Seventh son of a seventh son

Ever since I heard that The Dark Is Rising was going to be made into a movie, I was of course pins and needles with excitement. Then a few weeks ago one of my friends mentioned that she’d wanted to go see it, but it had only been in the theaters for a couple of weeks back in November. What? I’d missed it? Completely?

Thank heavens for dollar theaters.

Anyway, I went and saw it this afternoon. And spoilers are lurking in the next few paragraphs, so stop reading now if you’re planning to watch the movie. :)

Still around? :)

First off, I don’t think adapted films need to follow their parent book exactly, since book and film are two rather different mediums. But they do need to stick to the original whenever possible, unless (and this is a pretty big unless) the change makes it work better on film than the original did in the book. Or at least just as good.

With that groundwork laid, I’m afraid the film didn’t quite capture the feeling of the book…for the most part. For example, they got the wrong kid for Will Stanton. Will is just not supposed to be a femmy, trendy 14-year-old. Changing the boy’s age so you can throw in puberty jokes isn’t right. Will’s supposed to be more solemn, young yet old, larger than life. He’s an Old One, for crying out loud. They should’ve gotten someone like Freddie Highmore.

Beyond that, the Rider was too goofy. Not evil enough. Susan Cooper’s book is serious about light and dark, and you absolutely can’t trivialize the darkness. It’s essential. It has to matter, because if it doesn’t, the whole thing becomes a farce. “Ooh, let’s fight the li’l darkieness.” There were admittedly some places where the darkness was more convincing (though it also got a little too horroresque occasionally), but for the most part I found it hard to believe that the bad guy was really all that bad. I felt like it needed something with more of a Lord of the Rings feel.

The humor was a nice touch, and would have been a good contrast if they hadn’t made the evil so laughable. (The juxtaposition between dead serious and lighthearted fills both to the brim with emotion.)

In spite of its imperfections, though, The Seeker did in fact manage to capture a lot of the feeling of magic — that feeling you get when the wind changes and goosebumps tiptoe up your neck, when you know something is happening. I’m not doing the feeling justice, but it’s the thing that matters most in fantasy films, I think. It was present enough that I felt like I got my money’s worth.

;)

Honestly, though, I wish I’d been in charge of making the film so I could have done a better job of it. Which is a completely egocentric thing to say, especially since I have no experience with films other than in watching them. :) But even so, they could have made this movie absolutely amazing. As it is, though, it’s just so-so.

Yeah, the husband and I were both pretty disappointed with this movie. It should have been way better.

My sister reported her feelings thus: violent hatred.

But then I come from a family of strict interpretationalists. Did I make up that word?

Liz: In twenty years, if I’ve got control over a movie studio by then, I’ll remake it. :P

Hilary: LOL :) If it’s a madeup word, it’s a good one. Just out of curiosity, how do y’all feel about the LOTR films?

Ahah, you only know who Freddie Highmore is because of me!

That doesn’t invalidate my point. :)

LOTR films - AMAZING! They left the books when they needed to, but mostly followed it. I thought it was really well done. The only things I would have changed were to make Elrond kinder (he was too severe), and give Aragorn his sword at Rivendell! One of the best lines in the book is when he talks about the sword to the guard who then swears on his life that no man will touch it. Aragorn was too feeble. I agreed with keeping Bombadil out (even though I love him) but I would not have added the elves coming to the battle at Helm’s deep, as touching as it was. Ok, that sounds like a lot of criticism, but that is about 20 minutes worth of film out of, what, 11 hours? It is excellent.

By the way, I was just answering Ben’s question two comments up. What was this blog post about again? :)

So I just saw this.

I had never heard of these books growing up, but I picked up the sequence box set in a thrift store a couple years back. Sadly, I still haven’t gotten around to them (and right now they’re in a box on another continent).

That said, I thought the movie was a big, fat, awful stinker. And I don’t even have any pre-conceptions of the characters to be annoyed about. It was just bad. I still want to read the books, because I’m sure they’re much better, but the movie was bad, bad, bad. Its IMDb rating of 4.6/10 is much deserved.

I love Ian McShane. I love Frances Conroy. Utterly wasted talent. The mythology of the story was rushed and weak, bland and boring. The kicker: I hated the little kid. He needs to stick to the direct-to-video sequel tripe (The Sandlot 3, Air Bud 3) that currently populates his thankfully brief IMDb page to date. This kid is more suited for the seventh sequel of a seventh sequel. It seemed painfully obvious that his manager lobbied hard for this role, and it’s his “big break.” I say to the producers, cut your losses. Change the kid. Otherwise you’re not likely to ever finish filming the sequence, and even less likely to see any profit from it.

Now I’m going to go Google around in hopes of find some evidence that Susan Cooper hated it as much as the rest of us. It will make me want to read her books all the more.

Gotta love a little good ol’ fashiond vitriol. :)

David: LOL, considering how much better the LOTR films are than The Dark Is Rising, I have no problem changing the topic. :) You know, I’ve never cared that much for Bombadil. (And let’s not forget that the whole running-naked scene would probably have changed the rating. :P) I got the platinum extended editions a few weeks ago and need to watch them sometime…

Rikker: If you do find some of that evidence, let me know. :) The original books are so much better than the movie. They’re must-reads. Trust me. :)

Did you know that this was the first Epic Fantasy series that I have ever read? I think I was in 4th grade when I read “The Dark is Rising.” I fell in love with it, and now when anyone mentions Susan Cooper, I get all mushy and nostalgic.

I didn’t read it till I was older (teenager), but mmm, the Dark Is Rising books definitely speak to me. I wonder if part of my soul was born in Britain… :P