To say that this film gets off to a confusing start is an understatement. A strong grasp on location, for example, seems particularly elusive. Sadly for the filmmakers, stock footage of a London underground train, BT phoneboxes and Oxo cubes on the kitchen shelf are not sufficient to make for a believable English setting, no matter how many street signs to Slough you secrete in the background.
Once it gets a little more settled, the motivation becomes more quickly apparent. Another movie adaptation of a fantasy book series (presumably with the express intentions of having the next Harry Potter / Twilight on their hands), 'The Seeker' is a conventional 'coming-of-age-by-inheriting-massive-responsibility' story, with the burden in question being preventing the apocalypse only a few days after his 14th birthday. Standard.
Unfortunately, despite being developed from a five-strong series of books, the film fails to get much of a grasp on the story it's trying to tell. The whole concept seems to stumble under even the gentlest of scrutiny, but worse still, the clumsily written screenplay seemingly separates the film into 10 minute micro-stories, presumably because whoever was responsible for the adaptation forgot to remove the chapter headings from when they were matching their script to the book. As a result, it's never really possible to establish or sustain any kind of tension, despite employing all the usual fantasy fear-clichés (snakes, masked horses, generic feelings of impending doom etc...). I'm also sad to report that Christopher Eccleston doesn't really help matters, seeming completely unable to deliver any kind of menace. Fortunately, he does have an entire flock of rooks that do help him on occasion, but it's far from ideal.
On the whole then, it sounds like a lot was riding on 'The Seeker'. Unfortunately for Twentieth Century Fox, it really fails to live up to the successful fantasy peer group that it was supposed to be emulating. Looking aside from the hole riddled plot and a slightly odd obsession with snow globes (I really wish that was a joke), 'The Seeker' just seems like it would be a really good story to read, but as a film, falls a long way short of delivering.
Once it gets a little more settled, the motivation becomes more quickly apparent. Another movie adaptation of a fantasy book series (presumably with the express intentions of having the next Harry Potter / Twilight on their hands), 'The Seeker' is a conventional 'coming-of-age-by-inheriting-massive-responsibility' story, with the burden in question being preventing the apocalypse only a few days after his 14th birthday. Standard.
Unfortunately, despite being developed from a five-strong series of books, the film fails to get much of a grasp on the story it's trying to tell. The whole concept seems to stumble under even the gentlest of scrutiny, but worse still, the clumsily written screenplay seemingly separates the film into 10 minute micro-stories, presumably because whoever was responsible for the adaptation forgot to remove the chapter headings from when they were matching their script to the book. As a result, it's never really possible to establish or sustain any kind of tension, despite employing all the usual fantasy fear-clichés (snakes, masked horses, generic feelings of impending doom etc...). I'm also sad to report that Christopher Eccleston doesn't really help matters, seeming completely unable to deliver any kind of menace. Fortunately, he does have an entire flock of rooks that do help him on occasion, but it's far from ideal.
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| It's worrying how important a snow globe can be |
On the whole then, it sounds like a lot was riding on 'The Seeker'. Unfortunately for Twentieth Century Fox, it really fails to live up to the successful fantasy peer group that it was supposed to be emulating. Looking aside from the hole riddled plot and a slightly odd obsession with snow globes (I really wish that was a joke), 'The Seeker' just seems like it would be a really good story to read, but as a film, falls a long way short of delivering.
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