Box office bonanzas or not, chick flicks are generally poorly reviewed, with the lone exception here and there. The Twilight movies range between 24-49% “rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes, and even The Notebook, which makes many "top romance" lists, scores just 52% "fresh." Maybe it's that movie critics are often men over 40, but movies least likely to get "good” reviews are those made for teen and tween girls.
The common thread in the films I mentioned is that all are romantic fantasies, as is the new release The Mortal instruments: City of Bones. Teen girls tend to like these Twilight-type fantasy movies because they are just that: fantasy. Based on what I hear from my seventh-grade daughter and my own youthful memories, the situations a tween or teen girl pines for are the very things these movies provide:
- * to be clever and invincible
- * to be the one protecting her family
- * to have cute boys like her
- * to fall in love in a beautiful setting
- * to get first-kissed in a very romantic moment
Professional critics probably won’t like The Mortal Instruments, but hey, they don’t speak the same language or live in the same world.
Here are three movies in the theater to see with your family:
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. These kids kill demons, and by the way, demons are pretty freaky. The violence can be a little startling, if not scary.
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. Making the leap from elementary school to junior high is one of the most challenging in childhood education. Similarly, demigod Percy Jackson finds excelling at Camp Half-Blood increasingly more difficult and wonders if his earlier success was just a fluke. Percy learns, and maybe your kid will too, that he can perform in his own right if he works with his classmates instead of competes with them.
Planes. For little kids, achieving the impossible is riding a bike or getting all the way across the monkey bars. Dusty, the little crop duster that could, shows kids that they should believe in themselves even when older siblings and playmates don’t.
Find out what kids think about these movies at www.KidsPickFlicks.com, where all kids are movie critics.
