The Secret Kingdom

I watched this with my 7 and 9 year old kids, I have to say WOW!. We absolutely loved it!

The visuals are amazing and the story hits out of the blue. I initially felt it started a little slowly as the kids just wanted to see the creatures but the story establishes itself with some things that really hit home later. Once the characters fall into the underground world it really gets going and there really is so much to look at. The visuals and the story are a lot bigger than what is shown in the trailers I saw. And Its Australian film! This is up there with anything you will see. It's a great adventure with a sweet story that prompted some thoughtful family conversation afterwards. Highly recommended.

I always say that the best children's movies are those which work on two levels: one which keeps the adults interested and chortling along and which flies above the heads of kids, and a second level which delights the kids and keeps them enthralled. The Paddington movies are a great example of this. By that standard, this is definitely not one of the best children's movies. The CGI in this movie and the special effects are top notch. The story is not. It's not even very original. You will recognise a lot of themes and concepts 'borrowed' from other, better movies as you watch this. Of the two main actors - both children - neither can act very well and one of them can't act at all. It's the pity there isn't more in this to appeal to older kids, teen and adults because I suspect that the story and themes may be a bit too complicated to hold the attention of younger kids, even though they're the target audience.

Sadly, it is really hard to recommend this movie. I guess it may be preferable to spending an evening re-arranging your sock drawer - but only just. Maybe.

The comedy team "The Chaser" once said that we should preface all reviews of Australian films with "For an Australian Movie". Sadly, even with that preface, this movie still isn't good. Primarily, I really struggled with the acting which sounded like a crew from a local theatre group doing their first play. Special mention to the first scene in the curio shop, where the owner manages around 5 different accents in one line of dialogue! Surprisingly, the two child characters were actually some of the better actors. To be fair to the actors however, the script did them no favours with some painfully cheesy dialogue and scenes that were a collection of fantasy "the chosen one" tropes.

However it wasnt all awful, the CGI was solid and it had some sparks of fun especially in the second act of the movie early in the underground. It feels like a movie with significant potential that is never quite reached.

If you are at a loose end for an OK family movie and don't have many alternatives, then give the Secret Kingdom a try.. My kids (7 and 11) definitely enjoyed it more than the adults did.

Hello viewers, what are you thinking? Is it worth watching? Let me tell you something first, if you got nothing to watch then It's worth watching but if you have other options you can skip it. Kids & teenager may like it. I was hopeful about 'The Secret Kingdom' from an user review where she applauded it. In the very beginning I saw a family moved to a new domicile because of money problem & they lost their house to the bank. So new home showed another world below in there they story will reveal itself. A teenager boy was the protagonist of this movie, to be honest his acting wasn't good. He missed proper expression, then come the visual effect: visual effect wasn't that good. Only thing that grabbed my attention was the character of Verity (a nine years old girl) she was so energetic & dialogue delivery was praiseworthy. All other things fall apart, as a fantasy adventure teenage movie you can try 'city of Amber' or 'the bridge of terrabithia' Well, I am not impressed with The Secret Kingdom. I will give it 4/10.

The CGI is great given its an Australian film and not hollywood.

That said, the acting is bad. Cant really blame the kids though if the direction and editing falters too, which it does hilariously. Not only does the director fail to get his cast to put in some semblance of credibility, the editing dept too fails to get proper cuts in to keep the storyline fluid which inherently, also lacks depth and coherence.

The movie begins without any backstory or events leading up to the present, things start happening and before you know it, you are off riding on some creature's back(dragon?). In the end the story twists into an unexpected psychological tale wholly unrelated to preceding events. Basically its all an incredulous mix mashup of various stories told many times before only this time the director threw in everything into the stew all at once and forgot to stir the pot.