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the seeker
The Seeker, titled The Dark Is Rising in the United Kingdom and The Seeker: The Dark is Rising in Canada, is a 2007 American film adaptation of the second book in the five-book young adult fantasy series The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper. The film is directed by David L. Cunningham and stars Ian McShane, Alexander Ludwig, Frances Conroy, Gregory Smith, and Christopher Eccleston as the Rider. The Seeker is the first film to be produced by 20th Century Fox and Walden Media as part of their Fox-Walden partnership.
On his 14th birthday Will Stanton (Ludwig) finds out that he is the last of a group of warriors – The Light – who have spent their lives fighting against evil – The Dark. Will travels through time to track down the signs that will enable him to confront the evil forces. The Dark is personified by The Rider (Eccleston).
This film adaptation drew strong negative reaction from fans of the book series[2][3] for its disregard of the source material.
At the Manor Christmas party, Will once again sees Dawson and Old George who seem to know him well. Miss Greythorne and Merriman debate about when and how to approach Will about his destiny. Maggie Barnes (Amelia Warner), an attractive local girl appears at the party and Will becomes upset when one of his older brothers approaches her and begins chatting to her. Will leaves the Manor, and an ominous figure mounted on a white horse and accompanied by dogs chases Will. As the ominous figure prepares to kill Will, who is currently no match for him, Miss Greythorne, Merriman, Dawson, and Old George suddenly appear and save Will. Merriman names the threatening figure as The Rider (Christopher Eccleston), who warns them all that in five days' time his power – The Dark – will rise. The four adults are the last of the Old Ones – ancient warriors who serve The Light – and take Will on a walk through time and space to a place called the Great Hall, which in the present day is the church the Stantons attend. Will is the last of the Old Ones to have been born: he is the seventh son of a seventh son whose power begins to ascend on his fourteenth birthday, though Will disputes this idea because he believes he is the sixth son. Will is The Seeker: the sign-seeker who must locate six Signs whose possession will grant The Light power over The Dark. The Rider is also seeking them. Will returns home to his attic room and falls and twists his ankle. The doctor who calls is The Rider in disguise but he is recognized by Will. The Rider demonstrates his powers on Will’s ankle by alternately healing it and making it much worse before restoring it to its injured state; he offers will the chance to have any desire he wants fullfilled in exchange for giving him the signs. Will discovers he has a lost twin brother named Tom, who, as a baby, mysteriously disappeared one night and was never found. Merriman instructs Will on his powers, which include summoning superhuman strength, commanding light and fire, telekinesis, stepping through time, and the unique knowledge to decipher an ancient text in the Book of Gramarye. Unfortunatelt, Will learns he can't fly, a power he wanted.
Will returns to The Great Hall, and learns the form each sign will take. Will reveals the first sign within Gwen’s pendant. As the sign-seeker, Will travels through time to find the next four signs. The Rider enlists a mysterious figure to help him get the signs from Will. When Will's brother invites Maggie to their home, she reveals some of her powers to Will. Will reveals his affections for her, saying he felt an instant connection with her. He tells her he has been thinking of her constantly. The Rider also tricks Will's older brother Max, using his magic to partialy control him. The spell over Max is finally broken when Will uses his great strength to give Max a concussion. By the fifth day, The Dark that The Rider commands has now gained tremendous power and begins to attack the village with a terrible blizzard. Will locates the fifth sign but without the sixth sign, the Dark continues to rise. Maggie is revealed to be the mysterious witch helping the Rider in exchange for immortal youth. She is betrayed by him (for failing to get ANY of the signs) when she fails to get the fifth sign and ages rapidly, disintegrating into a flood of water while trying to steal them from Will. The Old Ones and Will seek sanctuary in the Great Hall, where the Rider cannot enter unless invited. However, The Rider's final trick (impersonating the voices of Will's mother and father, as well as Gwen) gains him access to The Great Hall. The Rider reveals that he has trapped Tom, whom The Rider mistook for The Seeker and kidnapped, within a glass sphere (and apparently toke care of all these years). He sends Will into an evil dark cloud. As he enters, Will solves the riddle of the sixth sign: he himself is the sixth sign. With all six signs identified The Rider cannot touch nor harm Will. Using his power over the dark, Will banishes both The Rider – imprisoning the evil figure within one of his own glass spheres – and The Dark. The sphere disappears into murky water. Will and Tom are reunited and return to their family, who are shocked to see Tom.
