We are currently experiencing the age of film adaptations of fantasy novels such as Lord of the Rings, Eragon and The Chronicles of Narnia. Typically of Hollywood, producers just won’t stop until they can certifiably tell that the phase is no longer profitable. Sadly, this means that at the tail end of this period, some movies are really going to stink.
In this adaptation of Susan Cooper’s popular children’s book which earned a Newberry Honor citation back in 1974, Will Stanton (Alexander Ludwig) is turning 14 soon and starts to see ‘signs.’ To a viewer who has not read the books, this equates to approximately 40 minutes of wandering around shopping malls seeing swirling spirals before any passable explanation is given. The ‘signs’ mean that his supernatural powers as the last of ‘The Old Ones’, the protectors of the powers of light, are developing. In the meantime, Merriman Lyon (Ian McShane), a man already acquainted with Will, appears as a butler (cum driver at times) to a high-class family . But with no real character arc, he simply disappears from one scene as the family retainer, only to return as the grandest of all the ‘Old Ones’ – a mentor to Will – in another. What follows is a race for Will to find the six ‘signs’ – which are never explained past the point of being medallions that increase his power - while the Rider of the Dark (Christopher Eccleston) grows in power simultaneously, leading to a showdown in the movie’s finale.
The Seeker comes across as a crash course in how to butcher a great work: when an author like Cooper resigns as the movie’s consultant midway through its production and attempts to remove every vestige of her presence from the film adaptation, it is probably not a good sign. This film is so convoluted and confused within itself one simply cannot believe it comes from the pages of Cooper’s book.
Small differences added for effect combine to create a plotline that just falls apart: Will Stanton turns from being British in the novel to American in the film (to make his alienation more apparent). Also, in the film he is turning 14 instead of 11, as in the book. Small changes like this simply show that the film’s makers do not understand the book they are adapting. The filmmakers have even ignored the first book in the series, this being the second, most likely because The Dark is Rising is considered by many to be Cooper’s most important. But it means the audience is unable to follow much of what is happening in this film because they are expected to have prior knowledge of the book that never made it to the big screen. The writers obviously thought a brief line every thirty minutes was enough to keep us informed; a line from the movie, “…even the smallest light shines in the darkness” perhaps taken too much to heart.
Chris Rees
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