No
Avg. Critic Score: 38 out of 100 Generally unfavorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
8 OK for kids 8+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 63
    Chicago Tribune |

    At its best, The Seeker is a pretty vivid fantasy book come-to-life; it does a decent, passable job of adding to the canon of kid-lit flicks. Read full review

  • 63
    New York Daily News | Elizabeth Weitzman

    This is a reasonable choice for bored tweens - as long as they don't demand too much magic from their movies. Read full review

  • 50
    The Globe and Mail (Toronto) | Liam Lacey

    Whether you fully embrace the Harry Potter phenomenon or simply live with it, there's no question that J. K. Rowling is an imaginative story-spinner. The trouble is that she has ruined the field for the legions of the second-rate. Read full review

  • 50
    The Hollywood Reporter |

    The film plods along without a lot of excitement or inspiration. Read full review

  • 50
    San Francisco Chronicle | Ruthe Stein

    A mostly entertaining movie with built-in appeal to young audiences. The good news for parents is that it won't put them to sleep. Read full review

  • 50
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Starts out with promise but staggers under the weight of trying to take on too much. The tone is murky: The story attempts to blend adolescent angst with fantasy adventure, and the result is rather clunky. Read full review

  • 50
    TV Guide | Ken Fox

    Though stylishly produced, this clumsy parable will probably engender more boredom than sequels. Read full review

  • 42
    Entertainment Weekly |

    A movie that should've been made shortly after its source material -- Susan Cooper's Newbery winner -- debuted in 1973. As is, it feels entirely too generic to work today. Read full review

  • 38
    New York Post | Kyle Smith

    A kid unversed in other name-brand fantasy movies might go for The Seeker, but in 2007 it's redundant, a puttering Potter without wit and whimsy. Read full review

  • 38
    Boston Globe | Ty Burr

    The producers - Fox Films and the usually reliable Walden Media - have tried to gin up the story for multiplex audiences. They've succeeded in making a movie for no audience at all. Read full review

View more reviews for The Seeker: The Dark is Rising on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says OK for kids 8+ Disappointing adaptation of a great kids' book.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that one scene in this fantasy movie stands out as too much for younger kids: Hundreds and hundreds of snakes attack people in a church, pursuing the teen hero to a crypt littered with skeletons (one of which briefly comes to life). Black birds gather in droves and attack, and Will is constantly pursued by a dark force, most often in the form of a masked man on horseback. The forces also threaten Will's whole family; at one point, giant icicles rain down on them. Will witnesses some violent events in his time travels, including the pillaging of a medieval village and the start of a cockfight in a tavern. In anger and frustration, he sets off a fiery explosion. Adults drink a little ale and wine.
  • Families can talk about the themes in this movie that they've seen in other fantasy movies and books -- like dark riders, forces of light and dark, the gathering of signs, time travel, and reluctant heroes. Which specific books or movies does this one remind you of? Why? If kids have read the book, they can talk about the differences in this telling (expect them to be talking for a long time...).
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Not an issue
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence and scariness: Teams of birds and snakes attack at different times -- the Old Ones are completely covered in snakes at one point (they seem oddly calm about it). A crypt is littered with bones -- there's one shocking close-up of a skull. The masked Black Rider is always in pursuit -- sometimes with black, curtainy emptiness swirling around him, sucking up everything in its path. Will sets off an explosion in anger and knocks his brother out with a punch. Mention of a kidnapping that devastated Will's parents. A medieval village is pillaged. A bar in 1690 stages a cockfight (not shown). Giant icicles crash down on Will's family, and they're threatened by forces of the Dark to get to Will.
  • sex false0 Sex: Teens engage in mild flirting. Teasing about puberty and body changes.
  • language false0 Language: Not an issue
  • consumerism false3 Consumerism: iPod and Xbox
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Some wine and ale drinking by adults. Two men let themselves into a pub during the snowstorm and pour themselves pints.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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Dave White

1.5

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… trying to cash in on the current craze for boy wizards … Read full review See Dave White's on MOVIENAME on Movies.com

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