Imagine that the world of faeries and trolls existed. Why haven’t you seen it? Because it’s invisible. One man figured out the secrets of the fantasy world and cataloged all of his knowledge in one book. Unfortunately, the evil trolls have learned of the book and want to use it for evil. The book has remained safe, thanks to a protective spell, for years until it is discovered. That’s your general plot line for this story. The movie is at it’s heart a family movie and does very little to stray from that ideal.

The Spiderwick Chronicles is an entertaining look into a more organic fantasy world. Not as far fetched as worlds of witches or elves. The film is hurt in some ways by this seemingly small approach to a fantasy world. The aspects of it feel small. Everything seems to focus around 1 house as if every fantasy creature appears in this film. The book itself hints to there being more but in an overall aspect the film felt small. An awkward way of wording it i know, but you felt like this was one small conflict and that it was possibly the only one with nothing left to tell if a sequel did present itself. Overall, it’s an enjoyable film to bring some of your younger relatives to.