78 of 85 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
please let them stop here and call it a failure., April 10 2008
By A. Trotter - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Seeker (DVD)
This is quite possibly the most sheet adaptation of a book I've ever seen. The book was an amazing piece of work, showing the coming of age of a boy whose soul was ancient; there was no angst, no complaining, no teenaged "but I'm just a kid!" stuff. It was Good Versus Evil, and Evil was beautiful and tricky and powerful; and Good was sometimes hard and dangerous, but also as bright as the sun. The movie is a rip-off sucking onto the "teenaged boy with magical powers" theme, hoping to snag some customer cash. Avoid it.
58 of 62 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Dumbing down a classic story, Dec 26 2007
By Prince of Highland - Published on Amazon.com
This move did horrible in theatres across the world. There is a good reason for that. As a movie based off a best-selling book, it was an atrocity. The rushed pace of the story and the lack of a backstory, or background on any of the supporting characters really hurt this movie. But the biggest reason for this movie doing badly in the theatres were all the unnecessary changes made from the original book.The changes made to this movie were not needed. It is a prime example of dumbing down a story to try and make it either more modern, or simply more entertaining. For example: Will's family. In the book, his entire family was close, and nobody picked on Will. It was a prime example of a large family helping each other out during the holidays. Why did the movie make his family into rude, all around jerks? The change wasnt needed, I guess the movie felt that people didnt want to see a caring family, and instead thought that it would be more entertaining to see a bunch of morons tease their little brother. Another gripe I have is with Will's powers. In the book, the main thing about using the powers of the Light or the Dark, was that nothing was flashy, and they took the utmost care to not reveal anything to anyone. But here in the movie, Will has superstrength, can use the Force to push things, and also causes cars to explode when he has a temper tantrum. Ther are so many things wrong with this movie I dont have the patience to talk about them. I mean they couldnt even get the color of the Rider's horse correct. Do not waste your time with this crap, read the book instead, and even if you hate the book, at least ask yourself if any of these changes were needed.
65 of 72 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Dismal adaptation of a GREAT book, Mar 8 2008
By Holly Lewis "Free-Range Librarian" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Seeker (DVD)
We all had such high hope, didn't we? The fans of Susan Cooper's famous series The Dark Is Rising (Boxed Set): The Dark Is Rising, Greenwitch, Over Sea, Under Stone, Silver on the Tree, The Grey King had waited so long and when we heard Walden Media of Narnia fame was making the movie we were thrilled.
Sigh. To get it made, Ms. Cooper signed away her rights to halt the massive, poorly concieved changes to this beloved novel. Not only was it 'updated' to appeal to tweens, substantial alterations added up to a movie no one really liked and were sad to see. Shame on Walden media for altering a classic in the name of marketing.
Read the book and act as if this film never existed. You'll feel better.