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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Seeker: The Dark Is Rising, The

EMAILPRINT20th Century Fox

Seeker: The Dark Is Rising, The reviews
38
2.3 User Score:

Generally unfavorable reviews

Based on 21 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 38 votes
Read user comments
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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)

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...

67

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.

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67

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.

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63

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.

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63

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.

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50

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.

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50

The Hollywood Reporter Stephen Farber

The film plods along without a lot of excitement or inspiration.

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50

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.

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50

The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis

Feels passé and lacks a charismatic lead. Too bad Daniel Radcliffe is an only child.

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50

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.

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50

TV Guide Ken Fox

Though stylishly produced, this clumsy parable will probably engender more boredom than sequels.

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50

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.

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42

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.

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40

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.

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40

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.

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40

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

Dreary, spectacle-driven adaptation.

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38

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.

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38

Premiere Laura Repstad

This film should have soared, but doesn't quite get off the ground.

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38

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.

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33

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

Final score: Book 1, Movie 0.

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25

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

It's trying to fill some perceived market void created by the end of "Harry Potter."

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0

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.

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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!

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