This is a bit more than fantasy, there are quite a few bits that would qualify as mild horror, and some action scenes had me on the edge of my seat, which may be what teens are after, but would be too intense for smaller children.
The story itself has some good elements, but the plot is contrived in many aspects. The hobgoblin is probably the biggest contrivance in this movie, solving "annoying" problems for the film-makers, such as giving "sight" to all the kids so they don't have to find more seer stones, and eventually killing the big baddy in one gulp.
Another contrived part is the splitting up of the twins from each other, which occurs during the majority of the film. The parts where they are together are brilliantly done, but it is fairly obvious that it is technically very demanding, and was kept to a minimal.
The movie is quite full of such convenient twists that do not add to the story but merely seem to be there to avoid major inconsistencies or technical problems.
Otherwise, quite entertaining, although very predictable :)
Wow, we all liked this movie, but I was really glad that I was able to prepare my daughter for the part when the monster makes itself look like the boy's father. When watching the movie, it appears that the boy kills his own father. Super scary moment. It's also pretty scary in general when the monster is chasing them around the house. All in all, it was a movie we liked, but it was almost too intense for my 8 year old.
I cannot believe this movie was okay-ed for kids as young as 8. Are you serious? It definitely should have gotten a pg-13 rating with a strong warning for younger children. This is way too scary for kids younger than 13! Even I thought it was frightening!
While watching this movie we had to stop and occupy our 4, and 6 year old with something else in another room because it became too scary i.e. the house seems haunted by a poltergeist.
Spoiler!
Near the end, our biggest concern was when their father comes home and tells his son that he loves him. Then the son stabs his father because he believes his real father doesn't love him. Turns out that it wasn't his father but was actually the evil shape shifting ogre. The message I got was "if I believe my parents don't love me and they try to tell me other wise then maybe they are actually an imposter and I should kill them with a kitchen knife!" Just our opinion though.
My 7 year old agreed this movie was "too scary" about 20 minutes in when there is something implied as scary, but invisible, attempting to attack one of the child characters. He isn't usually bothered by this kind of thing, so we were surprised but immediately turned it off and switched to something lighter. I later completed the film- excellent and I highly recommend for fantasy fans, but definitely much too intense for 7 or 8 yrs. I would probably hold off until he has read the book(s?) or even age 11 or 12. Next time I will pay more attention to the "why" of the PG rating; in this case "For scary creature action and violence..." I am also not a big fan of "kids of divorce" themes, and the father in this story let's down the lead child character, but I probably need to simply accept it and then discuss with my child.
This movie was going along fine until the bloody bite to the calf of one of the boys followed by stabbing of attacking creatures by a fencing foil. The movie was stopped at that point at the request of my nearly 8 year old son.
Very good special effects were excellent, but extremely effective in making the creatures scary! I liked the fact that the children learned to trust each other, and eventually Mom trusted in her kids' perception.
This movie is not appropriate for young children! Like another reviewer I am shocked that this movie got a PG rating! My friend and I took our sons to a summer showing at our county library and most of the elementary school age and younger children were crying, screaming in fright, or begging their parents to leave. The bloody slicing and exploding violence to adults, children, animals and fantasy characters was over the top PG 13! The twin boy whom is the main character and hero is the one of the worst role models of making good choices and caring about others I have seen in a youth movie based on a popular children's book series. The character doesn't seem to grow and just makes more and more dangerous selfish decisions during the movie that get others killed, tortured or injured.
Took my kids, aged 9 & 12. Great movie, as I am a fantasy fan. My 12 yr old loved it, got into the 'world' and was completely absorbed, not even fazed by the bits of blood and gore, just took it as part of the story. However, the 9 yr old had nightmares that night, and another night three days after seeing. Admittedly a bit of a tender soul, he found the scenes with the goblins too 'shocky' and the chase scene too intense. The fight where the kid stabs the Morgarath when disguised as the kids dad also bothered him. Just to give you some reference, he also didn't like Eragon.