The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising

PG

Released Oct 5, 2007

1h 39m

Fantasy

Sci-Fi

Action

List

14%

Tomatometer

94 Reviews

33%

Audience Score

100,000+ Ratings

When his family moves from the U.S. to England, young Will Stanton (Alexander Ludwig) feels like a fish out of water. But, he becomes an unlikely hero when he discovers he is the last in a line of warriors known as the Old Ones. The Old Ones protect the world from the forces of the dark. Will must assume the role of The Seeker, using special powers to find the signs hidden throughout the ages and restore the balance between Light and Dark.

Read More

Read Less

Watch on Fandango at Home

Premiered May 08

Buy Now

Fandango at Home

Prime Video

Rent The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

Critics Consensus

The magic of the book is lost in translation with The Seeker, due to its clumsy plot and lack of heart.

Read Critics Reviews

Tim Robey

Daily Telegraph (UK)

An orgy of portents that runs out of oomph.

Oct 19, 2007

Full Review

Robert Hanks

Independent (UK)

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

Oct 19, 2007

Full Review

Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

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.

Rated: 2/5

Oct 19, 2007

Full Review

Mike Massie

Gone With The Twins

One in a long line of films that made one irredeemable, incalculable mistake: it didn't beat Harry Potter to the theater.

Rated: 3/10

Nov 27, 2020

Full Review

Joshua Starnes

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.

Rated: 5/10

Apr 1, 2011

Full Review

Walter Chaw

Film Freak Central

a lot of shouting offered up as an ineffectual camouflage to the picture's complete lack of ambition.

Rated: 0.5/4

Jul 1, 2008

Full Review

Read all reviews

Elvis D

The Seeker se basa en una serie de libros infantiles que sin duda mostraba potencial para ser una fantástica película. Tiene buenas escenas de acción con buenos efectos especiales y una historia interesante. Lo malo es que el guion se siente flojo, con falta de profundidad y algunos agujeros argumentales. La película tendría que haber sido más larga debido a lo corta que se siente y eso hubiera ayudado a profundizar más el argumento y sus personajes, ya que existe mucho más que se faltó ampliar y explicar. The Seeker es una película de fantasía que puede ser ideal para el público infantil, pero tristemente es una oportunidad desperdiciada que acabo dando como resultado una película olvidable. Mi calificación final para esta película es un 6/10.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

11/26/23

Full Review

robert p

What a terrible movie this was, Hollywood how can you put out stuff like this!

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

While I understand 'artistic liberties,' literally the ONLY similarities between this movie and the book it's 'based' on are the character names and the signs themselves. While moving the timeline into the 2000's rather than the '70s is hard enough on the storyline, changing the Stanton family to newly arrived US citizens in England is a bulls#!t move in and of itself. Not only does this destroy half the plot, it makes most of the relationships impossible. The relationship between Will and his siblings is an important part of the book, and turning it from 'typical family issues' to 'older siblings desire to mentally destroy the youngest while mom and dad just shake their heads and smile' makes another third of the book impossible to manage to work into the plot. Of course, seeing as movies for adolescents and young adults only seem to have one type of plotline, Will is changed from his original 11 years old to somewhere around 16 - 17. This is, of course, a requirement, seeing as the next strange-as-hell move is to ADD A COMPLETELY NEW CHARACTER SO WILL HAS A LOVE INTEREST. Last, but ABSOLUTELY NOT LEAST, the producers decided, for some gods forsaken reason, to ELIMINATE THE MAIN ANTAGONIST. Read that again: the producers cut out the main bad guy! Instead, a side character who has a minimal role in the book is promotes to main baddy, and given abilities she doesn't actually possess. Why? Probably a toss-up between: a) no budget for proper effects for The Rider (which, considering the rest of the movie, that should have been the LEAST of their worries, b) girl villian brings in more viewers, or c) (and most likely) due to the raising of Will's age, a girl villian can use her 'wiles' as well as her powers to mess his day up. If you liked this book, DO NOT attempt to watch this movie. You won't be able to make it 10 minutes into the picture without either ragequiting or ranting the rest of the movie.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Released at the modern fantasy movies' prime during an age where there was a new Harry Potter movie to look forward to every year or two, The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising is a misfire of an adaptation with cheap production values, lame acting, crappy effects and just being rather boring. Oh, and it isn't faithful to the books even though I shouldn't have to read them to judge the movie, I guess. Though that does also mean that, unlike the Percy Jackson movies, this can't be enjoyed as a standalone movie either. If you want to see a movie that exists solely to cash in on the popularity of Harry Potter and Narnia (the latter was from the same production company as well!), look no further than The Seeker.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/23/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Harry Potter worked because it was a quintessentially British story told as exactly that. The author kept tight control of the style and content and the films are pretty true to the books. This doesn't work, because the original story is just as British and Hollywood has changed the central family to Americans and then messed with the story in a fashion guaranteed to remove the charm and nuance of the source material. Sticking an utterly miscast Ian "Lovejoy" McShane into the mix was never going to save it. It is a children's book (a series in fact by Susan Cooper) and as a child I loved it, but this is a travesty and our kids found it boring and incomprehensible. Did Hollywood learn nothing from the success of adapting Harry Potter? Kids can cope with intelligent films, with proper adaptations and they don't buy it when you cut corners and dumb it down.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I liked it when I was growing up it was a fun movie and I really liked the idea that it plays with were Will is one of the youngest in his family my but is the one that ends up saving them. It has average special effects but the way they have different time eras for different stones is fun and interesting. So overall it is a good movie that is fun for the family and probably could have done with better CGI.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/18/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

David L. Cunningham

Director

Ian McShane

Merriman Lyon

Alexander Ludwig

Will Staunton

Christopher Eccleston

The Rider

Frances Conroy

Miss Greythorne

Amelia Warner

Maggie Barnes

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

38%

51%

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

TRAILER

for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

65%

56%

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

TRAILER

for Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

51%

63%

Tron: Legacy

60%

53%

Journey to the Center of the Earth

TRAILER

for Journey to the Center of the Earth

71%

46%

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

TRAILER

for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

RT on DVD: I Am Legend Offers (Better) Alternate Ending on DVD

Amazon Partners With Fox for First Foray Into Movie Biz

Box Office Guru Preview: Captain Jack and Captain Morgan Set Sail

View more photos

Synopsis

When his family moves from the U.S. to England, young Will Stanton (Alexander Ludwig) feels like a fish out of water. But, he becomes an unlikely hero when he discovers he is the last in a line of warriors known as the Old Ones. The Old Ones protect the world from the forces of the dark. Will must assume the role of The Seeker, using special powers to find the signs hidden throughout the ages and restore the balance between Light and Dark.

Director: David L. Cunningham
Screenwriter: John Hodge
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Production Co: Walden Media, Marc Platt Productions, Twentieth Century Fox
Rating: PG (Some Scary Images|Fantasy Action)
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Action
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 5, 2007, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 25, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA): $8.8M
Runtime: 1h 39m
Sound Mix: Dolby SRD, DTS, SDDS
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

Most Popular at Home Now