The Seeker
Oct. 6th, 2007 08:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
girlyswotI just watched the trailer for the new film loosely based on Susan Cooper's wonderful, wonderful 'The Dark Is Rising.' I feel physically sick.
Will is American. He's trying to ask a girl out. He hangs out at the mall. His brothers are mean to him. Does any of this remind you of Will Stanton? No, me either. What else? Ian McShane is pitiful as Merriman. I mean, honestly, Lovejoy was his niche. The Lady didn't do much for me either.
The soundtrack and the visuals made this look like any other genre fantasy. But 'The Dark Is Rising' isn't like that. There aren't big action sequences (there's the Hunt, of course, but that's the only one I can think of) or many weird and wonderful visuals. Lots of times, the weirdness is in the normality. Especially Will, who is the most normal, ordinary, well-adjusted 11 year-old boy whose family love him. Oh, and they all happen to be English and, conveniently, live in the English village where the book and, bizarrely, the film are set. I can't begin to imagine how they work that one out.
I shudder to think what Hollywood will do to 'Over Sea Under Stone'.
The only redeeming feature is that they seem to have retitled the film, 'The Seeker', so hopefully no one will be put off reading the books by this rubbish!
Will is American. He's trying to ask a girl out. He hangs out at the mall. His brothers are mean to him. Does any of this remind you of Will Stanton? No, me either. What else? Ian McShane is pitiful as Merriman. I mean, honestly, Lovejoy was his niche. The Lady didn't do much for me either.
The soundtrack and the visuals made this look like any other genre fantasy. But 'The Dark Is Rising' isn't like that. There aren't big action sequences (there's the Hunt, of course, but that's the only one I can think of) or many weird and wonderful visuals. Lots of times, the weirdness is in the normality. Especially Will, who is the most normal, ordinary, well-adjusted 11 year-old boy whose family love him. Oh, and they all happen to be English and, conveniently, live in the English village where the book and, bizarrely, the film are set. I can't begin to imagine how they work that one out.
I shudder to think what Hollywood will do to 'Over Sea Under Stone'.
The only redeeming feature is that they seem to have retitled the film, 'The Seeker', so hopefully no one will be put off reading the books by this rubbish!
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-07 01:13 pm (UTC)And it would be lovely if people started reading the books. I'll hope for that.