Product Description

Filled with magical characters thrilling action and spectacular visual effects The Seeker is an epic fantasy adventure the whole family will love! During Christmas break from school a seemingly typical teenager discovers he's anything but ordinary. As the seventh son of a seventh son Will Stanton is The Seeker - a chosen warrior destined to restore the delicate earthly balance between Light and Dark. Guided by ancient protectors of the Light young Will must travel through time to gather the hidden signs that hold the ultimate power to protect the world.System Requirements:Running Time: 95 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating: PG UPC: 024543492177 Manufacturer No: 2249217

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3133 in DVD
• Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
• Released on: 2008-03-18
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.25 pounds
• Running time: 99 minutes

Amazon.com
Developing one's self confidence is difficult for most 14-year-olds, and doubly so for Will Stanton (Alexander Ludwig, The Sandlot 3: Heading Home) who's recently moved to England and has just begun his first year of study as an American overseas. Feeling shy and inadequate in school as well as amongst his five brothers and one sister, Will becomes increasingly confounded when he starts to see strange visions including a sinister horseman (Christopher Eccleston) who demands Will give him some sort of sign which he knows absolutely nothing about. Befriended by four elders of the local community (Ian McShane, Frances Conroy, Jim Piddock, and James Cosmo) who turn out to be "Old Ones" from ages past, Will learns that his destiny is as a seeker who must travel through time to collect six ancient signs that will somehow enable light to triumph over darkness and save the world as he knows it. As Will discovers that he possesses hidden powers and struggles to learn to control them in order to accomplish his quest, he is racked with insecurity and self-doubt. In the end, Will's inner strength will be tested to the extreme as will his relationship with both family and friends.
While based on Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising, this movie is significantly different from the book: Will's age and family circumstances have been changed, the role of the Old Ones in Will's education about his powers is much diminished, the six signs are less religiously symbolic, and the treatment of the final battle between light and dark is markedly different. Nonetheless, The Seeker is a suspense-filled, action-packed 94-minutes brimming with great special effects comparable to The Bridge to Terabithia and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy that's immensely appealing to viewers ages 10 and older. --Tami Horiuchi

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Customer Reviews

Good cinematography
Whether or not you agree with the film's adaptation of the book series, The Seeker is a well-made piece of film art. I was impressed with the cinematography and the use of angles and lenses to heighten the feelings of the protagonist as he discovers his destiny and struggles with it. Lighting was also masterful in this film, as it should be in a film about the struggle between light and dark. The only qualm I had was with Christopher Eccleston: he gave a rather stilted performance as The Rider. If you are a great fan of the books, try to disengage your criticism and simply enjoy the film for its own art form.

In some ways, better than Harry Potter; but overall just average
Individual performances by the actors are pretty good here, though somehow the lead comes across as a little overdone and not believable at the end when the young Will Stanton realizes the origin of the sixth sign and takes a dramatic verbal stand against the Dark.

What is nice about this movie is the way it starts out with normal kids in a normal world and then introduces little elements of fantasy bit by bit into that normal world. The local character parts are nicely acted, though Ian McShane's character does not get much of a chance to really develop and is limited in range, which is really too bad given the power of McShane.

Where I suspect people will find this one loses them is in the final third of the movie, when suddenly some of the characters go through changes that are not well explained and the magical world intrudes on the regular world with a ferocity that demands more of an explanation at the end of the movie than is given. In other words, at the very end many people are likely to say, "Hey, wait a minute, how do we understand or how come no one is talking about X and Y?"

I wish they had done more with the Old People and toned down the ending.

Still, while it is not as slick as Harry Potter, the first third of the movie did a better job than HP of making us believe magic could exist hidden alongside everyday reality. It also does not have the corney stereotypes and kid humor of HP, something a viewer may or may not appreciate.

I wanted to like it more, but in fairness, it is a 3 star movie at best. Somehow the elements did not all come together on this one.

The Seeker
While there were a lot of interesting adaptations, some of the changes did not seem to serve the story. Will's move into the attic became a way to have his brothers pick on him instead of the treat that his brother Stephen provided for him. The brother who died before Stephen's birth became Will's twin who was stolen at birth. Other than that, I enjoyed how they tried to accomodate the book action to film.