I'm not really sure what to say about this movie. On the one hand, it is squarely aimed at small kids, and not very sophisticated small kids at that, so any criticism might seem churlish. On the other hand, it has faults which make it a little painful for adults to watch. Cringe-inducing, mostly, rather than truly horrible. So I'm going to dive in and just say it like it is.
Horrible acting. Terrible dialogue.
The two main leads - both kids - are not very good. The girl is tolerable and has potential, but the little boy is just teeth-grittingly bad. It's an odd state of affairs that the two main characters weren't given better direction and coaching, since they occupy so much of the film's running time.
In addition, the dialogue has some truly awful moments that defy belief. Who wrote some of this stuff? Combined with the bad acting, it just makes for some truly cringe-inducing moments.
This is by far the worst element of the movie, which is otherwise quite well done. The production values, whilst not huge, are generally pretty good and the CGI, though not entirely convincing at all, at least has the benefit of being imaginative. Some very talented people came up with some very nice and original images, monsters and scenes. That the CGI isn't up to the task of convincingly delivering these ideas is not their fault and they should be commended for their efforts.
Again, it's a kid's film, so the budget probably wasn't there for anything more substantial. But, for what they did manage, it is pretty good.
The story is pretty imaginative too and, whilst it won't make you wonder what is going to happen next, neither will it make you go "Huh?" at any point.
As I say, the only thing which really let's the movie down is the acting, and the young leads can at least be forgiven for that. They are young, after all.
So is it worth watching? If you have kids, yes. But only young kids. Older ones will find it as badly acted as I did, I'm sure. If you don't have kids, then no, probably not. It is, however, a perfectly safe film to sit kids in front of at the weekend and drift off yourself.
SUMMARY: Poor acting in an otherwise imaginative film. Passable CGI and story. Really only for little kids, who won't mind the bad acting.
