Enjoyable but in the end nothing special

Rating: 7/10 (8 June 2011)

A friend won two tickets to an advanced screening of this movie last night - so this review is done from the perspective of having watched it for free. :)
There are a lot of great things about this movie: The special effects are excellent without being gratuitous. In other words, the special effects enhance the story as opposed to BEING the story. The child actors do a great job of having their own personalities and really portraying the fun that kids have at that age. It does a good job of not making the adults out to be idiots (as so many movies do with child actors) but at the same time the adults have their own weaknesses. I felt connected to all the characters internal struggles. There is a good amount of tension throughout the first half of the movie, including several scenes that make you "jump". There are also several scenes that made me laugh so despite the tension, it never felt heavy.
The bad: The ending was disappointingly predictable. There were a couple moments of, "There is no way a middle school kid would do that."
In the end, I was glad to watch the movie but I don't think I'll be seeing it again. If you're looking for a good popcorn movie with a decent story, this is it. If you're hoping to see a movie that will leave you thinking about it for days, I would look elsewhere.