In May 2005, with production never becoming active under Henson Pictures, the film adaptation rights were purchased by Walden Media, who attached Marc E. Platt to produce the project.[5] In August 2006, Walden Media announced a joint venture with the studio 20th Century Fox to distribute Walden projects through Fox channels.[6] The next October, director David Cunningham was hired to helm the film, then titled The Dark Is Rising. Cunningham visited Romania to prepare production for an early 2007 start to target a September 28, 2007 release date.[7]
Hodge rewrote the protagonist Will Stanton, portrayed by Alexander Ludwig, to be 14 instead of 11. The screenwriter chose this age, considering 11 to be more of a child's age, and 14 to be an age of transition.[11] Stanton was also written to be American so he would be established as more of an outsider, culturally alien to the story's English setting.[10] Hodge also wrote new subplots for Ludwig's character in the film, including sibling conflicts, a crush on a young woman (Amelia Warner), and alienation at school.[12] The script also features the inclusion of many action sequences.[10] The character of The Walker, portrayed by Jonathan Jackson, was also rewritten as a younger person with a new story arc about the loss of his soul.[10] However, Jackson's character was ultimately removed from the film's theatrical cut.[13] Susan Cooper was reportedly not happy with the adaptation of her book.[14]
Director David Cunningham chose to minimize the use of visual effects in The Seeker, only creating around 200 visual effects for the film. Instead, the director pursued practical means to carry out the effects of the film's scenes. A thousand snakes were shipped in from the Czech Republic to be dumped on the actors, real water was used to wipe out a mansion in the film, and real birds were trained to fly at the actors. Cunningham also hired Viking reenactors to assist with the Viking element in the film.[8]
The crow-like birds are consistent with the book's signature harbingers of the Dark: the rooks.[17] One visitor to the set said that the rooks were represented by "a half-dozen trained ravens."[16]
Costume designer Vin Burnham designed a riding cloak for The Rider (Christopher Eccleston), a black get-up lined with real fur and feathers for an animalistic appearance. Burnham provided eccentric 1960s outfits for the character Miss Greythorne (Frances Conroy), with Celtic symbols incorporated into the outfits. The costume designer also wove small crystals into the outfits worn by Conroy and Ian McShane so that the outfits glisten on camera.[16]
The Seeker was reported to have issues leading to its release: author Susan Cooper was not happy with the adaptation of her book, the film's title was changed repeatedly, and advance screenings were canceled.[14]
Walden Media has the distinction of back to back super wide releases competing with each other in the race to the bottom. The Seeker had the second worst debut of all time for a film released in more than 3,000 theaters, placing behind the Walden's 2006 comedy-adventure film Hoot.[22] The Seeker though managed to pull into first place in 'biggest theater drops' – wide releases that lost the most theaters in their third weekends – and nudged ahead of Hoot.[23] Most wide releases are contractually obliged to stay at a particular screen for two weeks and can be dropped by a theatre only at the beginning of the third week.
Criticism was varied. The New York Post’s Kyle Smith objected that, "Good and evil don't seem to be trying to destroy each other so much as come up with cool-looking effects to show off, as if they were competing in a "Project Runway" for wizards... [and] given superpowers, Will does approximately nothing with them."[26] Gianni Truzzi of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer opined that the movie lacked the "grandiose elements" of "magic rooted in its ties to Arthurian legend and British folklore" that made the books so memorable.[27] The Boston Globe’s Ty Burr panned the movie for not understanding its intended audience of book-readers, saying, "the producers have tried to gin up the story for multiplex audiences. They've succeeded in making a movie for no audience at all."[28] And The New York Times's Jeannette Catsoulis complained that "John Hodge's screenplay is frequently dreary and overly literal... 'The Seeker' feels passé and lacks a charismatic lead."[29]
One of the few somewhat-positive reviews came from the Chicago Tribune's Kelley L. Carter, who said that "At its best, The Seeker is a pretty vivid fantasy book come-to-life" and found the lead character of Will Stanton to have been "played convincingly."[30] Another came from the Baltimore Sun's Michael Sragow, who found that The Seeker had "a lot going for it, including wonderful sets and locations...that create a heightened-reality English hamlet".[31] Both gave the movie only 2½ stars out of 4.
