Fedorahawk If you have read the book, Inkheart, your in for a disappointment. If you haven't read the book, you will still be in a very depressed state. The filming is sub-par, the story an insult to the original work, and the acting is painful, very painful. The story that the movie presents is hard to follow at times, and throws in backstories from every other side character. Some of the effects are interesting, but most of them are crap. It's a festival of uninteresting scenes, filled with bland dialogue and unimaginative chemistry between the characters. All in all this film is a depressing example of a terrible adaptation from novel to film, its bad all around.

p-stepien Within our world special men exist with the ability to transgress from our reality into that of what they read, able to pull out elements of the told story. These special beings are called Silvertongues. Not all are fully aware of their power, often only evidencing this trait when it is already too late. Such is the curse of Mortimer, also known as Mo (Brendan Fraser), who discovered the gift whilst reading a bedtime story to his daughter Meggie (Eliza Bennett). The book "Inkheart" brings into our reality the malicious Basta (Jamie Foreman) and his henchmen, as well as the fire-juggler Dustfinger (Paul Bettany), meanwhile trapping his wife (Sienna Guillory) into the story. Left to singlehandedly bring up Meggie, Mo never gives up on attempting to retrieve his entrapped beloved. Basta, however, remains too fond of this world and destroys any found copies of the obscure fantasy novel, whilst simultaneously planning to overtake this world through utilising the force hidden in Mo's voice.Brendan Fraser found himself a sweet niche, as a hapless hero, aimlessly stumbling to victory and heroism with charm abound. "Inkheart" however fails to offer him much material to truly work with, supplanting a swiftly engaging and fantastic story with a tired schematic leading to a culmination that fizzle, instead of bangs. Despite being tied to the power of words, the dialogue reeks of repetitive banter with little focus on creating a stirring backdrop in enticing characters. Instead they slowly inhabit the screen, more odd presences than fully flung characters (such as a young thief invoked from the "Arabian Nights"). Even the seemingly dramatic events as Mo and Meggie finally reuniting with Resa after 12 years in Inkheart oblivion lack any dramatic pull, hardly registering as key plot points. The elements to make a good tale do linger in the background, however far-fetched and logically fallible the base premise, but there is no magic, instead a tired connect-the-dots to the final battle. The touches of CGI magic do cause a slight stir, but in this day and age the backbone for mindless satisfaction needs to be much sturdier. Definitely no Never-Ending Story...

Doctor_Phil It really isn't fair for me to review this movie without finishing it. I hope to finish it someday and go back and finish this review. But I'm having a hard time wanting to finish it - and it's mostly because of blocking problems.The scenes in the movie might have worked perfectly well in a book. But when transferring action scenes to the screen, they haven't paid attention to the question, How can we block this scene out so that it makes sense? Where should people stand? What should they be doing? So we have action sequences where most of the actors are standing around looking lost. The people being captured have plenty of chances to run away, and instead they run and hug each other, or stand in place, or deliver monologues. The ruffians stand around watching the good guys almost escape. They brandish guns and knives vaguely, without conviction; and the good guys don't seem intimidated by them. It doesn't make sense.Not to mention, why is it the reader is on the run from a violent gang of criminals for years, and he doesn't have any kind of plan for when they show up? Doesn't carry a gun, hasn't warned anybody, doesn't try to escape. It's hard to stomach.

sarahkim06 I really really enjoyed this movie. I'm very picky when choosing what movie to watch. Frankly, I only knew a little about this movie at first but was compelled to watch it for an odd reason. Also, I didn't hear the best reviews about this movie from surrounding people. The acting was well-played by all the cast members. It's definitely a fantasy but not a childish one at all. It keeps you guessing in the beginning. I tried to put the pieces of the puzzle together before it's all revealed and I found it amusing whether I was wrong or right. Brendan Fraser was a good in acting as he usually is, but I found the fictional book characters such as Paul Bettany and even Rafi Gavron displayed great acting skills that made the book characters so believable. I did not read the book, so I have nothing to compared this movie to. Still, if you want something exciting, then watch this movie.