Review of The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising (2007) by Aidaliz M — 03 Nov 2008

This wouldn't be half bad, if anyone had taken the time to explain any of what is going on. Will Stanton (Alexander Ludwig) is The Seeker. But what that means is... Um... It's confusing who is who, where they are or what they are doing and the direction is just weird. Light and Dark are having a fight, but who knows what Light and Dark are? We're not told. The dialogue is cliched but also utter gibberish, and the actors don't seem to have asked anyone what their lines mean. Especially Christopher Eccleston as The Rider (he's the bad guy), who just isn't trying to be convincing, or interested.

Will's family is horrible, as his father ignores him, his brothers bully him and his mother completely fails to notice terror in her son, although his sister is nice. His fellow 'old ones' (no, I don't know what that means) are useless, and just wait around for Will to find the 'signs' (he needs those, whatever they are, to help him fight The Rider, or something) and I don't know what they actually do. Will doesn't use his brains to work anything out, and only finds the signs because he happens to be the one who can see the magic symbol that lets him know they are there, so he isn't important himself. And Will has superpowers - strength, which he uses to knock over his brothers, fire, which he uses to blow stuff up when he is angry, and telekinesis, which he uses to impress a girl, and at no point does he use these powers to gets the signs, save lives or battle evil. Oh yes, and his family fail to react when their long lost sixth son comes home from having been kidnapped as a baby.

This is an ill explained, horribly cliched mess. Which is a shame, because it really could have been interesting.