Several of the reviewers mentioned the Harry Potter movies. The New York Times' Catsoulis mentioned, "Too bad Daniel Radcliffe is an only child."[29] The Chicago Tribune's Carter wrote “Harry Potter, meet your not-so-much cousin... had it not been for the Potter series, the bar for children’s fantasy film wouldn’t be quite as high, and 'The Seeker' falls short of the high-riding, high-quality material delivered in the Harry Potter film series."[30] The New York Post's Smith went so far as to title his review "Bad Harry Day" and to joke that "In today's England, a teenage boy is instructed by grown-up mentors in the use of magical powers while a dark lord who comes in many formats promises an epic battle. The movie is based on a 1973 book by Susan Cooper, who must be trembling in fear of being sued for ripping off J.K. Rowling's ideas and publishing them 20 years in advance."[26] The Boston Globe's Burr described the parallels more clearly, saying that "against him is a metrosexual meanie called The Rider (Christopher Eccleston), sort of a He Who Can Be Named. In general, Cooper's story line has been Potterized to little avail: Will's family is as large as the Weasleys, as unloving as the Dursleys, and no fun whatsoever."[28]
On his 14th birthday Will Stanton (Ludwig) finds out that he is the last of a group of warriors – The Light – who have spent their lives fighting against evil – The Dark. Will travels through time to track down the signs that will enable him to confront the evil forces. The Dark is personified by The Rider (Eccleston).
This film adaptation drew strong negative reaction from fans of the book series[2][3] for its disregard of the source material.
Contents |
Plot
Will Stanton (Alexander Ludwig) is a day away from his fourteenth birthday. As the Stanton children walk home, Miss Greythorne (Frances Conroy), the local mistress of the Manor, and her Butler Merriman Lyon (Ian McShane) invite the siblings to a Christmas party. Later, two farmers, Dawson (James Cosmo) and Old George (Jim Piddock), whom Will does not know, arrive at his house with a large Christmas tree ordered by the family. The farmers know Will’s name, wish him a happy birthday, and predict bad weather despite the clear sky. Will’s birthday is so close to Christmas that everyone in his large family ignores it except for his little sister Gwen (Emma Lockhart), who gives him his only birthday present (a Casio G-Shock Mudman wristwatch). The family has moved from the United States to a small English village and one of his brothers has arrived home for the holidays and displaces Will to the attic. For a Christmas present, Will buys Gwen an enigmatic stone pendant at the local mall. Two suspicious security guards accuse him of shoplifting and take him to their office. Alarmingly, whilst questioning Will under the room's flickering lights, the guards metamorphose into rooks. They attack Will, but he manages to escape, accidentally using his powers for the first time. Will begins to experience more odd incidents and receives a strange and Celtic-looking belt from his oldest brother, Stephen (Jordan J. Dale).At the Manor Christmas party, Will once again sees Dawson and Old George who seem to know him well. Miss Greythorne and Merriman debate about when and how to approach Will about his destiny. Maggie Barnes (Amelia Warner), an attractive local girl appears at the party and Will becomes upset when one of his older brothers approaches her and begins chatting to her. Will leaves the Manor, and an ominous figure mounted on a white horse and accompanied by dogs chases Will. As the ominous figure prepares to kill Will, who is currently no match for him, Miss Greythorne, Merriman, Dawson, and Old George suddenly appear and save Will. Merriman names the threatening figure as The Rider (Christopher Eccleston), who warns them all that in five days' time his power – The Dark – will rise. The four adults are the last of the Old Ones – ancient warriors who serve The Light – and take Will on a walk through time and space to a place called the Great Hall, which in the present day is the church the Stantons attend. Will is the last of the Old Ones to have been born: he is the seventh son of a seventh son whose power begins to ascend on his fourteenth birthday, though Will disputes this idea because he believes he is the sixth son. Will is The Seeker: the sign-seeker who must locate six Signs whose possession will grant The Light power over The Dark. The Rider is also seeking them. Will returns home to his attic room and falls and twists his ankle. The doctor who calls is The Rider in disguise but he is recognized by Will. The Rider demonstrates his powers on Will’s ankle by alternately healing it and making it much worse before restoring it to its injured state; he offers will the chance to have any desire he wants fullfilled in exchange for giving him the signs. Will discovers he has a lost twin brother named Tom, who, as a baby, mysteriously disappeared one night and was never found. Merriman instructs Will on his powers, which include summoning superhuman strength, commanding light and fire, telekinesis, stepping through time, and the unique knowledge to decipher an ancient text in the Book of Gramarye. Unfortunatelt, Will learns he can't fly, a power he wanted.
