Thoughts on The Spiderwick Chronicles movie

I enjoyed this movie. What makes it so great is that like Narnia, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, it uses real life events and emotion to ground itself in reality. The heart of the story revolves around a recently divorced Mother with a teenage girl Mallory and twin boys Jarod & Simon. The story mostly focuses on Jarod who is having a really hard time adjusting to the divorcé. I won't spoil it but there’s a nice resolution to his feelings in the final battle.

But this is a Fantasy movie after all so let’s talk about that aspect. Jarod finds a book in a secret room in the house that they moved into that belongs to an ancestor Arthur Spiderwick. There of course is a warning that says don't read the book and of course he does. Arthur Spiderwick found out about a secret world of Goblins, Fairies and other creatures that can only be seen if the creature wants you to see them or if you use a special stone with a hole in it.

I thought that the creatures were well animated and the characters fun. The camera angles, shot and lighting where well thought out. There were a few things that I was disappointed about. I thought that while everything was understandable it was a little rushed and was looking near the end for a set up for the next book in the series. But when I looked on Wikipedia I found out that they had condensed all five books into one movie. But it was well done I thought. I kind of wish they would have made it a series, but I guess with how badly some other fantasy movies have been I guess that they didn't have faith in it.

I was also disappointed with how the main boss was killed; I thought that it was a little improbable. But all in all I enjoyed the movie and was left wanting more, which in this case was a good thing.