2008 / Mark Waters > On a small scale, The Spiderwick Chronicles works just fine, but considering the onslaught of fantasy genre blockbusters, it’s a bit harder to swallow the film’s lack of scope. One of the key reasons the genre works so well is the mythos that backs every fantasy world, but in this case, it gets reduced to a miniature description that we’re forced to swallow as if it meant something. Not a terrible effort, but not something that you’ll want to stand in line for the sequel to.