Will returns to The Great Hall, and learns the form each sign will take. Will reveals the first sign within Gwen’s pendant. As the sign-seeker, Will travels through time to find the next four signs. The Rider enlists a mysterious figure to help him get the signs from Will. When Will's brother invites Maggie to their home, she reveals some of her powers to Will. Will reveals his affections for her, saying he felt an instant connection with her. He tells her he has been thinking of her constantly. The Rider also tricks Will's older brother Max, using his magic to partialy control him. The spell over Max is finally broken when Will uses his great strength to give Max a concussion. By the fifth day, The Dark that The Rider commands has now gained tremendous power and begins to attack the village with a terrible blizzard. Will locates the fifth sign but without the sixth sign, the Dark continues to rise. Maggie is revealed to be the mysterious witch helping the Rider in exchange for immortal youth. She is betrayed by him (for failing to get ANY of the signs) when she fails to get the fifth sign and ages rapidly, disintegrating into a flood of water while trying to steal them from Will. The Old Ones and Will seek sanctuary in the Great Hall, where the Rider cannot enter unless invited. However, The Rider's final trick (impersonating the voices of Will's mother and father, as well as Gwen) gains him access to The Great Hall. The Rider reveals that he has trapped Tom, whom The Rider mistook for The Seeker and kidnapped, within a glass sphere (and apparently toke care of all these years). He sends Will into an evil dark cloud. As he enters, Will solves the riddle of the sixth sign: he himself is the sixth sign. With all six signs identified The Rider cannot touch nor harm Will. Using his power over the dark, Will banishes both The Rider – imprisoning the evil figure within one of his own glass spheres – and The Dark. The sphere disappears into murky water. Will and Tom are reunited and return to their family, who are shocked to see Tom.
The Six Signs
The signs that Will found, in the order he found them, were:- Inside a pendant Will bought for his little sister Gwen in a mall
- Just before the black plague, inside a skull's mouth under a church – the skull belonging to the creator of the signs – at the beginning of the 14th Century
- On a shield some time in the past when Vikings attacked the village. He trades the watch Gwen gave him for his birthday for the sign.
- On one of the feathers of "The Champion" from 1690
- Underwater in the manor when it was flooded, at the time of Maggie's demise
- Will's soul
Cast
- Alexander Ludwig as Will Stanton The seventh son of a seventh son, the descendant of a Thomas Stanton who created the six signs. The youngest male in his family and born with special powers that reveal themselves on his 14th birthday. The powers of The Seeker. At first he seems inexperienced and prone to emotional overreaction, but in the end he saves the world from The Dark. Alexander Ludwig also plays a small role as Will's twin brother Tom who was lost, taken by The Rider when he was a few weeks old. He was freed after Will defeated The Dark.
- Christopher Eccleston as The Rider The antagonist of the film, who by day disguises himself as the Village doctor. He is The Dark of the world.
- Ian McShane as Merriman Lyon An Old One, a fighter for The Light and one of Will's primary instructors on how to fight the dark. For most of the film he is emotionally distant from Will, trying to encourage him to be a warrior instead of listening to him.
- Frances Conroy as Miss Greythorne An Old One, a fighter for The Light and one of Will's primary instructors on how to fight the dark. She is the owner of Huntercombe Manor and a generous benefactor to the college where Will's father now teaches. She is hinted to have pulled some strings in order to get the Stanton family to the village.
- James Cosmo as Dawson An Old One, a fighter for The Light. Very humorous and is undercover as a farmer in the village, he originally gives the Stantons their Christmas tree. Best friend of George. He was traumatized by the initial belief that George was lost to The Dark.
- Jim Piddock as Old George An Old One, a fighter for The Light Very humorous and is undercover as a farmer in the village, he originally gives the Stanton's their Christmas tree where he reveals he knows Will's name. Best friend of Dawson. After a fight with The Rider in a bar, it is believed that he was either killed or lost to The Dark, saddening his best friend Dawson. However, he is seen alive and well after The Rider is defeated.
- Amelia Warner as Maggie Barnes A pretty girl in Will's school in the beginning, he couldn't work up the nerve to talk to her. After his brother James begins to date her she and Will meet for the first time where she hints that she is an 'Old One'. She is a cause of emotional distress for Will throughout the film until it is revealed that she is an ancient witch who works for The Rider in exchange for remaining youthful.
Stanton family
- John Benjamin Hickey as John Stanton Will's father a lecturer at a college in England, the family patriarch he is initially critical of his son Max and seems too busy to listen to Will. It is revealed that when Will was a new-born, his twin brother Tom was kidnapped whilst John was working on a thesis The Light and The Dark, the loss of his son, the guilt and emotional distress he went through made him abandon the thesis. John Benjamin Hickey also plays a small role as Thomas Stanton an ancestor of the Stanton family and the creator of the Six Signs.
