Upon moving into the run-down Spiderwick Estate with their mother, twin brothers Jared and Simon Grace, along with their sister Mallory, find themselves pulled into an alternate world full of faeries and other creatures. From the beloved best-selling series of books.
First, a couple of things that shocked me about this movie. I couldn't believe it was rated PG as I checked leaving the theater. It's pretty dark and has a lot of scary moments and very few light-hearted moments. It should be PG-13 as I personally think it's way too much for very young kids. Secondly, I can't believe that role of the twins was played by 1 kid. They did an excellent job with the effects and I really thought it was twin brothers playing the role.
Anyway, about the film itself. I think it's exciting and a pretty good story with solid special effects and plenty of action. It reminded me of a cross between Jumanji and The Chronicles of Narnia with maybe some Harry Potter magic mixed in. There's even an underlying story about a family going through a divorce that's well portrayed I thought and grounds it with some realism.
The magical characters all look fantastic with great CGI special effects, but not so much as to detract from a good story of good vs evil. The story in itself isn't anything too new... the bad guys trying to get a secret book away from the good guys. It's the little extras that make it stand out a bit.
It's a fairy tale with a lot of excitement and adventure that's maybe not for the little kids, but a little bit older kids (that can handle the scary monsters and chases) and adults should find it an entertaining time as I did.
7/10
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