movies: the seeker: the dark is rising

You know those books you own for years and years and years and years and never actually get around to reading (and you then get rid of said book when you're doing a big clean up of your bookshelves because you've never bothered to read it)... well, the book version of tonight's movie was one of those...

As such, I didn't actually know anything much about The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising (or just The Seeker... previously titled The Dark Is Rising... this movie has had more variations on it's title than... well... something with lots and lots of titles) which is probably a good thing overall in this case.

Before I get too deeply involved in my thoughts on this movie, I will just say one thing... "TWINS BASIL, TWINS!" In this particular case the twins in question are Edmund and Gary Entin (and as far as I know, they're both at least 18, which is always helpful, because they're a whole lot of pretty... double the pretty in fact).

Ahem... now, moving on to something of substance... in theory anyway...

I have to completely and totally take my hat off to the movie's young star, Alexander Ludwig... for somebody so young, he's a hell of an actor... he managed a whole range of emotions very convincingly as Will Stanton, and very much sucked me into the story. The director definitely made the right choice with him, because he pretty much has to carry the entire movie, and it would have been very easy to just get his part wrong... and then the whole movie would have fallen in a big heap.

Which isn't to say that the movie is Shakespeare... because it really isn't. I don't know how closely the movie stays to the plotline of the book (but according to something I read it "introduces significant plot and character changes from the book"... which isn't really a big surprise, since pretty much every movie does), but the plot is a little bit thin on the ground in spots... and it kind of whisks along as well, so you don't always notice the lack of plot. And as with a large number of those similar movies that are aimed at the PG crowd, you do tend to guess a vast amount of the "twists" before they happen (although, I will admit I was so busy overthinking the identity of the final "sign" that I didn't guess properly until it was revealed... not that I was surprised, but I think I'd given the movie too much credit regarding plot).

Given that the book this is based on is actually the second in a five book series, I'm not really surprised that the movie ends up feeling a little bit like the beginning of something, rather than a total and complete story all on it's own... I mean the whole thing does wrap up nicely (a little too nicely you might say) but you almost feel like going "And then?" at the end.

Not to mention all the missed opportunities (Ludwig's character should really have collected new powers as he collected the signs... not to mention making appropriate use of the powers he actually did have)... but again, that could be more about the original material than it is about the movie.

It was entertaining for as long as it lasted though. But like I said before that may have been in large part due to the talents of Ludwig (as well as Ian McShane and Frances Conroy who manage to inject a little humour into proceedings with their characters). It was also nice to see the previous Doctor Who, Christopher Eccleston, playing the bad guy... particularly because he got to split his performance between The Rider and, funnily enough, The Doctor...

In theory it was quite good, and the good that it was came mostly from the performances... but like I said, it could have been better.

yani's rating: 2 Signs out of 5