- Wendy Crewson as Mary Stanton Will's mother. A housewife who holds great love for her family and great pain from the loss of one her sons, Tom.
- Emma Lockhart as Gwen Stanton Will's younger sister, the only girl of the Stanton family and the only one to give Will a proper present on his birthday. A kind girl, she is the first of his family to unintentionally witness his power as he takes her to a Viking battle where she rescues a lost kitten. She promises not to say anything to anyone else, showing her and Will's close relationship. This is seen further when Will is threatened with the death of the person he loves most, and this person turns out to be Gwen.
- Drew Tyler Bell as James Stanton Will's older and more arrogant brother who dates Maggie and causes Will to be jealous. He teases Will with the fact he got to date Maggie in the beginning of the film.
- Edmund and Gary Entin as Robin and Paul Stanton Will's older brothers who happen to be twins. The twins bully Will slightly but they do love him.
- Gregory Smith as Max Stanton Will's older brother, shown to be coming home for the holidays from college and taking Will's room forcing Will to move to the attic. It is later revealed that Max dropped out. He is taken over by The Rider for a short period of time. He tries to take the Signs away from Will under The Rider's influence. When Will speaks to Max trying to convince him to leave him be, Max is knocked unconscious and comes back free of The Rider. Max later tells his father, who is critical of him in the film's beginning, that he dropped out of college.
- Jordan J. Dale as Stephen Stanton Will's oldest brother, a member of the United States Navy, it appears he is commissioned to Hawaii when he sends the family floral print shirts. Shown to be looked up to and admired by his siblings. Instead of sending Will a shirt, he sends him the Celtic belt that he uses to hold the signs. Shown for a brief time only.
Production
Development
In July 1997, Jim Henson Pictures optioned the rights for the film adaptation of Susan Cooper's novel The Dark Is Rising. The company attached Duncan Kenworthy as producer and Andrew Klavan as screenwriter, with the film's budget estimated to be $20 million. Brian Henson, president and CEO of the company, pursued the purchase of the rights because the book was one of his favorites.[4]In May 2005, with production never becoming active under Henson Pictures, the film adaptation rights were purchased by Walden Media, who attached Marc E. Platt to produce the project.[5] In August 2006, Walden Media announced a joint venture with the studio 20th Century Fox to distribute Walden projects through Fox channels.[6] The next October, director David Cunningham was hired to helm the film, then titled The Dark Is Rising. Cunningham visited Romania to prepare production for an early 2007 start to target a September 28, 2007 release date.[7]
Writing
The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising is very loosely based on the second book in Susan Cooper's series The Dark Is Rising Sequence, titled The Dark Is Rising.[8] Walden Media hired screenwriter John Hodge in October 2005 to adapt the story for the big screen.[9] The mythology of Cooper's book was considered to be the plot, and Hodge was tasked to interpret the book into events that could be portrayed in a film.[10] The story, which took place in the 1960s and 1970s in the book, was rewritten to be contemporary. Vikings were included in the film, based on a reference in the book to an old Viking boat which the protagonist discovers.[11]Hodge rewrote the protagonist Will Stanton, portrayed by Alexander Ludwig, to be 14 instead of 11. The screenwriter chose this age, considering 11 to be more of a child's age, and 14 to be an age of transition.[11] Stanton was also written to be American so he would be established as more of an outsider, culturally alien to the story's English setting.[10] Hodge also wrote new subplots for Ludwig's character in the film, including sibling conflicts, a crush on a young woman (Amelia Warner), and alienation at school.[12] The script also features the inclusion of many action sequences.[10] The character of The Walker, portrayed by Jonathan Jackson, was also rewritten as a younger person with a new story arc about the loss of his soul.[10] However, Jackson's character was ultimately removed from the film's theatrical cut.[13] Susan Cooper was reportedly not happy with the adaptation of her book.[14]
Filming
Filming began on February 26, 2007 in Romania.[15] The film was shot on several soundstages at MediaPro Studios in Buftea, Romania.[10] Several sets built at the soundstages included an English village, the Stanton family's country home, a medieval church, and a mysterious ruin known as the Great Hall.[12] Cinematographer Joel Ransom chose to have such sets, including the reconstruction of the 13th century chapel that took four months to construct, built to surround the actors so he could use 360-degree camera sweeps in the locations to represent time travel sequences.[16]Director David Cunningham chose to minimize the use of visual effects in The Seeker, only creating around 200 visual effects for the film. Instead, the director pursued practical means to carry out the effects of the film's scenes. A thousand snakes were shipped in from the Czech Republic to be dumped on the actors, real water was used to wipe out a mansion in the film, and real birds were trained to fly at the actors. Cunningham also hired Viking reenactors to assist with the Viking element in the film.[8]
