Cert PG 109mins Stars 2

This self-regarding big budget family fantasy manages to be overstuffed and underwhelming.

It’s based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Madeleine L’Engle which is huge in the US but little known over here, and it’s burned turned into an unbearably mawkish plod through CGI created alien worlds and lacks precious little sense of humour, wonder or love of adventure.

No blame is attached to teenager Storm Reid who stars as Meg Murry, who goes on a magical quest to find her NASA scientist father who went missing four years previously.

As one of three outlandishly dressed magical beings who help her combat a black cloud of pure evil called ‘The It’, not even the much needed spark of Reese Witherspoon can raise a smile.

Dull dialogue is littered with well worn messages of self-empowerment and quotes from pop songs and Shakespeare, and the confused script calibrates love with science which is never a bright idea.