Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
66
Bandslam
45
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
29
Collector, The
23
Couples Retreat
80
District 9
61
Extract
39
Fame
xx
Fantastic Mr. Fox
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
60
Funny People
32
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
27
Gamer
41
G-Force
39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
My Sister's Keeper
42
Orphan
28
Pandorum
63
Perfect Getaway, A
86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
Proposal, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek![]()
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D![]()
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
Adela
39
Adventures of Power
78
Afghan Star
61
After the Storm
66
Afterschool
xx
All the Best
58
American Casino
72
Amreeka
48
Antichrist
73
Araya
62
Art & Copy
55
As Seen Through These Eyes
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
13
Beautiful Life, A
70
Beeswax
35
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71
Big Fan
66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76
Bliss
35
Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
Boys Are Back, The
45
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
Casi Divas
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
67
Departures
xx
Dil Bole Hadippa
71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
66
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
Heretics, The
63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Seeker: The Dark Is Rising, The

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 21 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 38 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Adventure | Drama | Fantasy
Written by:
Susan Cooper (novel)
John Hodge
Directed by: David L. Cunningham
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 5, 2007
DVD: March 18, 2008
Running Time: 94 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG for fantasy action and some scary images
Starring Christopher Eccleston, Ian McShane, Jonathan Jackson, Gregory Smith, Amelia Warner, Wendy Crewson, James Cosmo, and Alexander Ludwig
The Dark is Rising tells the story of Will Stanton, who learns on the eve of his 11th birthday that he is actually the last of the "Old Ones," a group of immortal warriors and guardians dedicated to fighting the forces of the Dark. The Dark is amidst its last great Rising to defeat the Light and take free will from the human race forever. Will, having been born with a great gift of power, is called upon a monumental heroic quest. (Walden Media)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: To End All Wars
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Gianni Truzzi
The books' magic was rooted in its ties to Arthurian legend and British folklore, grandiose elements which Cunningham and Hodge have stripped.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
The movie has a lot going for it, including wonderful sets and locations - in Bucharest, Romania! - that create a heightened-reality English hamlet with pub, church, manor and shops (make that shoppes!). And the lead actor, Ludwig, registers the growth spurts of the stripling hero with the sensitivity and precision of an emotional seismograph.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
This is a reasonable choice for bored tweens - as long as they don't demand too much magic from their movies.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Kelley L. Carter
At its best, The Seeker is a pretty vivid fantasy book come-to-life; it does a decent, passable job of adding to the canon of kid-lit flicks.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Starts out with promise but staggers under the weight of trying to take on too much. The tone is murky: The story attempts to blend adolescent angst with fantasy adventure, and the result is rather clunky.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Stephen Farber
The film plods along without a lot of excitement or inspiration.
Read Full Review >Variety Dennis Harvey
Slick, good-looking, cluttered pic won't please fans of novelist Susan Cooper's original "The Dark Is Rising" sequence. But then, they are mostly grown-ups by now, and this very Hollywood-style adaptation of a very English book is aimed squarely at tweens.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis
Feels passé and lacks a charismatic lead. Too bad Daniel Radcliffe is an only child.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Whether you fully embrace the Harry Potter phenomenon or simply live with it, there's no question that J. K. Rowling is an imaginative story-spinner. The trouble is that she has ruined the field for the legions of the second-rate.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Though stylishly produced, this clumsy parable will probably engender more boredom than sequels.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
A mostly entertaining movie with built-in appeal to young audiences. The good news for parents is that it won't put them to sleep.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirschling
A movie that should've been made shortly after its source material -- Susan Cooper's Newbery winner -- debuted in 1973. As is, it feels entirely too generic to work today.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
This movie is a particular disappointment. Although The Seeker is in Walden's tradition of positive storytelling, John Hodge's script is guilty of downright goofy utterances on occasion.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Robert Wilonsky
From its less-than-special effects to its rushed ending, this whole endeavor is a lazy, wasted emasculation of a beloved series deserving of more thoughtful treatment. Guess they have four more books left to get it right. Oh, joy.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
A kid unversed in other name-brand fantasy movies might go for The Seeker, but in 2007 it's redundant, a puttering Potter without wit and whimsy.