The crow-like birds are consistent with the book's signature harbingers of the Dark: the rooks.[17] One visitor to the set said that the rooks were represented by "a half-dozen trained ravens."[16]
Costume designer Vin Burnham designed a riding cloak for The Rider (Christopher Eccleston), a black get-up lined with real fur and feathers for an animalistic appearance. Burnham provided eccentric 1960s outfits for the character Miss Greythorne (Frances Conroy), with Celtic symbols incorporated into the outfits. The costume designer also wove small crystals into the outfits worn by Conroy and Ian McShane so that the outfits glisten on camera.[16]
Release
Production on The Seeker began early in 2007 to target a September 28, 2007 release date.[7] The release date was eventually moved a week later, to October 5, 2007 during Columbus Day weekend.[18] Up until July 27, 2007, the film was titled and marketed only as The Dark Is Rising. Fox Walden changed the film title from The Dark Is Rising to The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising.[19] Prior to its release, the film's title was finalized to be The Seeker in the United States market.[17] In the Canadian market, the film was released simultaneously with the U.S. distribution but under the title The Seeker: The Dark is Rising.[20] In the United Kingdom, the film was released under the title The Dark is Rising.[21]The Seeker was reported to have issues leading to its release: author Susan Cooper was not happy with the adaptation of her book, the film's title was changed repeatedly, and advance screenings were canceled.[14]
DVD
The Seeker was released on DVD on March 18, 2008. Region 4 and Region 2 DVDs contain 'Extended/Deleted Scenes' which include outtakes of Jonathan Jackson's scenes as the Walker. There are also two featurettes, and optional director's commentary on the extended/deleted scenes. Because the Region 1 DVDs did not contain the extended/deleted scenes in the special features, it is assumed (and hoped) by many fans that Walden Media will release an extended version of The Seeker.Box office performance
The Seeker was released in the United States and Canada on October 5, 2007. The film grossed $3,745,315 in 3,141 theaters in its opening weekend, ranking #5 at the box office in the United States and Canada.[1] The Seeker had one of the poorest starts for a fantasy film. The Seeker was questioned for having too high of a venue, with the cost for prints in 3,141 theaters exceeding its opening weekend gross.[14] As of 2009, The Seeker has grossed $8,794,452 in the United States and Canada and $22,606,288 in other territories for a worldwide total of $31,400,740.[1]Walden Media has the distinction of back to back super wide releases competing with each other in the race to the bottom. The Seeker had the second worst debut of all time for a film released in more than 3,000 theaters, placing behind the Walden's 2006 comedy-adventure film Hoot.[22] The Seeker though managed to pull into first place in 'biggest theater drops' – wide releases that lost the most theaters in their third weekends – and nudged ahead of Hoot.[23] Most wide releases are contractually obliged to stay at a particular screen for two weeks and can be dropped by a theatre only at the beginning of the third week.
Critical reception
Critical reception to the film has been largely negative, with movie-review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes finding only 14% of critics gave the movie a positive review earning the film a "Rotten" rating on the site.[24] Metacritic, a similar review aggregation site, calculates the movie as having a score of 39/100.[25] The only positive feedback from most critics went toward Christopher Eccleston's performance.Criticism was varied. The New York Post’s Kyle Smith objected that, "Good and evil don't seem to be trying to destroy each other so much as come up with cool-looking effects to show off, as if they were competing in a "Project Runway" for wizards... [and] given superpowers, Will does approximately nothing with them."[26] Gianni Truzzi of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer opined that the movie lacked the "grandiose elements" of "magic rooted in its ties to Arthurian legend and British folklore" that made the books so memorable.[27] The Boston Globe’s Ty Burr panned the movie for not understanding its intended audience of book-readers, saying, "the producers have tried to gin up the story for multiplex audiences. They've succeeded in making a movie for no audience at all."[28] And The New York Times's Jeannette Catsoulis complained that "John Hodge's screenplay is frequently dreary and overly literal... 'The Seeker' feels passé and lacks a charismatic lead."[29]
One of the few somewhat-positive reviews came from the Chicago Tribune's Kelley L. Carter, who said that "At its best, The Seeker is a pretty vivid fantasy book come-to-life" and found the lead character of Will Stanton to have been "played convincingly."[30] Another came from the Baltimore Sun's Michael Sragow, who found that The Seeker had "a lot going for it, including wonderful sets and locations...that create a heightened-reality English hamlet".[31] Both gave the movie only 2½ stars out of 4.
