In a world of franchises which rake in hundreds of millions of dollars, every studio wants one sure fire franchise. Paramount recently bought "Shrek" with its DreamWorks acquisition; Warner Brothers has the very profitable "Harry Potter;" a Warner sister company, New Line, broke records with "The Lord of the Rings." Fox is home to the "Fantastic Four," granted, but with the "Alien" and "Predator" hybrid "Alien vs. Predator" spawning only one sequel since the 2004 installment and last year´s "Eragon" coming up DOA at the box office, the studio tries its hand with another book-turned-hopeful-movie-franchise with "The Seeker: The Dark is Rising," based on a series of novel´s by Susan Cooper.
On his 14th birthday, Will Stanton (Alexander Ludwig) is introduced to a seemingly fantastical myth: the Light Ones and the Dark Ones battled for years until six signs were tossed throughout time. Now, the seventh son of a seventh son is destined to find the signs and squash the Dark´s power once and for all. That seventh son turns out to be Will, thanks to some shenanigans involving a twin brother he never knew about. As Will and his gang of Old Ones--immortal warriors charged with teaching him about his powers--collect the signs, he is stalked by The Rider (Christopher Eccleston), whose power is growing stronger and stronger in a bid to take over the world.
Perhaps it´s unfair for "The Seeker" to be compared to the other boy with magical powers. The "Harry Potter" series has spawned seven books and five movies (so far). If you´ll recall the initial Potter film, "The Sorcerer´s Stone," that production turned out to be light and breezy, allowing an introduction to the world of Hogarts and muggles. This approach, and the somewhat fluffy jeopardy plot, let viewers not be overwhelmed by this new universe. At 152-minutes, enough time was given to setting up Harry´s backstory without causing the audience whiplash.
With a running time of just 94 minute, "The Seeker" jerks the audience around in an effort to introduce characters, mythology and provide a dark plot worthy of "The Prisoner of Azkaban," not "The Sorcerer´s Stone." And that remains its greatest detriment, an entirely too short running time seemingly designed to maximize the number of showings each theater could get in. After the initial set up in a new school, the siblings and parents are introduced with no real method or thought process other than "get it done." One brother, who is in the military, is glimpsed for only seconds on a internet chat. Two other brothers are unruly twins; another, Max, has dropped out of college and returns home, the fifth blends into the background.
But wait, you´ll ask yourself. Will is the seventh son. Only five boys have been mentioned. Absolutely right, which brings a dead twin into the story, Thomas. A brother none of the older kids know about. A son the parents have repressed in the very back of their memories. A human being with no discernible footprint in the house, except in boxes in the attic. A simple line somewhere in the production explaining how the kids don´t know about Thomas would have made the ending--the typically happy ending--just a little more realistic.
Lets go back to the attic for a moment. In a nod to "Potter," Will is abused and picked on by the entire family, save his sister Gwen. He´s relegated to the attic during an English Christmas. The twins hit him with a ball. No one seems to care the boy disappears at night and shows up back home. This isn´t parents being negligent; this is parents being stupid and unrealistic.
Yet with another 10 or 15 minutes tacked on the movie, these discrepancies could have been patched up.
The actual quest for the signs, pieces made out of different elements which give the Dark its power, is fairly by the numbers. Will senses them randomly, the group narrowly gets the sign before the Rider does. Wash, rinse, repeat. For six signs. I´m sure there are subplots and characters cut from the book in the translation to the screen. Surely some of them would have fleshed out the moments between sign quests. Because all the movie turns into is a waiting game: wait for Will to see the sign symbol, have the camera spin around him quickly and BAM! We´re in a new time period with a flood of snakes or some other menace chomping at the bit (no pun intended).
There´s no soul in "The Seeker." Subplots with a double agent and Max dropping out of college are forgotten nearly as quickly as they are introduced. The final battle comes to a conclusion too quickly and resets the entire story back to essentially square one.
The actors are likable enough, I guess, in the instances we´re allowed to get to know them. Taking center stage there is Ludwig, who gets the lion share of screen time. Child actors have a notoriously hard time doing anything other than reciting lines, but he elicits most of the movie´s charm and warmth just by being genuine to his feelings. A talented group of actors are assembled around Ludwig, chief among them Ian McShane ("Deadwood") as a mentor of sorts and Frances Conroy ("Six Feet Under") as McShane´s boss. Both pull off English aristocracy a step or two below Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench, but what they lack in gravitas is made up in a lack of pretension.
I normally don´t mention the director unless something stands out as particularly heinous or outstanding. Here, director David L. Cunningham uses an assortment of camera moves--all of which nauseatingly screaming "look at me"--to tell the story. If it´s not spinning to signify the changing of time periods, upside down camera shots of an incoming Rider or high angle canted views of locations feel like they´re pulled from the 1960´s "Batman" television series and not a movie like "Lord of the Rings." They´re cheap and self-congratulatory.
"The Seeker: The Dark is Rising" was most likely designed to be the first in a series of films. It, like "Eragon," is dead on arrival. There are parts I´d recommend--some of the individual sign quests are quite interesting--though on the whole it never achieves what it sets out to achieve. In a world where Frodo and Hermione rule, Will needed to be beefed up and given time to breath in his first theatrical adventure. I´m willing to bet there is a longer cut of "The Seeker" on a shelf over at Fox. The finished product certainly suggests this possibility. The theatrical cut, though, rates a 5 out of 10. Good looking effects and locations, solid acting all for naught because the story had to fit into 94 minutes.