Movie Review: Seeker: The Dark is Rising by ME

Title: Seeker: The Dark is Rising
Starring: Alexander Ludwig, Ian McShane, Gregory Smith, Austin Vaccaro, Frances Conroy
Directed By: David L. Cunningham
Produced By: Marc Platt
Genre: Action/Adventure, Science Fiction/Fantasy and Adaptation
Release Date: October 5th, 2007
MPAA Rating: PG for fantasy action and some scary images.
Distributors: Unnamed Fox-Walden Joint Venture

A young man, Will Stanton, discovers he is the last of a group of immortals dedicated to fighting dark forces of evil. Traveling back and forth through time, Will uncovers a series of clues, some dating back to biblical times, that lead him to a showdown with forces of unimaginable power. -Yahoo! Movies

Seeker: The Dark is Rising tries to grab onto Harry Potters fanbase and fails miserably. Adapted without consultation from Susan Cooper, Seeker has way too much crammed into it and at the same time explains the bare minimum to keep the story moving. One example – Will is tasked to collect six signs in order to stop the Dark. Now unless I dozed off, it was never explained what these signs were or what they were to be used for. He just runs around looking for this swirly design and lo and behold, there is the sign. There are many other faults, too many to list here.

An ensemble cast ranging from nobodies to “haven't we seen that guy in something?” do what they can with the material, but aren't quite up to the task of carrying a film like this. Alexander Ludwig, as Will Stanton, carries most of the weight here and holds up well, reminding me a bit of Zachary Ty Bryan from Home Improvement. Heroes fans may recognize Christopher Eccleston, who played Claude, the recluse, who taught Peter Petrelli how to become invisible. He plays The Rider, the main villain in the story and if you ask me, he was scarier as Claude, a good guy, than as The Rider in Seeker. There is even a Professor McGonagall clone in Frances Conroy's Miss Greythorne. Sad to say most of the other cast members blandly blend into the background.

There seems to be a rush of fantasy movies this fall and Seeker: The Dark is Rising will just fall into the cracks as another mediocre attempt at adapting a large epic-type novel into an hour and a half movie. My advice, stay home and watch Harry Potter again.

For more info visit the site at http://www.seekthesigns.com/

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Mitch Emerson
mitchemerson@hotmail.com