The Spiderwick Chronicles

While we don’t have romance this Valentine’s Day, we do have the first family film of 2008 — The Spiderwick Chronicles, based on the children’s book series.

Freddie Highmore, the brilliant child actor from Finding Neverland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, plays twin brothers who move into the run-down Spiderwick Estate.  While there, they discover a book which reveals to them a world of fairies, goblins and other fantasy creatures.

It is about time Hollywood taps into this treasure.  The books just beg to be told on the big screen.  And, the imagery style of the film is similar to that of the books, which means the creatures your kids read about are suddenly alive and flitting around on the big screen.

Jumper

We also have a sci-fi, Heroes type film starring Hayden Christensen — Jumper, a time travelling, teleportation thriller.

Christensen plays a character with the power to teleport through time and space.  Once he discovers this ability, he’s off searching for the man he believes killed his mother.  But, he’s up against a secret organization set out to destroy people with his powers.  And, there’s also fellow jumpers who’ve gone bad, as they tend to do.

First off, cool.  From the very first trailer I saw, this just looked really cool.  Okay, Christensen can’t really act.  I honestly have no idea how his career continues.  Even with Christensen, this still could’ve been a summer blockbuster.  It baffles me as to why it’s a winter release.  But, I say, enjoy the jump.