Several of the reviewers mentioned the Harry Potter movies. The New York Times' Catsoulis mentioned, "Too bad Daniel Radcliffe is an only child."[29] The Chicago Tribune's Carter wrote “Harry Potter, meet your not-so-much cousin... had it not been for the Potter series, the bar for children’s fantasy film wouldn’t be quite as high, and 'The Seeker' falls short of the high-riding, high-quality material delivered in the Harry Potter film series."[30] The New York Post's Smith went so far as to title his review "Bad Harry Day" and to joke that "In today's England, a teenage boy is instructed by grown-up mentors in the use of magical powers while a dark lord who comes in many formats promises an epic battle. The movie is based on a 1973 book by Susan Cooper, who must be trembling in fear of being sued for ripping off J.K. Rowling's ideas and publishing them 20 years in advance."[26] The Boston Globe's Burr described the parallels more clearly, saying that "against him is a metrosexual meanie called The Rider (Christopher Eccleston), sort of a He Who Can Be Named. In general, Cooper's story line has been Potterized to little avail: Will's family is as large as the Weasleys, as unloving as the Dursleys, and no fun whatsoever."[28]
For more details on the comparisons to the Harry Potter series, see Harry Potter influences and analogues#The Dark Is Rising.
See also
- The Seeker is the name of a 2006 documentary movie by Belgian filmmaker Philippe Cornet tracing the activities of forensic anthropologist Bill Haglund.
war of the world
| War of the Worlds | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster |
|
| Directed by | Steven Spielberg |
| Produced by | Kathleen Kennedy Colin Wilson |
| Screenplay by | Josh Friedman David Koepp |
| Based on | The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells |
| Narrated by | Morgan Freeman |
| Starring | Tom Cruise Dakota Fanning Justin Chatwin Miranda Otto Tim Robbins Morgan Freeman |
| Music by | John Williams |
| Cinematography | Janusz Kamiński |
| Editing by | Michael Kahn |
| Studio | Amblin Entertainment Cruise/Wagner |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures DreamWorks Pictures |
| Release date(s) |
|
| Running time | 116 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $132 million[1] |
| Box office | $591,745,550[1] |
War of the Worlds marks Spielberg and Cruise's second collaboration, after the 2002 film Minority Report. The film was shot in 73 days, using five different sound stages as well as locations at California, Connecticut, New Jersey, Staten Island, and Virginia. The film was surrounded by a secrecy campaign so few details would be leaked before its release. Tie-in promotions were made with several companies, including Hitachi. The film was released in United States on 29 June and in United Kingdom on 1 July. War of the Worlds was a box office success, and became 2005's fourth most successful film both domestically, with $234 million in North America, and worldwide, with $591 million overall. At time of its release it was the highest grossing film starring Tom Cruise until Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.
Contents |
Plot
Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is a container crane operator at a New Jersey port and is estranged from his children. He is visited by his ex-wife, Mary Ann (Miranda Otto), who drops off the children, Rachel (Dakota Fanning) and Robbie (Justin Chatwin), as she is going to visit her parents in Boston, Massachusetts. Robbie takes Ray's car out without his permission, so Ray starts to search for him. Ray notices a strange wall cloud, which starts to send out powerful lightning strikes, disabling all electronic devices in the area, including cars, forcing Robbie to come back. Ray heads down the street to investigate. He stops at a garage and tells Manny the local mechanic, to replace the solenoid on a dead car.Ray reaches the place where multiple lighting bolts struck the ground and witnesses the ground heaving up as a massive machine with three long legs climbs out. The Tripod gives off a loud blaring sound before opening fire with heat-rays, vaporizing bystanders and destroying everything in its path. Ray manages to barely escape; he packs up his kids and leaves in the vehicle Manny repaired as the Tripod destroys the town. He drives to Mary Ann's house to take refuge that night. Loud explosions occur all night. The next morning he discovers a crashed Boeing 747 in the street outside the house. He meets a news team stealing the flight's meals and surveying the wreckage. The reporter shows him footage of Tripods all over the Earth, with the unknown pilots entering the machines through the lightning strikes. She speculates that the machines were in place for thousands of years meaning the invasion was being planned for a long time.
