The Seeker – DVD Review

Based on Susan Cooper’s young adult series The Dark is Rising, David Cunningham’s version is a pale, but enjoyable, ghost of the original.

Fans of the novels will have justified complaints against this movie, but if you either haven’t read the books, or can approach it with the mind-frame that this is an adaptation, then you can have a good time.

The changes the filmmakers made were numerous, but they keep the standard story intact. Will Stanton discovers that he is an Old One: a member of an ancient, immortal, and powerful race who is charged with protecting the world from the forces of The Dark. He must bring together certain objects of power in order for The Light to win in an impending battle against The Dark, and in the course of this journey he discovers he has powers over time and the elements.

In many ways this story follows the standard conventions of a superhero story: Will discovers he has great powers (and we all know what comes with great power), but must keep them a secret from his family lest they be drawn into his fight. He may not have the mask or cape, but he certainly has the baggage that comes with being a superhero. Like the books, this wrinkle adds an interesting aspect to the tale. Whereas the characters in The Lord of the Rings live and act in a world where the miraculous is commonplace, and the children in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe are literally thrust into another world where they have to deal with miracles and magic as they happen and set aside their credulity, Will’s situation is unique in that the mundane world and the fantasy world bleed together, and his job is not only to protect both, but to also keep people in the ordinary world from even realizing what is going on. Again, this relates back to the conventions of standard superhero stories where the hero is an extraordinary person who finds himself thrust into a select community of extraordinary people, but their job is to protect regular people from the extraordinary. The closest contemporary story to this would be the Harry Potter series, but it’s only a surface similarity because most of Harry’s adventures take place in a magical shadow world that permeates, yet remains separate from, the ordinary world, and the events that happen in it rarely affect mundanes/muggles/whatever you want to call them.

The Seeker is obviously trying to capitalize on the success of other fantasy adaptations like The Lord of the Rings, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and even Harry Potter, but unfortunately, it’s not as well made. The acting is fine, the dialogue is all right, and the direction was actually pretty interesting, but none of it came together as smoothly as those other movies. The main problem was pacing and allowing the story time to develop. Some of the plot points and moments of character development were too fast and unnatural.

However, what the film did get right was the main character. Alexander Ludwig did a great job of portraying a fourteen-year-old boy trying to deal with an unbelievable situation. He doesn’t stay true to the Will Stanton of the novel, but in the context of the movie, he does very well.

Another strength is the camerawork. There are some very interesting angles and panning shots that go far in highlighting the fact that you’ve stepped into a magical world hidden in the corners of our own. Many times the camera is tilted just enough to be noticeable, giving the scenes a feeling that the world has changed, and that the things we’ve been around all our lives and taken for granted are somehow new, magical, even sinister.

Unfortunately, though, Ludwig’s acting and the camerawork cannot make up for what this movie lacks—the myth and spirit of the British Isles. What made The Seeker (The Dark is Rising) so interesting to me when I was a kid, and what’s kept it in my memory after I’ve forgotten so many other young adult stories, was the heavy influence of Celtic and Welsh mythology. The bits of history and mythology added a weight and air of mystery to the books that I didn’t feel in the movie. Moreover, there was an undeniable British feel to the series that’s woefully missing from this adaptation. A great deal of this is due to that lack of myth and history, but compounding that is the choice to make Will and his family American instead of keeping them English. This seems to be an arbitrary decision and has no real bearing on the story. More than likely the filmmakers did this because they thought that American audiences wouldn’t be able to identify with an English protagonist. This seems to be standard Hollywood practice, and it’s one I find particularly annoying because it insults the audience’s intelligence and reinforces the jingoism the United States suffers far too much of.

The movie was presented in widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The video was clear and generally well done. The audio was presented in Dolby digital. There was good directionality to the sound effects and the dialogue came through clear and understandable.

There were no special features on this DVD.

Although I could enjoy this movie on its own merits, I imagine that fans of the series will probably not like this adaptation. However, if you haven’t read the books, and are looking for a good movie that will appeal to the kids, then you could do a lot worse than The Seeker.

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20th Century Fox presents The Seeker–The Dark is Rising. Directed by David L. Cunningham. Starring Alexander Ludwig, Christopher Eccleston, Ian McShane, Frances Conroy, and James Cosmo. Written by John Hodge. Running time: 94 minutes. Rated PG. Released on DVD: March 18, 2008. Available at Amazon.com.