I intend to see this soon. The books aren't great and make you groan sometimes, but are quite fun.

However, based on the poster, it looks to me like someone somewhere has made some very bad decisions. Seems like they've changed details (and the general feel) of the source material to cash in on the whole Twilight craze... basically alienating the original fans in the hope of attracting lovers of a completely different vamp franchise.

Awful.

4/10 (D+)

This kind of sucked . I was bored.

5/10 (C-)

I enjoyed this. From the the atmospheric, sumptuous production design to the colorful, quirky VFX, the film is a visual delight. I also thought the cast was solid, particularly John C. Reilly and Josh Hutcherson. The lead actor was slightly wooden, but charismatic enough. I would have enjoyed seeing more of the supporting cast, which includes Willem Dafoe and Jane Krakowski. I presume they were promised expanded roles in the sequel, which brings me to the film's main problem. It was made as if a sequel was inevitable. Not much is resolved at the end and the third act is overflowing with "The war has begun!"-type dialogue. Which would be fine had this not been an enormous flop. Now we are left with a fun, well-crafted adventure which feels (and will remain) unfinished.

B/B+

B


I liked this. It's not a milestone of the genre and certainly nothing anyone will remember a couple of years later, but I thought it was a promising beginning to a fantasy saga that will now never find its continuation on the big screen. I like the world Paul Weitz has created on screen and I enjoyed the visual style. It was certainly a better literary adaptation than his brother's misguided The Golden Compass film.

Chris Massoglia does a decent enough job in the leading role, but it's the supporting cast of John C. Reilly, Ken Watanabe, Willem Dafoe and Michael Cerveris that actually leaves some sort of an impression. The latter, in particular, comes across as a pretty cool villain. Too bad we won't be seeing more of that. Josh Hutcherson, on the other hand, is the only member of the cast that stood out in a negative way. I didn't find his "bad boy" portrayal convincing for a second.

The film's real strength lies in its interesting mythology, the nice quirky side characters and the film's visuals. I would have loved to see this world expanded, but alas, that's not going to happen.