors and even Freddie Highmore, had seen him playing better in other movies so maybe the reason is to find in the script or directing. Then the seemingly repetitive fighting, where they could had better invest some time in developing the characters, story or the world about the spiderwicks (I read in the commentaries there are five books, so source material shouldn't have been the problem). All in all, the beginning (about the book = 1P) and a few good new ideas here and there (another point) are the only reasons for me to give it 3/10 in the end.