Review of Seventh Son (2014) by Thequietgamer — 06 Jul 2015

A medieval fantasy film that is about the same quality as a Uwe Boll film. You can tell the actors know that this is nothing more than cheesy schlock as none of them give genuine performances. Jeff Bridges turns up the camp for his performance and Julianne Moore, well, she simply barely gives it any effort. They know the film is low quality and they don't really try as a result. The young actors are just kind of there, and the rest of the cast is completely unremarkable.

The plot is generic and uninteresting. It follows the same path most movies based off of YA novels take. Our young protagonist is taken under the wing of a veteran character who trains him to be the a hero right as an old enemy resurfaces. It's got the same predictable romance between our two young leads and a painfully predictable twist surrounding the relationship of Moore and Bridges' characters. However this film has the disadvantage of feeling less fleshed out and a lot more rushed in the storytelling department. The romance also falls flat on it's face thanks to the fact that Barnes and Vikander have absolutely no chemistry. As a result the romance just seems to sort of happen. There's no sort of genuine affection between the two characters. They get together just for the sake of the film having a romance.

The film doesn't even succeed in the action department. Battles are yawn inducing affairs. They also look clumsily directed. That's really a complaint that can be attributed to the film as a whole. The majority of the scenes just look so goofy thanks to the shoddy work of director Sergei Bodrov. Unlike many, I also found the CGI to be cheap looking. It's a film that tries to get by on big spectacle, but fails to deliver it thanks to untalented writing and design.

It's a failure in just about every sense. A boring film that feels rushed beyond belief. The only highlight being that there are a few jokes scattered here and there delivered by Bridges that can lead to a chuckle or two. However when the best thing about your movie are some cheesy jokes you've thrown in in order to make the film feel lighter you've pretty much failed.

I give "Seventh Son" a 3.2/10.