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The Spiderwick Chronicles
This kids fantasy story comes to life on the screen but doesn't live up to the expectation. The story comes from a series of books about a world of hobgoblins, faeries, trolls, etc. and you can tell it is from a book in the film. And that isn't a good thing. It seems to jump around at times not developing everything that it needs to.
The story moves pretty well through the film, it is set in a very limited amount of time, possibly two to three days at the most, but it seems like it needs more time then that to develop the characters. They force ideas about the characters on a viewer very quickly. The story also jumps around very quickly. It goes from one idea of how to win to the next at break neck speed. I haven't read the book, but I have to believe that they set it up a little bit better then they do in the film with at least slowing everything down with some description. It seems like a condensed version of a story that tries to leave in all the nice parts. But it doesn't work extremely well because without some more substance and development, the story doesn't work extremely well.
The acting in the film is decent. Two Freddie Highmores is interesting. He does a solid job in the film, but the character he is playing seems to act younger then the voice sounds. There is a little disconnect there. The acting of the sister is pretty good as well. All of the characters have the problem of needing to jump into the world of believe at a breakneck pace. The one character that I didn't like all that well was the mother. I don't think that she was given a fair shake in the writing, it seemed to be a pretty stereotypical character. And the portrayal of the character by Mary-Louise Parker just doesn't work all that well. It seems so forced, not only in adding her into the story, but her acting as well. Some of the side characters do a decent job, but no one really stands out.
Visually this film does a pretty good job. A lot of the time a film that realies so heavily on CGI will struggle if the CGI isn't done well. In this case it is done quite well, and it doesn't detract from the story. The ogre Mulgarath is done decently, but it is probably the weakest part of the CGI. The hobgoblin, faeries, goblins, etc. are otherwise done pretty well and worked into the scenes nicely. I guess that the Griffin isn't amazing either, he is better then Mulgarath, but not great. The larger the creature the harder to get done well, I guess.
Overall this isn't a bad film for kids. But if you enjoy the simpler fantasy story and you aren't a kid, it doesn't hold up to what it could have been. It isn't bad for a little mindless entertainment with some fun visuals and interesting CGI characters, but don't expect really anything more then that.
Overall Grade: C+
Story: D+
Acting: B-
Audio/Visual: B
This kids fantasy story comes to life on the screen but doesn't live up to the expectation. The story comes from a series of books about a world of hobgoblins, faeries, trolls, etc. and you can tell it is from a book in the film. And that isn't a good thing. It seems to jump around at times not developing everything that it needs to.
The story moves pretty well through the film, it is set in a very limited amount of time, possibly two to three days at the most, but it seems like it needs more time then that to develop the characters. They force ideas about the characters on a viewer very quickly. The story also jumps around very quickly. It goes from one idea of how to win to the next at break neck speed. I haven't read the book, but I have to believe that they set it up a little bit better then they do in the film with at least slowing everything down with some description. It seems like a condensed version of a story that tries to leave in all the nice parts. But it doesn't work extremely well because without some more substance and development, the story doesn't work extremely well.
The acting in the film is decent. Two Freddie Highmores is interesting. He does a solid job in the film, but the character he is playing seems to act younger then the voice sounds. There is a little disconnect there. The acting of the sister is pretty good as well. All of the characters have the problem of needing to jump into the world of believe at a breakneck pace. The one character that I didn't like all that well was the mother. I don't think that she was given a fair shake in the writing, it seemed to be a pretty stereotypical character. And the portrayal of the character by Mary-Louise Parker just doesn't work all that well. It seems so forced, not only in adding her into the story, but her acting as well. Some of the side characters do a decent job, but no one really stands out.
Visually this film does a pretty good job. A lot of the time a film that realies so heavily on CGI will struggle if the CGI isn't done well. In this case it is done quite well, and it doesn't detract from the story. The ogre Mulgarath is done decently, but it is probably the weakest part of the CGI. The hobgoblin, faeries, goblins, etc. are otherwise done pretty well and worked into the scenes nicely. I guess that the Griffin isn't amazing either, he is better then Mulgarath, but not great. The larger the creature the harder to get done well, I guess.
Overall this isn't a bad film for kids. But if you enjoy the simpler fantasy story and you aren't a kid, it doesn't hold up to what it could have been. It isn't bad for a little mindless entertainment with some fun visuals and interesting CGI characters, but don't expect really anything more then that.
Overall Grade: C+
Story: D+
Acting: B-
Audio/Visual: B