Review: The Spiderwick Chronicles
Where do I begin with this movie? The reasons why I love it really doesn't have much to do with the movie itself, but what it does bring to the realm of fantasy movies. Many times fantasy movies represent two sides: good and bad. What I like about this movie is that there is anger, pain, fear etc. depicted on the side of good and evil. It is how each side responds to those emotions that makes the difference. The faeries and things in this movie harken back to the days where the fae represented our emotions, our fears, the fight we recognize we are in between good and evil. The fact that it was written in 2004 and yet still captures those things is what makes it a great movie for me.
Another thing I enjoyed about this movie was the actor Freddie Highmore playing his duel roles. He was so good at this, I didn't even realize it was one actor playing two parts until about 30 minutes into the movie {usually I can see it right away}. The second to last thing that I really enjoyed was the sister {played by Sarah Bolger was a tom boy, but her tom boy wasn't "lets go outside and play and get dirty", it was fencing. Not something you see too much of in movies now-a-days, but a very enjoyable change for me.
Last, but not least, is something I noticed from the first time this movie came out {it's actually why I wanted to see it}: the design of the creatures is based solely on the designs from Brian Frouds' Good Faerie Bad Faerie books. This was the first book I ever bought concerning faeries and is more old world in it's view of the Fae than other modern books I have seen before. Although set in the modern day, this movie takes me back to the old stories I've read about faeries and their mischief and the dangers they pose. I would almost compare it to the movie Legend in that sense.
This movie gets 4 of 4 paws, because I enjoyed it so much! I will probably add this to my movie collection.
Another thing I enjoyed about this movie was the actor Freddie Highmore playing his duel roles. He was so good at this, I didn't even realize it was one actor playing two parts until about 30 minutes into the movie {usually I can see it right away}. The second to last thing that I really enjoyed was the sister {played by Sarah Bolger was a tom boy, but her tom boy wasn't "lets go outside and play and get dirty", it was fencing. Not something you see too much of in movies now-a-days, but a very enjoyable change for me.
Last, but not least, is something I noticed from the first time this movie came out {it's actually why I wanted to see it}: the design of the creatures is based solely on the designs from Brian Frouds' Good Faerie Bad Faerie books. This was the first book I ever bought concerning faeries and is more old world in it's view of the Fae than other modern books I have seen before. Although set in the modern day, this movie takes me back to the old stories I've read about faeries and their mischief and the dangers they pose. I would almost compare it to the movie Legend in that sense.
This movie gets 4 of 4 paws, because I enjoyed it so much! I will probably add this to my movie collection.