Review of Seventh Son (2014) by Tadesse T — 29 Jan 2015

With his first directorial debut since Mongol in 2008 Sergei Bordrov takes his vision on the novel Seventh Son to the big screen. Mongol was captivating in its depiction of Genghis Khan, the story was well written and personal, the large scale battles were epic and the cinematography was breathtaking. However, Seventh Son turns out to be a dud in comparison. Originally slated for release February 2014, Universal Studios pushed the release back one year to make adjustments in post production. No amount of post production magic can substitute for a lazy plot, poor performances, and terrible CGI work. With visualizations only matched by Kevin Sorbo's Hercules, it becomes puzzling what Universal Studios did while pushing the release date back twelve months.

It becomes uncomfortable seeing strong actors like Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore perform so unremarkably. Bridges struggles to connect with the character as shown through his inabilty to mask his californiaish mannerisms and also struggles to connect emotionally to the character as the last knight of his dying order.

Moore has another film, Still Alice, released January 16th, 2015. Moore is amazing in Still Alice, it becomes unfortunate that these films are released during the same few weeks. Moore's performance in Seventh Son is masked by heavy makeup, constant fast movements to show her characters instability and the frequent transformations into a dragon whenever she gets into a pinch. For these reasons, the performance by Moore is utterly lukewarm and unmotivated,.

Ben Barnes and Alicia Vikander struggle to find their chemistry and do not convince the audience that they are star-crossed lovers torn by their respective families.

As an action film it fails to provide the suspense or intensity needed to keep the attention of its audience. As a love story, it fails to provide its characters with enough shared experiences to warrant a believable love story. Lastly, as a adventure film it fails to show the audience anything new, fails in its CGI, and fails as an unremarkable story.