I'm still not sure what happened here.  Brad Silberling's film does a nice job of fleshing out the world of Daniel Handler's dark and strange books, and the film's sense of humor was very close to what worked on the page.  The cast was strong, the work by Jim Carrey was disturbing and operatic, and they faithfully adapted the film in a way that seemed to set up the entire series.  Obviously, based on the book sales, people dig these characters and this world, but my question is this:  was it different seeing real kids in harm's way as opposed to dealing with words on the page?  What caused this one to land with such a resounding thud?  Whatever the answers, we'll probably never see another one of these, and it's a shame.  It would have been a rich and weird world to explore.