The Secret Kingdom

Saved by the Ending, Dragged by the Dialogue

The Secret Kingdom tries so hard to summon that NeverEnding Story magic, but it swings with the earnest desperation of Casey at the bat... and misses just as hard. Like, ball's in the bleachers and Casey's spinning in the dirt.

From the outset, you can tell it wants to be a fantastical childhood quest with heart and depth. What we actually get is a CGI pangolin, magical rock politics, and dialogue so wooden I half-expected termites in the credits.

MVP? Verity. The little sister is the only one with real personality. She's the soul of the movie, even if the script hands her the occasional clunker. The rest of the cast is serviceable, but trapped in archetypes so thin they could be blown away by a sigh.

Runner-up? The kids going on a quest in their pajamas. Genuinely charming. Big Bedknobs and Broomsticks energy, or Arthur Dent in Narnia. It's the only time the movie brushes against whimsy and doesn't pull back in fear.

Production values are fine. Acting's decent. Worldbuilding feels like someone flipped open a fantasy name generator and called it lore. Plot? Bland. Stakes? Artificial. But...

...the ending. Somehow, miraculously, it lands. It made me feel something, and not just rage at wasted potential. It doesn't justify the full runtime, but it salvages the wreckage and sends you out on a grace note instead of a groan.

Final verdict: a film that tries way too hard, stumbles most of the way, but sticks the landing well enough to earn a polite golf clap.

Wouldn't recommend to everyone, but not a total waste either. I would not watch it again.

I have this as a 6/10, but that is out of major respect to the studio and their ambition with this movie. For an Australian film, this is shockingly ambitious and isn't afraid to do big action scenes. Now, some of the CGI is iffy, but it's perfectly fine, given this isn't a major studio release (I'm looking at you Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumainia).

The kids acting is surprisingly solid; it's always hard to find good child actors, and to find some outside the U. S. is outstanding. That's where many of these family adventure movies fall, and it's great that they found good talent. Also, they will probably be great for kids to see themselves in the characters, so that's a plus.

The main faults of the movie are the generic story and (as I mentioned before) its iffy CGI. The story is serviceable, but it's been done many times before; it's okay to go down the same path, but without enough turns, it ultimately just feels samey and that's a problem both big and small movies can have. The CGI, at some points, shocked me with how good it was, and I want to give my full praise to Hive Studios Australia; but at other points, I felt like I was ready to pick up the XBOX 360 controller.

The reason why I'm saying this is because they are on a good path and just need to keep pushing a little further to create great CGI through and through.

I want to keep this review short, but this movie is an absolute trip that, although it doesn't always land on its feet, makes up for in adventurous spirit. If you're a parent looking for a movie for a family movie night I'd highly recommend this one.

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 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.

I really enjoyed this movie. It's a movie for children so I don't get the low scores.

It felt like an Astrid Lindgren story mixed with the Neverending story.

It's a movie about fear and how to overcome it before it grows to strong so it turns into something worse. Something I have the unpleasant knowledge about. It's about death and that we have to let go sometime, something I am still working on.

It's about two siblings that goes on a journey together to overcome this things but not all as it seems.

If you like adventure movies for kids this is not a bad movie is. A bit slow maybe but I can live with it.