A part-time photographer’s uncle once said “With great power comes great responsibility.” In Hollywood studio terms this means “With lots of money comes no originality.”

Thus when a genre is successfully reinvented, like the Lord Of The Rings did with fantasy, studios will throw their wads of cash at the nearest fantasy book series hoping to squeeze more milky gold from the supple mass market teat.

Since the pitter patter of Hobbit feet was first heard, we’ve been treated to endless fantasy literary adaptations from the good – Harry Potter (Films 3-5), the bad – Chronicles of Narnia, and the scratch your eyes out its so damn ugly – Eragon. So it’s fair to say those furry-footed fucks have a lot to answer for!

We didn’t expect to enjoy The Spiderwick Chronicles and if we’re honest we only went to see it after seeing Seth Rogen’s name in the credits, whose gruff voice and bearish physique has had an effect on us that makes us feel uncomfortable inside. The experience though was enjoyable and had an almost nostalgic feel to the proceedings with a story that happily balances character drama with action and adventure more akin to what we grew up with than most of fantasy stories today that try to outdo the previous offering by enlarging the scope and action.  

The film focuses on three siblings; twins Simon and Jared (both played by Freddie Highmore) and their sister Mallory Grace, who move into a creepy old family mansion with their mother. Adding depth to the proceedings is Jared whose denial of his parent’s separation causes him to be a bit emotionally unstable. Highmore gives great performances for such a young actor and manages to give both twins unique personalities that surprises and delights.

Its not long though until the proverbial shit hits the fan as Jared – being the curious ragamuffin he is – opens up a book, written by a long-gone relative Arthur Spiderwick (David Strathaim), bearing a deadly warning on the cover. Upon reading the book revealing a world within our own full of goblins, pixies and weird hobgoblins, it’s not long before every goblin and their mum comes after the book.

It’s refreshing to see a fantasy film that is self-contained as it barely strays metres from the family house. It gives the audience time to get to know the characters and care for them and the outcome of the story. It also creates more tense scenarios that other output of the genre fails to do, by keeping the action rooted in reality instead of trailing off on an epic battle on the hills of Coalgroth with an army of a bajillion bat-goats by their side. Yet the film is let down in our eyes by something that has let many films down before it and will continue to do so.

CGI. It’s hard to hate George Lucas; the man has given us the original Star Wars trilogy and the Indiana Jones saga. Then you think he also gave us the new Star Wars trilogy, CGI and Aids… OK, maybe not the last one, but we still have a grudge to bear. Since the creation of CGI every director under the sun has used it to create fantastical creatures and bring them to life in realistic lifelike ways. Shame they always look like a barrel of horse shit, then. If someone can name a better piece of CGI than Jurassic Park then we will hunt you down and kill you so you can't prove us wrong again. That’s a threat, not a promise.

Thus The Spiderwick Chronicles fails in the CG department. Not to say it's bad CGI, it's pretty good in fact – the creatures interact well with the characters and the lighting effects are blah blah blah etc etc. But the intimacy of the film and the scenarios would have been complemented perfectly by some Jim Henson-style puppetry and would have made a good film great.

Never the less we're sure the kids of today are too busy getting high off the e-numbers in their pick ‘n mix to argue how the CG era has cheapened cinema. Still its an enjoyable kids film that is worth your time if you’ve got some nippers to take to the cinema or if you’ve got a bit of spare time there’s worse things out there you could see (if you go see Meet the Spartans you are going to hell – fact).  Now we’re going to crawl back into our 80s box and watch Gremlins and Labyrinth while moaning about how good it was back in our day while stabbing our Jar Jar Binks voodoo doll.

[story by David A. Scarborough]