First Hit: The effects are great, some of the acting felt a little awkward and forced, but overall it was very entertaining, well paced and fun.
The enjoyment of this film was the fantasy behind it. There are funny, beautiful, and menacing well created creatures all combined in this plot to find, preserve, and destroy Arthur Spiderwick’s book.
The basic premise is a mother and her three children are moving to their great-great Uncle Arthur’s house way out in the country. They are moving because the mom is divorcing the children’s dad.
The mom, Helen (played by Mary-Louise Parker), has brought her three kids here to start a new life in an old, strange, and empty family house which is spooking looking and appears to have some oddities.
The kids; Mallory (played by Sarah Bolger) and twins Jared and Simon (both played by Freddie Highmore) are unhappy about the move to the middle of nowhere. Simon is the pacifist quiet boy while Jared is the rambunctious one and the older sister, Mallory, is appropriately bossy over her younger brothers and conveniently fancies swords.
Jared finds a book written by Arthur which explains the unseen secrets surrounding our world.
Mulgarath (played by Nick Nolte), head power monger of this unseen world, wants the book because with its knowledge he can control all worlds, seen and unseen thereby having unlimited power.
Jared discovers that he must either destroy the book or destroy the creatures of the unseen world. Not knowing how to do either he and his sister they seek the assistance of their great-cousin (Arthur’s daughter) Lucinda (played by Joan Plowright). She says they must use the book to find her father as he is the only one who knows how to destroy the unseen creatures or the book.
Fortunately Jared and his siblings are assisted by two of the unseen characters; one eats birds and wants to kill Mulgarath because Mulgarath killed his family, while the other lives in the house and was Arthur’s assistant.
With their assistance, the use of salt, tomato juice/sauce, and swords the family defeats the unseen army who break into the house. And Mulgarath, the shape-shifting ogre turns into a bird as an inopportune moment and gets eaten.
Overall: This film moved along briskly and never got boring by over explaining anything. The visualizations were terrific as were the use of common food items to ward off the creatures. I didn’t think Helen’s part was particularly well acted and some of the exchanges between her and the kids seemed forced, however the speed, plot and computerized characters were great.