There’s a scene in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back when the titular dope dealers learn that comic book characters based upon their likeness have been optioned by a major Hollywood studio as part of a spree of superhero rights being sold in the wake of the success of the first X-Men. I can imagine a similar thing going on for fantasy authors right now. In the wake of the billion dollar successes of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, we now have The Seeker, a film that proves that you can have too much of a good thing.



The Seeker is in reference to young Will Stanton (Alexander Ludwig), an American boy living in an English village with his physicist father, mother and 5 older brothers and one younger sister. Will learns that he is part of an ancient order called the Old Ones, guardians of The Light, locked in a centuries old conflict with The Dark. The Dark is represented by The Rider (Christopher Eccleston) and once his power is at its peak, he can bring about the destruction over the whole of the Earth. Other old ones, namely Merriman Lyon (Ian McShane) and Mrs Greythorne (Frances Conroy), are also around to guide Will to six mystical objects that will defeat the Dark once and for all.



This movie is a conundrum in the way that the makers never intended to create, beyond the mystery of the hidden powers The Seeker must find. The entire enterprise seems as if the makers decided to cross Star Wars with Harry Potter and let the dice roll, but the thing of it is that the original Dark is Rising pre-dates both those things. I haven’t read the Susan Cooper books, but from what I understand, the movie deviates so far from the source material that it’s barely recognizable anymore. Let alone the fact that this is, in actuality, the adaptation of the second book in the five-part series, I guess because the 14-year-old Will was more marketable than the first book’s three younger protagonists.



The movie itself is fairly well-made, in that it looks good on the big screen, kind of like Harry Potter meets Star Wars written by Stephen King and directed by Brian DePalma, complete with crazy oblique angles. The problem is nothing about it feels organic, in that nothing in the plot feels like it flows naturally from the story. Will and Merriman are supposed to have a student/mentor relationship but you never feel it. There’s a subplot about a mysterious older girl that Will likes, but it’s shoved aside rather quickly and easily when it’s time to move on. There’s another storyline implying a special relationship between Will and his younger sister, again that isn’t developed. And don’t even get me started about the mysterious twin.



This movie is probably just well-made enough to be satisfying to the kids out there, but for parents and fantasy fans there’s actually not that much to recommend it. Unlike the movies that The Seeker is hoping to emulate, the story fails to draw you in and captivate you in this world and the people that inhabit it; a prime ingredient for success in any fantasy film endeavour. Don’t expect to see four more of these over the next several years at your local cinema.