Sunday, February 17, 2008

Spiderwick Chronicles - 7.0 Rating


This is a great example of going to see a movie with certain expectations because you have read the book first. In this case 5 books. My son started reading them so my wife and I read them as well so that we could discuss the books with him. We all finished the books and looked forward to a good movie. Going in I was excited about this movie because the books were full of action, magical creatures, and suspense. But you have to remember that this is an adaptation. Good movies that are adaptations often can not be faithful to the book they draw from.

When you make an adaptation you would have to make decisions about what you will include from the books. In this case the movie makers did a good job of narrowing the scope of the movie down to a few main plots and then hammered them home really well using the universe created by the original authors. They maintained the look and feel as they went outside the original story. Of course I was disappointed sometimes when I didn’t get to see some of my favorite missing chunks. You can not put everything in 90 minutes.

What they did put in was a heart tugging drama about a boy torn from a recent divorce, a strange and creepy house, exotic creatures, and a very evil bad guy that must be stopped. All in an exciting adventure that unfolds using classic story telling. The boy, his twin and their sister discover an unseen world of faries all around them as they are thrust into a conflict 80 years in the making. Along the way they make friends and enemies but most importantly do a little growing up.

Today these special effects are common but it is still amazing how far movies have come since Who framed Roger Rabbit? This is a good fun movie for the whole family. 7.0 stars.

IMDb
Rotten Tomatoes

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