The Spiderwick Chronicles 2008

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: As kids' movies go, this is no Harry Potter, but it's an enjoyable enough adventure -- with just enough scariness. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: The Spiderwick Chronicles may not be in the same fantasy league as the tales of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling. Yet the family flick based on the books of Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black is an all-around class act. Read more

Tasha Robinson, Chicago Tribune: It isn't quite the world of the books. But it's a perfectly magical and exciting one in its own right. Read more

Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: Meticulously rendered CGI creatures spike this dark adventure, shot marvelously by Caleb Deschanel. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Fast-paced and filled with neat special effects, it's a sure kid-pleaser, albeit one that suffers from the very elements that make it go down so easily. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: The Spiderwick Chronicles, while not without its virtues (including a genuinely sweet ending), goes too far on the frightening front, especially for a young audience. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: In its way, The Spiderwick Chronicles is a ripsnorting, computerized update of E. Nesbit's old fantasy novels for children. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: I kept wishing for another scene with Mulgarath in the form of Nolte, because, well, you can never have enough Nolte, and because his particular brand of kinetic insanity would have been just what the movie needed to shake up its clockwork smoothness. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: It has plentiful whimsy, a big enough heart and Joan Plowright in one fine scene, burbling magnificently. It treats its archetypes with all due seriousness: Good must engage evil in a final stand. And fatherless children must try to save the world. Read more

Tom Charity, CNN.com: The storytelling is economical and brisk. In some ways, Waters approaches it more as a pre-teen horror movie. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Director Mark Waters does a fine job meshing the fantastical with the quotidian. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: It's got thrills but is not allegorically deep or daunting like the Harry Potter or Narnia flicks. It skews young. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Spiderwick is set in the present, but goes for an overall design look of dainty, cozy, William Morris-y arts-and-craftiness. Read more

Nancy Churnin, Dallas Morning News: Part of what keeps this from being just another children's fantasy is director Mark Waters' sensitivity to the way the enchanted elements deepen the emotional journey. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: Instead of absorbing us into this magical landscape, this adaptation crams all five books together into a frenetic and frustrating 24-hour-escapade Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: As movie fantasies go, The Spiderwick Chronicles has a modest, almost ramshackle aggressiveness that, against all odds, manages to enchant, if not exactly transport. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: There's nothing wrong with it that passion and personality couldn't fix. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR.org: Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Happily, Highmore has no trouble grasping the task at hand. As both the thoughtful Simon and the brash Jared, he transports himself into this literal faerie tale with such convincing enthusiasm, he turns us into believers, too. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: The characters lack shadings -- Nolte's ogre is loud but uninteresting -- and the tone of the fantasy world isn't witty, like Harry Potter's, or satirical, like Lemony Snicket's. It's all just silly. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: For a story aimed at the moppet market, The Spiderwick Chronicles is one that holds the interest without unbalancing the I.Q. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: A top-drawer cast, sympathetic script, a director known for delicious teen edge and one of the great cinematographers of our time have conjured up a topical, whimsical and occasionally magical action-romp through a world we know, but don't fully see. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: The director does a nice job of juggling and blending the movie's tricky tones and storylines, which could have gone badly wrong at any juncture. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: There's enough here to keep adults engaged, which is an important component of any motion picture that wants to be known as 'family entertainment.' I would place The Spiderwick Chronicles comfortably in that category. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: A well-crafted family thriller that is truly scary and doesn't wimp out. Read more

David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle: The film is graced with a mostly superb cast, superior special effects, a sparkling musical score by James Horner and a fantasy-filled plot with a bit of moralizing, but, fortunately, only a bit. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The story generates surprising emotional power. Read more

Sarah Bryan Miller, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The result is effective, if too intense for younger children. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Passably entertaining if derivative. Read more

Philip Marchand, Toronto Star: The Spiderwick Chronicles exemplifies a problem with many of today's fantasy-adventure movies: the sense that narrative values, such as the artful building of suspense, can be slighted because the computer-generated special effects are so good. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: A pleasing melange under the direction of Mark Waters, who, after Freaky Friday and Mean Girls, is becoming the go-to auteur of traumatized youth. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: The voice of the novels is lost in translation; what's left is something that's merely by the book. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The movie, based on the best-selling series by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, tells parallel tales of fathers who abandon their children, but it glosses over the trauma of those sagas in favor of special-effects-laden escapism. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: A work of both modest enchantment and enchanting modesty, grounded in a classically Spielbergian realm where childlike wonderment crosses paths with the tough realities of young adulthood. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: For the uninitiated? Man, it's a bummer. Read more