Sloppy, lifeless storytelling so limp it guarantees no sequels will be made.

The Seeker is great-looking and well-acted, but unlike the Potter books and films, there's no sense that it's about anything more than the throwing-balls-of-smoke and mind-melding that we see onscreen.

Not-too-impressive CG effects and frenetic camera work but cannot mask what is--or, rather, what isn't there.

The excessive strobe effects may trigger epileptic fits, but the movie itself will induce narcolepsy.

An orgy of portents that runs out of oomph.

By Americanising the hero and grotesquely distorting the plot, they can only alienate the fan-base and confuse the newcomer.

A moderate Potter-teen fantasy about an American kid who comes to little old England with his family (dad's on some kind of academic posting) to find that he is the boy-king leader of a group of supernatural warriors.

An uncanny and unholy blend of The Fifth Element, The Sixth Sense and The Seventh Seal.

The Dark is Rising is one of those awful sorcery tales where a spotty young boy (Alexander Ludwig) suddenly gets to save the Earth from supernatural creeps such as Christopher Eccleston.

Not very likely to seize that Potter market, this is a disappointing film that starts out okay but goes rapidly downhill, thanks to rudimentary characterisation and storytelling that's designed more to accommodate gratuitous action.