If by now you’re either going “Ehhhhh not another fantasy adventure again?” or “Jeez, when are they gonna stop with the CGI and start with some real acting”, well, give The Spiderwick Chronicles a chance. While the whole concept of being in an alternate world run by magic isn’t the most original of the genre,The Spiderwick Chronicles was a tad fun to watch, if you aren’t going into the cinema hoping for an Academy-winning number. Freddie Highmore plays a double role in this film adaptation of the series written by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, as twins Jared Grace and Simon Grace (one can’t help but think about The Parent Trap). After moving into an isolated Spiderwick Estate with their mother and sister, all four find themselves sucked into a world of creatures good and bad after Jared discovers a field guide to Faeries and unlocks the secrets within.
It’s not exactly a Narnia or a Lord of the Rings, given the scale of things. Set almost entirely on the estate, don’t expect large-scale battles on vast grasslands, or for that matter, grasslands at all. Rather like a Bridge To Terabithia meets Jumanji meets Home Alone, the characters spend majority of their time plotting and planning within their house and a radius of about twenty metres from their doorstep. What makes the film enjoyable but also a little anti-climatic are the characters’ problem-solving techniques – from honey to tomato bombs, one can either be impressed by their wit to use perfectly ordinary things as weapons, or be dulled by the same, perfectly ordinary things (hey, this movie is categorised under “fantasy”, after all). The absence of elaborate props and even creatures may make the film stale after a short time, but as far as delivery goes, the script does a pretty good job cracking up its audience with sarcastic but not excessively offensive or biting comments. As a matter of opinion, what this film doesn’t lack is comedic relief, well-provided for by none other than Hogsqueal and Thimbletack, the children’s creature allies.
What makes Spiderwick a good family movie are the themes of love, trust, betrayal et cetera spliced in between scenes, though the same scenes unfortunately break up the momentum of the action and story-telling and felt awkwardly placed. Some action sequences also tend to fly by in repetitive blurs so you’re not so much left breathless than clueless of what is actually going on. Call this a blessing in disguise – the movie doesn’t go past the three hour mark of a ’standard’ fantasy (it barely reaches two). For something based on almost an entire series, the film does a decent job at summarising, but lacks considerably in terms of plot and character depth. It’s not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, but Spiderwick is enjoyable, lighthearted and quite worth the ticket price.
(First published at InCinemas)
