The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising Reviews
ComingSoon.net
The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising isn't an out and out bad film, there have certainly been worse films and recently, but it's not particularly good either, suffering from ill-conceived and executed story decisions that rob it of tension or interest.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/10
Boxoffice Magazine
[The film features] episodic set pieces with disorienting action, culminating in a face-off that defies logic in its resolution.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Maxim
Think 'Harry Potter' meets 'Bridge To Terabithia'. While perfectly fine entertainment for people age 12 and under, adults will find the whole thing a bit of a snooze.
| Original Score: 2/5
Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies
The Signs may be invisible to everyone but The Seeker, but the plot developments will be obvious to everyone after the first 20 minutes.
Full Review | Original Score: C
Common Sense Media
Disappointing adaptation of a great kids' book.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Christian Science Monitor
Walden Media's success at making the worlds of Narnia and Terabithia feel real on screen does not translate into the same magic in adapting Susan Cooper's series of young-adult fantasy novels.
Full Review
| Original Score: C-
Top CriticThe acting is mediocre, the story rambles, the special effects -- average at best.
St. Paul Pioneer Press
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
EricDSnider.com
A slapdash story told hastily, without whimsy or wit.
Full Review
| Original Score: C-
OhmyNews.com
The ultimate question is, was the movie purposefully made into a blur to play directly into the pockets of the fans, or do we chalk this up to standard-issue directorial incompetence? I vote the latter.
Full Review
| Original Score: D+
Given superpowers, Will does approximately nothing with them (he can command fire, but uses it mainly to throw cool supertantrums). He's as passive as a dead mackerel.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
ColeSmithey.com
Director David L. Cunningham and screenwriter John Hodge ("Trainspotting") conspire with a gruelingly slow pacing to underpin nebulous special effects sequences. "The Seeker" is a children's fantasy movie worth avoiding.
Full Review
| Original Score: C-
Financial Times
An uncanny and unholy blend of The Fifth Element, The Sixth Sense and The Seventh Seal.
E! Online
Powering through this story on an Xbox would be far more fun.
Full Review
| Original Score: D+
The movie ultimately emerges as a lackluster tale of teenage empowerment and doesn't fully conjure the requisite sense of magical escape necessary to truly captivate and immerse us in the tale.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Christianity Today
Too quick, too slight, and too cliched to make a splash in the company of such high-quality adaptations like LOTR and Harry Potter.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
World Voice News
Cunningham's scope is myopic and minimal in a mystical yet meandering piece of malarkey that masquerades as a long-winded Tolkien treasure hunt for teenage thrill-seekers.
Full Review | Original Score: 2/4
Sky Movies
Imagine Time Bandits confined to a boring Berkshire village and drained of colour, and you can see why this pig's ear of Susan Cooper's well-received children's story went belly-up at the US box office.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
DVDTalk.com
Sloppy, lifeless storytelling so limp it guarantees no sequels will be made.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
