Harry Potter need not worry about Will Stanton. Will, the hero of “The Seeker: The Dark is Rising,” is a chosen one, with special powers, like Master Potter. But his movie franchise wobbles.
“The Seeker” is an adaptation of one of the books from Susan Cooper’s best-selling series about a British lad chosen to fight a thousand-year war against—you know—the dark side.
The movie version has conveniently, but stupidly, changed Will from British to American; now his family is staying in England for a year. On Will’s 14th birthday, he is approached by some very dodgy-looking characters and informed that destiny has a date with him.
These people actually turn out to be the good guys, but you can be forgiven for finding them just a bit pervy in the early going. The actual bad guy is a dude called The Rider (Christopher Eccleston), who will bring evil to the world if Will doesn’t locate six signs, scattered throughout time.
You’d think the movie would have more fun with the idea of traveling from one time period to another, but Will fairly easily bops to the past and back. Most of the film stays in the present, where the Rider and his minions bother Will with snakes and dragons—well, talk of dragons, although apparently the budget didn’t allow for an actual one.
Alexander Ludwig plays Will, without much oomph, and Ian McShane (“Deadwood”) is his main mentor in the ways of magic. McShane constantly looks as though he’s going to crack up at his portent-laden dialogue (“You ARE the Seeker”), as though he forgot to read the script when he took the job.
For all of its silliness, “The Seeker” actually begins well, as director David L. Cunningham and writer John Hodge (“Trainspotting”) create an early sense of danger. The movie fits so snugly into the template of young adult literature that the plot practically writes itself. From the midway point, the movie turns pedestrian.
There are a couple of early scenes—especially Will being interrogated by police who begin mutating into ravens—that would have freaked me out completely at age 10. Despite that, the film gets a PG rating, which probably keeps it timid. The dark is rising, but not too much.
“The Seeker: The Dark is Rising,” HH
Pedestrian fight: An American boy in England is chosen to fight the forces of the dark side, a premise that gets off to a decent start but becomes pedestrian as it goes along. Based on Susan Cooper’s series of young-adult books.
Rated: PG for violence, subject matter.
Now showing: Opens today at Alderwood, Everett, Marysville, Mountlake, Stanwood, Meridian, Oak Tree, Woodinville, Cascade Mall, Oak Harbor
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