A fantasy adventure with the questionable uplifting message that revenge tastes sweet.
3 Comments
02/14/08
The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)
79
%
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Reviews Counted:138
Fresh:109
Rotten:29
Average Rating:6.7/10
Consensus: The Spiderwick Chronicles is an entertaining children's adventure, with heart and imagination to spare.
Theatrical Release:Feb 14, 2008 Wide
Box Office: $71,148,699
Synopsis: Based on the bestselling series of children's fantasy novels of the same name by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES follows the adventures of the Grace family, newly... [More]
Starring: Freddie Highmore, Mary-Louise Parker, Nick Nolte, Joan Plowright
Director: Mark Waters
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Reviews for The Spiderwick Chronicles
I kept wishing for another scene with Mulgarath in the form of Nolte, because, well, you can never have enough Nolte, and because his particular brand of kinetic insanity would have been just what the movie needed to shake up its clockwork smoothness.
02/14/08
Top CriticIf you're going to compete in an arena already owned by the "Harry Potter" and "Narnia" franchises, you'd better enter that fray determined to show you can compete favorably with them. And that's where "Spiderwick" runs into trouble.
03/09/08
Condensing five short juvenile novels into a single 90-minute film, the screenwriters have done a decent job of constructing a tale that will entertain tots without insulting parents’ intelligence.
02/21/08
The characters lack shadings -- Nolte's ogre is loud but uninteresting -- and the tone of the fantasy world isn't witty, like Harry Potter's, or satirical, like Lemony Snicket's. It's all just silly.
02/14/08
Top CriticHere's the recipe for a delightful family film.
02/24/08
I found it to be more irritating than scary, more tedious than exciting.
02/19/08
Top CriticSloppy, secondhand pander.
02/14/08
Top CriticSpiderwick Chronicles provides lots of thrills and chills -- so much so that it may be too scary for younger viewers -- but it works best when it implies instead of showing.
05/01/08
It has plentiful whimsy, a big enough heart and Joan Plowright in one fine scene, burbling magnificently. It treats its archetypes with all due seriousness: Good must engage evil in a final stand. And fatherless children must try to save the world.
02/14/08
Instead of absorbing us into this magical landscape, this adaptation crams all five books together into a frenetic and frustrating 24-hour-escapade
02/14/08
that perfect nexus of childlike wonder and the terrors of the id. In other words, the perfect fairy tale that is about much more than the magical creatures
02/13/08
Meticulously rendered CGI creatures spike this dark adventure, shot marvelously by Caleb Deschanel.
02/15/08
For the uninitiated? Man, it's a bummer.
02/14/08
This movie didn't really blow me away, but it was mildly enjoyable and should keep all of the fantasy fans happy
07/22/08
Waters does ground his film in the real world, and more importantly he creates a real sense of the family dynamics before Jared opens the door to the world of goblins and woodland creatures.
02/17/08
It's always a pleasure to watch Highmore, one of the best child actors working today, and this time that pleasure is doubled because he plays a dual role.
02/24/08
a Ghoulies for the post-millennial crowd, complete with lots of short attention span flash
02/14/08
The Spiderwick Chronicles, while not without its virtues (including a genuinely sweet ending), goes too far on the frightening front, especially for a young audience.
02/13/08
Click to read the article
10/18/08
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