In our theater, the audience began clapping as the ending credits rolled. I feel for those who have read the book, yet the pace, creativity, suspense targeted at tweens is more than adequate. Many creative shots packed great meaning into just a few seconds, telling the backstory as quickly as possible. What's wrong with a movie that clearly defines the light and dark in today's world and it's effects on ordinary living? No movie captures the written word, hence they are adapted. This movie deserves to be examined not to see how closely it follows the book, but by the quality of story-telling. I believe this story is worth watching, and it won't leave you bored no matter what others might say.… Expand

The Seeker: The Dark is Rising is amazing, I was astonished at how the visual effects were attempted. The story is wonderful, acting isn't the best. But the movie overall is good.

This is a pathetic attempt at making a merchandise/Harry Potter tie-in. The books have been destroyed by them. So very sad indeed.

Don't be misled by the title: the movie is nothing like the series of books. This seems like the first of what will be a long series of cheap Harry Potter knock offs. The entire plot of Susan Cooper's beloved children's books has changed entirely, including the addition and removal of many characters to make the film an absurd highlight reel of special effects without a soul, message, or any artistic merit. This to me seems like a tech demo. There are several cool special effects moments, and one or two scenes that are genuinely freaky or slightly disturbing. On the flipside, however, this may scare children. This movie isn't for the easily spooked child. The best part of this film was clearly the very beginning,, .before I realized the masochism inherent in watching the film.… Expand

Hey, you three JCs, stop trying to bump up the user score; that's cheating. Anyway, this was fairly engaging at first, but quickly turned out to be a cheese-fest of wannabe epic fantasy movies. That lost it for me there.

A perfect example of industry greed mutilating and cheapening a wonderful novel. Walden/Fox, John Hodge and David Cunningham disrespected the book and the fans, and now the critics and the fans are disparaging the movie.

A horrible and cheap knock off of a wonderful book. Dumbed down and made to suit Hollywood. Uninspiring and a dreadful bore.

Since this has always been one of my favorite children's books and has been since I read it when I was 13, seeing this movie was like watching a near and dear friend be disembowled. I was absolutely stricken by the changes made to this timeless story, and have no plans what so ever to see any further editions to this series or to take my own children to see them.

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.… Expand

"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.… Expand

Haha three JC's in a row. Look at the bottom. The first three reviews. Coincidence they're all perfect high scores? Hahaha... I loved the books...as for the movies, well...don't the reviews say it all.

Just awful. For a movie whose title is the seeker, it spends little to no time actually searching. The signs more or less dump themselves onto the main character at the most unrealistical and logic defying places and times ever. Alot of the scenes are directly incoherent and even a further amount woefully underbuilt. It would seem like the person in charge of cutting the movie didnt really bother to watch the movie trough in the end, which is understandable. I couldn't have been the only one who thought "huh" at the Mark-Will scene. This thing is basically an amateurish shallow fling with a non-amateurish budget, that's all too often wading in cliches that will make you cringe.… Expand

I wish it were possible to give a movie a negative rating. If you have ever read the books this movie is supposedly based on - strike that, if you have ever met anyone who's read the books this movie is supposedly based on, chew your arm off rather than go to see this movie. Will Stanton is American? His father is a physicist? Maggie Barnes is a girl at his school? No Walker? I would have been willing to forgive a great deal if they had only incorporated a fraction of the poetry from the books. No luck. Just a bunch of rooks, reminding us how we'd been rooked into seeing this movie.… Expand

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!

Destroyed the book. They made into modern pseudo-commercial crap.

This steaming pile of trash isn't just bad - it's an insult to the book and to poor Susan Cooper. If the director didn't want to adapt the book properly, he should have left it alone and indulged his obsession for teenage angst elsewhere. Not even worth the price of a DVD rental - get the book instead. Contrary to the beliefs of the director and most of the cast, it is written in English and children have been enjoying it for years.… Expand

Gregory J. is the only one who got it right. Anyone who rates this piece of disgusting schlock over a big fat zero obviously has not read the outstanding literary works of Susan Cooper, or knows nothing of film making. I can't believe that Walden hit a home run with The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, but totally destroyed this adaptation.

Recipe for this movie: take one book, remove everything that made it interesting and magical, add sub-boywizard shenanigans, garnish with slo-mo kung-fu fights and cliched dialogue. Congratulations, you have become a hack. Unlike other posters, I am not surprised that Walden filmed The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe so wonderfully, while butchering The Dark is Rising. Lewis' work did not have pagan mythological figures to excise, while Cooper's work did not have dramatic battles to CGI. The Dark is Rising shows us the magic in everyday things, and beautiful and spiritual world underlying our own, but that, of course is not in the film. Read the books!… Expand

Terrible. Horrible. Criminal. A plodding, insulting adaptation of one of the most interesting and stimulating book series ever. The decision to take a story steeped in English mythology, rich with wonder and simple heroism and turn it into an After School Special is shameful. A dreadful, woeful mistake made by filmmakers who for some reason have ignored the success of deeper adaptations of Lord Of The Rings and Harry Potter that prove people can be brought into a world because of rich characters, challenging themes and hidden allusions. This movie should be struck from the record and removed from history. It should be ignored, forgotten and only used to teach how not to make a movie.… Expand

I found myself fully engaged, it is a full throttle adventure of thrills and non-stop action. An excellent film, like no other, nothing like our cheesy Harry Potter blockbuster, or boring Stardust. This is the year's best. And don't start disagreeing with me because if you think Pan's Labryinth is better because it is. But that movie came out in 2006, not 2007. This luckily passes the wonderful zone. I loved it, I will be definitely seeing it again.… Expand

This is not a Harry Potter wannabe. This is not a fantasy/adventure film. This is not fit for a straight to DVD release. This is not fit for TV viewing. This is simply not a movie.

Wow, this movie was disappointing; I absolutely loved the books, but this almost made me cry. The only redeeming quality this had at all was that it took up a boring Sunday afternoon.

This is a horrible adaptation of the beloved series which should be avoided. They believe that our children are too stupid to handle another nationality as being the lead in anything and that you have to have an "American" playing the lead. This has been so mutilated and messed with, that it is not a creative remaking, it's a slap in the faces of children and adults alike. Buy the books for your kids and let them into a world which inspired JKR. Those of you who have had the pleasure of reading these books know what I'm talking about. When a mere movie trailer makes you cringe, just think what the movie will do. It has such a great potential. But with it's roots and heart ripped out of it, all it does is bleed its inadequacies all over the screen. Shame on you Hollywood for thinking our children are just dumb toy buying sheep. I know my children are as outraged as I at this treatment.… Expand

Ahh, to see people even on metacritic try to bump this piece of crap is soul destroying. This movie is by all means a piece of crap, the ones who decided to adapt it had no respect for either the author or the source material. They lacked true artistic vision and the creativity necessary to turn a Fantasy book into a movie. What they succeeded in doing is lampooning every fantasy movie from The Lord of the Rings to Harry Potter a la Epic Movie without trying to be a comedy. Great Job Walden...Great F***ing job.… Expand

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.

Very disappointing. dont waste your money or your time.

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.

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.… Expand