Review of The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) by Bryanbezter — 17 Apr 2020

Great things about the movie:

1. Outstanding dual performance by Freddie Highmore as Jared and Simon. His acting is so perfect, that I realized they are the same person from an article after watching the movie.

2. The story is good.

3. The strategies are very clever: tomato bomb and Mulgarath is defeated as bird.

4. Mallory, Grace, Lucinda and Arthur are well performed and cast. Sarah Bolger, Mary-Louise Parker, Joan Plowright, and David Strathairn do good job.

5. Great lessons: family and gratefulness.

The visual effects for the creatures are the greatest weakness of this movie. The villain is not well introduced nor developed.

Debatable holes:

1. The griffin is so visible to general public.

2. It is unclear whether the fantastical creatures only exist in that area around the house or all over the world.

3. The griffin is too easy too summon and too fast to arrive to the house and to rescue the siblings when escaping the sylphs’ realm.

4. Hogsqueal's cage is supposed to be visible by the goblins or at least guarded by some.

5. When Hogsqueal and Jared are hiding near the goblins' place, they are very loud and should have alerted the goblins.

6. The only talking goblins are Redcap and Mulgarath. Either the rest is not able to talk, is too scared to talk, or they are generally silent.

7. It is not clear what other secrets are kept in the book. If it is so secret, how can Arthur Spiderwick discovered it? Why he does not want to destroy the book? How is the fate of the book at the end of the movie? How can the book be magical, because it is supposed to be scientific?

8. Jared knows about the content of the book too much in just little time. He even remembers the creatures appearance and other details, including the summoning of griffin.

9. Mulgarath is said to be so powerful, but he cannot even defeat 4 regular humans.

10. There are so many goblins when they are gathering around the house, but during the invasion, not so many can be seen.

11. How can Mulgarath know the existence of Jared's father? Not to mention his appearance.

12. The way the siblings ride the griffin should have caused them to fall. It is diving down so fast.

13. If Lucy is not supposed to get out of the circle after his father left, then how could she live by herself?

14. How is the tomato sauce and other ingredients could still be eaten after so many years.

15. The flower fairies show themselves outside a closed room where people can see them.

16. The way Mallory and Arthur fight the goblin with their sword/stick are not so realistic.

17. The troll is supposed to be able to catch Mallory and/or Jared.

Messages from the movie:

The movie delivers a message about family: Freddie wanted attention from and to be loved by his father, Mallory was trying to support her mother, Grace was trying to do whatever she could to make the situation better, Lucy wanted to be with her missing father, and Arthur finally realized that he as not taking care of his daughter as good as taking care of his own work. Rather than wishing for something that we do not have to the point that we neglect what we currently have, we should be grateful and take care of what we have before it is too late. Family comes first, then work.