SEVENTH SON
Director: Sergei Bodrov
Writers: Charles Leavitt, Steven Knight
Stars: Ben Barnes, Julianne Moore, Jeff Bridges
Strength: Effects and action
Weakness: Story and script
Runtime: 102 minutes
Rating: 2/5
Writers: Charles Leavitt, Steven Knight
Stars: Ben Barnes, Julianne Moore, Jeff Bridges
Strength: Effects and action
Weakness: Story and script
Runtime: 102 minutes
Rating: 2/5
Plot: John Gregory, who is a seventh son of a
seventh son and also the local spook, has protected his country from
witches, boggarts, ghouls and all manner of things that go bump in the
night. However John is not young anymore, and has been seeking an
apprentice to carry on his trade. Most have failed to survive. The last
hope is a young farmer's son named Thomas Ward. Will he survive the
training to become the spook that so many others couldn't? But he only
has a week to train before he faces Mother Malkin.
Review: Tom Ward (Ben Barnes) is the seventh son of a seventh son: a rare genetic lineage that sets him on the path to becoming a Spook a.k.a., a slayer of the myriad evil creatures that haunt the land. He becomes the apprentice of grizzled, alcohol-addled John Gregory (Jeff Bridges), shortly after Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore), an evil witch, escapes her earthly prison to claim the world as her own. With only a week to go before the blood moon rises, Tom trains with Gregory but finds himself distracted by the charms of Alice (Alicia Vikander) – a mysterious young lady with a few secrets of her own. Seventh Son does what has been done a hundred times before, takes a more or less okay story and fills it with special effects and CG monsters in an attempt to use eye candy to paint over a flat story. Unfortunately, this never works. The back and forth between Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore) and Gregory (Jeff Bridges) is the only saving grace of the film, everything else is either too predictable or simply falls short of standard expectations. The protagonist (newcomer Ben Barnes) just doesn't seem to own his character or is simply not driven enough. Every decent scene in the film is in the trailer and the rest are just fillers. The fights aren't half bad, but they cannot save the weak story from falling through. The books that inspired this movie themselves are a sort of Harry Potterish thing for children, replacing Hogwarts with a grumpy fighter against the creatures of the dark and Harry with a rare "seventh son of a seventh son" that is traditionally employed in this "spook" business. However the plot of the books is easy to follow, interesting, sometimes engaging. But the film, which attempts to emulate some of the fun from the Lord of the Rings trilogy (pick one), just doesn't seem worthwhile. If you want to watch fantasy adventure films, I would say it's a safe bet to simply watch the Lord of the Rings again.
Review: Tom Ward (Ben Barnes) is the seventh son of a seventh son: a rare genetic lineage that sets him on the path to becoming a Spook a.k.a., a slayer of the myriad evil creatures that haunt the land. He becomes the apprentice of grizzled, alcohol-addled John Gregory (Jeff Bridges), shortly after Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore), an evil witch, escapes her earthly prison to claim the world as her own. With only a week to go before the blood moon rises, Tom trains with Gregory but finds himself distracted by the charms of Alice (Alicia Vikander) – a mysterious young lady with a few secrets of her own. Seventh Son does what has been done a hundred times before, takes a more or less okay story and fills it with special effects and CG monsters in an attempt to use eye candy to paint over a flat story. Unfortunately, this never works. The back and forth between Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore) and Gregory (Jeff Bridges) is the only saving grace of the film, everything else is either too predictable or simply falls short of standard expectations. The protagonist (newcomer Ben Barnes) just doesn't seem to own his character or is simply not driven enough. Every decent scene in the film is in the trailer and the rest are just fillers. The fights aren't half bad, but they cannot save the weak story from falling through. The books that inspired this movie themselves are a sort of Harry Potterish thing for children, replacing Hogwarts with a grumpy fighter against the creatures of the dark and Harry with a rare "seventh son of a seventh son" that is traditionally employed in this "spook" business. However the plot of the books is easy to follow, interesting, sometimes engaging. But the film, which attempts to emulate some of the fun from the Lord of the Rings trilogy (pick one), just doesn't seem worthwhile. If you want to watch fantasy adventure films, I would say it's a safe bet to simply watch the Lord of the Rings again.
