SEVENTH SON
Director : Sergei Bodrov
Cast : Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Ben Barnes, Djimon Hounsou, Alicia Vikander, Antje Traue, Olivia Williams, Kit Harington
Genre : Action/Fantasy
Run Time : 103 mins
Opens : 31 December 2014
Rating : PG13 (Some Violence And Brief Coarse Language)
Swords and sorcery, dragons and shape-shifting mages, a young apprentice destined for
greatness studying under the wizened master – it never gets old – until it
does. John Gregory (Bridges), a.k.a. The Spook, is the last of the ancient
order of Falcon Knights. When his nemesis, the treacherous and powerful witch
queen Mother Malkin (Moore) resurfaces, Gregory goes in search of an
apprentice. Tom Ward (Barnes), supposedly possessing magical powers as he is
the seventh son of a seventh son, is chosen by Gregory. Tom becomes besotted
with the beautiful Alice (Vikander), who happens to be the niece of Mother
Malkin, complicating things. Gregory and his pupil must defeat the cabal of
supernaturally-gifted assassins sent after them by Mother Malkin to eventually
storm her stronghold of Pendle Mountain and cease her imminent reign of
terror.
Adapted from John Delaney’s novel The Spook’s Apprentice, the first in his
Wardstone Chronicles series, Seventh Son has had its release date
pushed back several times after being originally set to open in February 2013.
This is rarely a good omen and the result is a film that is profoundly
middle-of-the-road. It’s not a flat-out train wreck, but there’s every chance
it would’ve been more entertaining if it actually were one. “Remember, all you
need is inside you. Just don’t be afraid to look,” Tom’s mother tells him with
all the sincerity actress Olivia Williams can muster. It’s as “seen it a
million times” as it gets.
Past
the story, the film offers precious little in the way of genuine visual
spectacle. Sure, the requisite battles with otherworldly creatures, chases
through forests and leaps off sheer cliff-faces are all in place and there are
even several effective, entertaining 3D effects, but it all just feels so
perfunctory. By now, you’re probably tired of hearing critics and fanboys alike
knocking computer-generated imagery, so allow us to say that we do acknowledge
the effort that goes into creating the many CGI sequences in movies like Seventh Son. Industry giant John Dykstra
is the visual effects designer here and Rhythm and Hues, the effects house
behind Life of Pi, did most of the
animation. However, it is clear that director Sergei Bodrov is desperately
trying to recapture the magic of the fantastical stop-motion animated monsters
created by Ray Harryhausen in the fantasy flicks of yore. Though considered quaint
and dated by now, they possessed a real soul-stirring charm that masses of pixels
just do not have.
Jeff
Bridges is the surly old master whose glory days are behind him. Naturally, the
character is at its most entertaining when glimmers of the Dude surface (such
as when Gregory takes swigs from his trusty flask), but for most of the film
Gregory is stern and grim. Ben Barnes, who has experience with fantasy flicks
from playing Prince Caspian in the second and third Narnia movies, is handsome and bland like so many leading men are
these days. Tom knows he is destined for greater things and doesn’t want to be
stuck on a farm feeding pigs for the rest of his life. It’s so familiar that
one almost expects him to break out in song, arms outstretched, declaring “I
want adventure in the great wide somewhere!”
Julianne
Moore, currently receiving Oscar buzz for Still
Alice, is evidently not above revelling in the other end of the spectrum,
chewing the scenery with expected relish while her retractable CGI tail swishes
for all it’s worth. The thing is though, there appears to be only one way to
play a witch in these fantasy action flicks and a long line of actresses
including Susan Sarandon, Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron, Michelle
Pfeiffer and Famke Janssen have delivered just about the same performance in
movies past. Antje Traue, who memorably went toe-to-toe with Superman in Man of Steel, has little to do here as
Mother Malkin’s sister Bony Lizzie, her major action scene involving the
shape-shifted dragon version of her instead. Alicia Vikander and Ben Barnes
seem to share little chemistry, with the “forbidden romance” coming off as
little more than tacked-on.
Perfectly
content with being nothing special, Seventh
Son will likely hold special resonance if you’re a kid who’s never seen a
fantasy film before (and who isn’t attached to the book series). For everyone
else however, it will hardly register, drifting away in a cloud of its own
mediocrity.
Summary:
Late on the Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings bandwagon by over a
decade, even the likes of Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore can’t make this
also-rans fantasy flick worthwhile.
RATING: 2
out of 5 Stars
Jedd
Jong
