| Overall Grade: |
A- |
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| Story: |
A |
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| Acting: |
A |
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| Direction: |
B+ |
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| Visuals: |
A |
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Not for all children (Spoilers)
by Paige C (movies profile)
Jul 7, 2008
273
of
285 people found this review helpful
Spoiler alerts for Spiderwick and also for Cloverfield.
This is a highly visual and sometimes pretty graphic movie. We read some reviews and decided to take our seven year old son to see it. He liked it very much, but I don't think a child much younger would enjoy the scares. It's got parts where even my husband and I jumped and cringed. If your child is skiddish I wouldn't recommend it, but if not, your children would probably love this movie. It doesn't sugar coat the real fear of fantasy-type monsters and the real harm they can do One of the children is pretty seriously bitten, another is scratched up pretty good. There are several scenes where the kids look like they're in pretty serious trouble with little way out, a frightening chase scene underground by a large scary troll, and a really well timed "jump-out-and-get-you" scene.
Also, as part of the plot, the parents' marriage is ending due to an infidelity. The main child character tells his mother he hates her and doesn't want to live with her, which was really troubling to my son. Of course, that particular conflict is resolved, but it may be something you don't want a young child to see/hear (especially if it's going to hit home).
Everyone has the right to take their kids to whatever movie is legal for the kid to watch, of course, but in my opinion, age seven is about as young as I'd go for this one. I'm posting this because I was looking for another parent to say something about the fear factor. I'm not some super-strict mom who doesn't allow her kids to be exposed to violence, I just know my kid and I know the limits of what he enjoys and what just scares him. He was just barely old enough to get through the scares of Spiderwick. But hey, if you've got a really tough 5 year old, they might absolutely love it! There's very little blood and no humans are killed.
We also saw Cloverfield (not with the boy) and had considered taking him to see it before we saw it (I loved Godzilla when I was a kid!). That will be a definitely nope. Not so much because it really is a scary movie with a scary monster, but mainly because there's considerably more graphic language than I thought would be in a PG-13 movie and because people you've gotten to know are killed. But hubby and I LOVED it! It's just a great action-packed monster movie made only to entertain. |
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