The storytelling is economical and brisk. In some ways, Waters approaches it more as a pre-teen horror movie.
Comment
10/18/08
The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)
70
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:30
Fresh:21
Rotten:9
Average Rating:6.4/10
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
Top CriticI found it to be more irritating than scary, more tedious than exciting.
02/19/08
Top CriticA pleasing melange under the direction of Mark Waters, who, after Freaky Friday and Mean Girls, is becoming the go-to auteur of traumatized youth.
02/16/08
Top CriticMeticulously rendered CGI creatures spike this dark adventure, shot marvelously by Caleb Deschanel.
02/15/08
Top CriticA well-crafted family thriller that is truly scary and doesn't wimp out.
02/14/08
Top CriticFor the uninitiated? Man, it's a bummer.
02/14/08
Top CriticThe movie, based on the best-selling series by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, tells parallel tales of fathers who abandon their children, but it glosses over the trauma of those sagas in favor of special-effects-laden escapism.
02/14/08
Top CriticThe Spiderwick Chronicles exemplifies a problem with many of today's fantasy-adventure movies: the sense that narrative values, such as the artful building of suspense, can be slighted because the computer-generated special effects are so good.
02/14/08
Top CriticThe film is graced with a mostly superb cast, superior special effects, a sparkling musical score by James Horner and a fantasy-filled plot with a bit of moralizing, but, fortunately, only a bit.
02/14/08
Top CriticThe director does a nice job of juggling and blending the movie's tricky tones and storylines, which could have gone badly wrong at any juncture.
02/14/08
Top CriticSloppy, secondhand pander.
02/14/08
Top CriticThe 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 CriticHappily, Highmore has no trouble grasping the task at hand. As both the thoughtful Simon and the brash Jared, he transports himself into this literal faerie tale with such convincing enthusiasm, he turns us into believers, too.
02/14/08
Top CriticThe story generates surprising emotional power.
02/14/08
Top CriticI 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 CriticIt 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
Top CriticPassably entertaining if derivative.
02/14/08
Top CriticIt's got thrills but is not allegorically deep or daunting like the Harry Potter or Narnia flicks. It skews young.
02/14/08
Top CriticPart of what keeps this from being just another children's fantasy is director Mark Waters' sensitivity to the way the enchanted elements deepen the emotional journey.
02/14/08
Top CriticIt isn't quite the world of the books. But it's a perfectly magical and exciting one in its own right.
02/14/08
Top CriticLatest News for The Spiderwick Chronicles
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Paramount has forged an agreement with the producers of "The Spiderwick Chronicles" to assemble an adaptation of Jake Wizner's hit young adult novel, "Spanking Shakespeare." More...
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