Read Full Review >Premiere Laura Repstad
This film should have soared, but doesn't quite get off the ground.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
The producers - Fox Films and the usually reliable Walden Media - have tried to gin up the story for multiplex audiences. They've succeeded in making a movie for no audience at all.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
It's trying to fill some perceived market void created by the end of "Harry Potter."
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
None of this made a lick of sense to me, nor did it appear to be all that obvious to either the cast or screenwriter Hodge, whose work here feels as though he'd given up in frustration halfway through before deciding to see how far he could push the vaguely Harry Potter-esque shenanigans before getting sacked.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 2.3 (out of 10) based on 38 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Aaron N. gave it a0:
I have such resent against humanity this decade. Seeing this movie made me clinch fists at everbody in the theater, including my mother, I almost got grounded losing my temper seeing this child slaughtering piece of **** the kid actor couldnt have conceived without damaging the american flag. All the bad movies I've seen dont compare to this crap. I would make a 20 page rant about this movie, it seems almost trivial to all religious zealots that my mother became telling me that this references to religious facts. If such a movie makes it off the board like this. I hate everything about 2007 movies after this debauchery. I hate nick I hate ALL movies in 2007 after this! I prayed to god for forgiveness after this ill conceived ovie nobody even liked. I seen nancy drew, but this movie included all of those feelings, except with being dipped into a toilet filled with rancid Habenero peppers in a nevada desert outhouse. I just want to say, denying wanting to cuss out my mothr after this was high, I dont feel good about it, but the burning hot sun outside made my blood instantly evaporate since it was already boiling above 110 degrees FARENHEIT! I want to make this more than three pages, but Ian Mcshane can go choke on a gorilla's log. I hate that little runt! WORST ENDING IN A MOVIE EVER! To give less than murder, I would watch the butterfly effect over this! GOODBY LOSERS.
sandy c. gave it a1:
Very disappointing. dont waste your money or your time.
Jessica B. gave it an8:
I think that this was a good movie.I honestly don't care what anyone else thinks because I actually paid attention to the story. This movie is about a kid who dosen't really fit in with his family and he feels further set apart because he has the fact that he contains magical powers froced on him.
Xavier H. gave it a0:
"Recapturing Imagination and Rekindling curiousity"- A direct quote from Walden Media, and a blatant sucker punch to the face for anyone who has been subject to the horrible atrocity that is this movie. Firstly the slogan is assuming that our imagination needs to be recaptured and our curiousity rekindled, but lets just forget that for the moment, seeing as soon as the movie is finished you will need a severe dosage of each, not to mention some severe sedatives for anyone who has read the book. It almost seems to me that the entire cast has a personal vendetta against Susan Cooper, disgracing the books at every turn and not even being remotely subtle about it. I'll keep this review diplomatic by saying a good thing about this movie- The combination of an Eject button on my DVD and the relative fragility of said DVD.
Jay H. gave it a6:
Wow, the universally bad reviews for this. Granted, it wasn't great and it is a Harry Potter rip-off, but it has some good special effects, wasn't too long, good pace and reasonably entertaining. It was predictable, but fun to watch along the way.
Pamela L. gave it a1:
this movie sucked bid time! and i know this even though i never watched it. i only had to read a summary of the movies plot, to realise that it was dumb, unimagiative and cliche. the start sounded a lot like HP, but not nearly as intriguing or charming. Then there was the whole thing with the signs. Isn't the 'get these magical items from these locations in order to defeat this dark force' thing, getting a little old? And isn't everyone sick of the 'light vs dark' theme yet? In my opion fantasies are a lot like fairy tales, because just like fairy tales, fantasies constantly feauture the same characters and themes. not to mention the way that the characters always stay the same instead of growing and changing (HP is an exeption.) i also have a lot of disrespect 4 movies that differ from the books they're based on. so in conclusion, even though i am seeking 4 them the The Dark is Rising show no signs of being a good movie.
Giorgos D. gave it a0:
Sincerely it was the worst film i ever saw. Imagine yourself going to see the next episode of star wars not knowing that due to cuts it was shot with bad acting drunk puppets that forgot all the time the dialogs. If you want to catch a sleep in a nice warm theater here's the chance!
