Review of “The Seeker”
With the Harry Potter franchise heading towards its conclusion, The Seeker looks set to capture that young teenage audience that is slowly growing and being left behind in its wake. It’s another reluctant young boy versus evil dark lord tale and is based on the second of a series of five children’s novels written by British author Susan Cooper. But whereas the Harry Potter films remain faithful to their literary sources (perhaps too faithful for cinema in some cases), screenwriter John Hodge (distinguished for his wonderful adaptation of Trainspotting) has chosen to fiddle liberally with the story and its characters. Most notable is the change in the lead hero from an eleven-year-old English boy to a fourteen-year-old American. (Presumably because Americans are a bit more focused when it comes to saving the world, and will therefore get the job done in four films rather than seven).
Will Stanton (Alexander Ludwig) is our junior hero, youngest son of a large American family living in rural England where Dad (John Hickey) is a lecturer. It’s the Christmas holidays and Will’s fourteenth birthday is also approaching. As the days countdown he starts to notice things wondrous and strange – dogs growl at him, objects twirl and twinkle in the soft English sunlight, and dark birds gather in the trees. Of course he also notices a beautiful and mysterious girl, but he is then arrested for shoplifting and questioned by two security guards. They want him to show them a sign. They fidget and twitch barely able to contain the evil that lies within. With Will’s curiosity transformed to fear he is helped out by a strange collection of village elders led by Merriman Lyon (Ian McShane), and it is their job to educate Will in the ways of old magic and teach him of his quest to conquer The Rider (Christopher Eccleston) who is planning to cover the earth with darkness.
There is some really interesting cinematography at work here – unusual camera angles, clever use of dark and light – which is the key theme of the story – and some great special effects. But after a carefully paced and intriguing opening, the film settles into a tedious episodic rhythm as Will collects one magic object after another. Rather than slowly illuminate what is going on, the breaks between these well-crafted episodes are filled with unimaginative explanations of the back-story. The dialogue too lets the film down, with McShane and Eccleston in particular struggling with some truly clichéd writing. Of course, this may go unnoticed if you’re thirteen and you’ve never seen the world saved before.
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