The film starts out in 1928. A guy named Arthur Spiderwick writes about various fairies he has encountered. However, he is worried that a particular ogre will eventually steal his field guide about the fairies. So, he hides the guide and hopes it will stay safe forever.

Then 80 years go by. A mother, Helen Grace, and her 3 kids are moving into a new home.

The oldest is a teenage girl named Mallory. Then there are 2 twin boys named Simon and Jared.

The children do fight for a bit. But at some point, Jared accidentally goes into Arthur Spiderwick’s study and discovers the field guide he had been hiding.

However, a magical creature called a brownie, whose name is Thimbletack, gets angry at Jared for finding that book. Despite that, though, Thimbletack does give Jared a special stone to help him see the fairies.

Sometime later, Simon is kidnapped by a bunch of goblins and to a goblin camp. Their leader is disguised as an old man.

Jared is desperate to save Simon. But there are many obstacles that he encounters along the way. Thus, his mission becomes more and more difficult.

But can he still succeed?

Regardless of what I have read online, I thought this movie was going to remind me of Narnia a lot. By that, I mean a few kids going into a secret magical world they never knew about.

However, that was not the case. Those magical creatures share the same world as human beings. Yet, I do consider that a unique twist since secret magical worlds are a little cliche.

The Grace siblings did fight a lot, thus making them feel authentic and believable. For instance, Mallory would force her brothers to listen to her when their mom left for work.

Nevertheless, the children still looked out for each other. And even though this movie is set in the United States, the actors playing the Grace siblings are all European.

For instance, Sarah Bolger, who portrayed Mallory, is actually Irish. And Freddie Highmore, who is British, depicted, both Jared and Simon. They all did very good jobs with their American accents.

But there were times I could hear their natural English and Irish accents, particularly when they were under a lot of stress. I even found it interesting that they got Freddie Highmore to play the twins. And they seem to use different versions of him from different parts of his life. I don’t know how, but I do think it is cool.

Regardless of the strengths, unfortunately, this movie did come with a good amount of weaknesses. Aside from parts of it being kind of boring, I will admit that the setup took a bit too long.

I understand that those moments were important to the plot. But I still wish there could have been a way to get to the meat and potatoes of the story sooner while still covering all the necessary backstories and setup scenes.

I will also admit that the CGI designs of the ogres and other magical creatures looked a little primitive and unappealing. This movie came out in 2008. But the CGI characters looked more like they were made in the 90s. Plus, I think they looked a little too creepy for a kid-friendly movie.

Overall, I thought The Spiderwick Chronicles was just okay. The perks and drawbacks were pretty much even.

I give this film 3 out of 5 stars.