Lack of good storyline.

Great Film overall

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Once upon a time, 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. Unable to explain the strange disappearances and accidents that seem to be happening on a daily basis, the family blames it all on Jared. When he, Simon and Mallory investigate what's really going on, they uncover the fantastic truth of the Spiderwick estate and of the creatures that inhabit it.Well directed with an interesting story that keeps you watching. Good acting all round, the CGI effects were well implemented too, with various characters and creatures popping up here and there to provide comedic relief and action pivotal plot development. The film was well paced and doesn't feel its been rushed. The other excellent transformations are when Mulgarath shape shifts at different points in the movie. The fight scene between the sister and the unseen goblins is pretty cool.Overall a good solid fantasy/adventure/action film for all. Would recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy films. Enjoy!

The Spiderwick Chronicles is the film for kids who weren't quite old enough to see Pan's Labyrinth and are far too young to be able to remember Jumanji. To say that it falls in between the two films in terms of overall grade is not saying much, as many films done such a thing, but while this doesn't have the mature, sweeping majesty of del Toro's master work, it actually dares to be a bit more than the somewhat episodic demonstration of spooky special effects and meek character arcs that made up Joe Johnston's 1995 action/horror concept movie. In short, the film is actually rather enjoyable and I was surprised as to how it eventually congealed into this pretty decent adventure piece about magical worlds and differing, fictional creatures with their own set of characteristics and agendas all coming to interact with one another and our own world. There is a fun giddiness to proceedings, and while it doesn't quite crack the emotional marks of great magnitude for which it aims, there is a decent, solid adventure film in there with a genuine sense of terror and danger apparent.The film is about three child siblings who become mixed up in a plot to take over the world, a plot instigated by small, evil little creatures who're led by one rather large evil creature. This character is the film's strong antagonist, a shape-shifting ogre named Mulgarath, played by Nick Nolte – Nolte appears to be channeling David Bowie from 1986's "Labyrinth", although the beast itself looks a little too much like a de-masked Predator to be anything truly original or frightening. The children are Mallory, Simon and Jared Grace -with Sarah Bolger playing the eldest in Mallory and Freddie Highmore doubling up in playing both of her younger brothers. The deadly, threatening means by which these creatures think they're going to do this, however, is through that of......a book, and it is inside of their new home that this book is located. Their new home is actually a rather old one, one of those large; spooky looking houses from centuries ago which comes complete with a lone, circular window on its top storey. Around it lies woodland, and there is nary another soul for miles. Preceding this family of four moving in (not forgetting their mother, Helen!) was an odd scientist whose interests and experiments on animals and insects eighty years ago doubled up as the early findings on all that'll follow.So far, so Jumanji: the fatherless family unit with a young son, who does not speak; of whom are at logger-heads with one another in a social sense, thus need a lesson in teamwork, but of whom are then traversed off onto a scary adventure wherein they find an item in the attic (not a board game this time, a book) that carries with it the ability to induce the sort of horrors and impending doom only a special effects house could. It is some general messing around on a generally slow day that brings about the evils of this Macguffin, namely: invisible goblins who, in spite of their ability, mostly decide to hide in the long grass anyway. They are invisible, of course, so that the grown-ups won't be able to see them, while the film tries to eke out as much tension as possible from the initial exchanges by having the one sibling no one will believe/entrust, in Jared, initially stumble upon it. Poor Jared tries to tell his older sister about the threat of the impending doom and how he's started to see mythical creatures who have appeared from nowhere and started talking to him. Needless to say, it won't wash and it reminds us of the positive writings on a Japanese animation from the 1980s entitled "My Neighbour Totoro", when that particular film was praised for its subversion of such a limp tactic: its own infant characters found magical beasts only to rush and tell their parent, who actually believed them anyway and the film played out from there.When everyone is eventually in on it, the film gets some energy going and actually breaks out into a fairly involving; fairly gripping chase/adventure piece which has them dart all around the local town on top of a couple of other places few have ever before treaded. There is an amusing stop to the local psychiatric hospital, where their great aunt Lucinda (Plowright) is housed out of her stumbling upon similar plots and creatures when she was a kid. Back then, there wasn't anyone around to believe her, thus she ended up where she is but the whole episode reminded me of what befell Sarah Connor in the second Terminator film: a desperate attempt to inform everyone of a shocking reality, but no one around to actually chip in. Thus, it's off to the cells. One can only guess what her equivalent to the line: "Anybody not wearing two million sun-block is going to have a really bad day, get it!?" was when trying to get across to her doctors that the end is nigh.There's enough in The Spiderwick Chronicles to like; this alternate idea that magical worlds full of unreal things are dangerous and could cost you your life as opposed to being these fun, fluffy places wherein you'd quite like to lose yourself (alá the early Harry Potter films, et al.) is refreshing. Its core themes of team work and trust are as apparent here as they are in the Narnia films or anywhere else, while its imagery towards the end of the strong family unit working together as one blooded component to defend one's home is striking in a world of gay adoption and such. In spite of its lack of originality, the film is exciting and fleetingly quite frightening – a film those of a younger disposition will no doubt enjoy more than others, but that's not to say it is impossible to enjoy whatever your age.

THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES is a perfectly entertaining children's fantasy film that provides a neat alternative to those viewers who've overdosed on Harry Potter's antics. This one is a neat, standalone tale of mythical monsters and invisible beasties, and the three kids who have to fight them in an old, crumbling house in the remote countryside.The film provides plenty of action and lots of special effects (CGI, of course), which are for the most part very well achieved. There's humour (some of which, like the Seth Rogen character, I could have done without), scary scenes, and a great deal of imagination. It's all very familiar and rather predictable - in fact, I had virtually the same idea for a story like this, once - but there's little to dislike.Okay, so the script could have been a little tighter; there's a little too much yelling and shrillness early on, before the characters of the protagonists are given a chance to come out. The casting of Freddie Highmore in the dual role is very good, though, and something I didn't spot until about halfway through. Sarah Bolger, late of THE TUDORS, is excellent as ever. The director could have been better, but as I said, there's little to dislike in this one.

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.I've made up a theory: People who have read books that are turned into movies will be more harsh to judge the films unlike people who see movies without reading the book. I think this theory is right. I was disappointed by Harry Potter 5 at first, but watching it now for a year later and nearly forgetting about the book, I found it the best in the series.The same might as well go with this film. I was disappointed. If you don't know, this film is based on 5 books. However, the movie ignores the 4th book, which is probably because of budget issues and/or limited running time. Still, I can't help but complain. There could've been more creative production designs to see, more action, and more magical creatures.Apart from that, I felt that the film was well put together, especially the fact that they skipped a lot in the books. The special effects are very good, as well as the action scenes. I also may feel this film pushed the PG rating. It certainly is not as intense as Harry Potter 3 but there might be about 2 to 3 scenes that could make this film a PG-13 rating.