As a Sunday night entertainment, my boyfriend and I chose to see The Spiderwick Chronicles. Directed by Mark Waters, Spiderwick certainly brought childhood back into our imagination. With magical creatures and plots filled with adventures, this movie is an entertainment for all ages and perfect for the family. The actors are perfect, including two of my favorites: Freddie Highmore (August Rush) and Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds).

There are some scary scenes that might be just a tad too scary for children younger than 5 (maybe not the boys) Creatures ranging from the beautiful flower-like that sings and make you forget about time, and the dark and devil-like Mulgarath who is trying to take over the world. Great special effects and attention to detail were presented with the movie, making us older generations enjoy the movie just as much.

The plot line is fairly simple and predictable: Move in to old house, found an old book, the old book turned out to be a knowledge that’s too dangerous to find, Mulgarath would like to steal the book, adventure begins, and yadda yadda yadda, you can figure out the ending. There are some fun twists and cool introductions to new creatures, making it not so predictable after all.

My only concern is that there aren’t that many creatures in this movie. Spiderwick described the world around us as having many magical-like creatures, but the movie only gave an example of a few. Some flowers, some goblins, a bird-eating pig and a housekeeper. I expected more creatures in the movie, some that would fancy adult humor, but I guess not.

Also I would say that Mark Waters could step this movie just a notch. It was great overall, but I felt as if it needed a little bit more of a “kick.” Maybe it’s the short amount of time (90 minutes) or maybe it’s simply the number of creatures (or lack thereof)

Recommended? Absolutely.