The House with a Clock in Its Walls is possessed of a sprightly, featherweight tone that can only be described as Spielberg-extra-lite. It features familiar Amblin iconography like warm suburban photography (by Rogier Stoffers), a wide-eyed moppet protagonist, a lot of kid-friendly humor, and the type in-depth exploration of a secret world of magic that is so well-worn that it’s lost all its tread.
The House with a Clock in Its Walls is missing a lot of vital charm and genuine wonderment that its genre so thirstily requires and is so rarely rewarded with. It’s not until the film’s final act – when puppet automatons spring to life, jack-o’-lanterns attack, and zombies begin stalking the halls – that it really begins to breathe and excite. Perhaps this approach should come as no surprise, as the film was directed by Eli Roth, the gore-hungry auteur behind The Green Inferno and the Hostel movies. Even when working on a PG-rated film for young audiences, Roth is more interested in the scary bits.
Source: IGN.com The House with a Clock in Its Walls Review