Ray decides to take the kids to Boston to be with their mother. Robbie, trying to join the fight against the aliens, tries to leave with the U.S. military, but Ray and Rachel stop him. They are forced to leave their car after a mob surrounds them and takes the vehicle by force. They later survive a Tripod attack which causes the sinking of a Hudson River ferry. The family then ends up in the middle of a battle between the military and the Tripods. Forced to choose between being separated from Rachel and preventing Robbie from joining the fight, Ray lets him go with the soldiers. Immediately afterwards the Tripods destroy all military resistance, presumably also killing Robbie. The Tripods are shown to be protected by an energy shield that makes them invulnerable. While escaping, Ray and Rachel are offered shelter by Harlan Ogilvy (Tim Robbins), who vows revenge on the aliens after his family was killed by them.
While hiding in Harlan's basement, they witness the Tripods spreading a strange red weed substance everywhere. They all hide from a snake-like probe and a group of four aliens who explore the basement. The next morning, Ogilvy suffers a mental breakdown while witnessing a Tripod harvesting blood and tissue from a human. Concerned that Ogilvy's yelling and ranting will attract the Tripods, Ray reluctantly kills Ogilvy to silence him. The basement hideout is exposed when a second probe catches them sleeping. Ray cripples the probe using an axe, but Rachel runs outside and is caught by the Tripod. As he chases after the Tripod and Rachel, Ray finds a grenade bandolier with several hand grenades in a destroyed Humvee and detonates one of them to attract the Tripod's attention. He is captured as he planned and placed in the same basket with Rachel and several other prisoners. Ray discovers Rachel is in shock after she witnesses a captive being sucked up into the ship to be harvested. As Ray finally calms her down, the aliens select Ray to pull him inside for harvesting, but the other prisoners manage to pull him back. The bandolier he was wearing was left inside the Tripod and Ray was able to pull all of the pins, causing a massive internal explosion, destroying the Tripod and freeing the captives.
Ray and Rachel arrive in a devastated Boston, where the red weeds are dying and the Tripods have been behaving erratically and crashing, apparently infected by Earth pathogens. Ray notices that force fields are down on a Tripod, prompting nearby soldiers to attack and destroy it. As a crowd approaches the downed machine, a hatch opens, revealing an alien that lets out a final growl before it dies. Ray and Rachel reach Mary Ann's parents' house, where Rachel is reunited with her mother and find to their surprise, Robbie, who has somehow survived the hilltop massacre.
Cast
- Tom Cruise as Ray Ferrier
- Dakota Fanning as Rachel Ferrier
- Justin Chatwin as Robbie Ferrier
- Miranda Otto as Mary Ann Davis
- Tim Robbins as Harlan Ogilvy
- Rick Gonzalez as Vincent
- Lenny Venito as Manny the Mechanic
- Lisa Ann Walter as Cheryl
- Ann Robinson as Grandmother, played a lead role in the 1953 film.
- Gene Barry as Grandfather, played a lead role in the 1953 film.
- David Alan Basche as Tim
- Roz Abrams as Herself
- Camillia Sanes as News Producer
- Amy Ryan as Neighbor with Toddler
- Danny Hoch as Policeman
- Morgan Freeman as the narrator
- Channing Tatum as Boy in Church Scene (uncredited)
- Dee Bradley Baker as Alien vocals (uncredited)
Production
Development
After collaborating in 2002's Minority Report, Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise were interested in working together again. Spielberg stated about Cruise, "He's such an intelligent, creative partner, and brings such great ideas to the set that we just spark each other. I love working with Tom Cruise."[2] Cruise met with Spielberg during the filming of Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can (2002) and gave three options of films to create together, one of them being an adaptation of The War of the Worlds.[2] Spielberg chose The War of the Worlds and stated, "We looked at each other and the lights went on. As soon as I heard it, I said `Oh my God! War of the Worlds – absolutely.' That was it."[2]The film is Spielberg's third on the subject of alien visitation, along with Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Producer and longtime collaborator Kathleen Kennedy notes that with War of the Worlds, Spielberg had the opportunity to explore the antithesis of the characters brought to life in E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. "When we first started developing E.T., it was a much edgier, darker story and it actually evolved into something that was more benign. I think that the edgier, darker story has always been somewhere inside him. Now, he's telling that story."[2] Spielberg stated that he just thought it would be fun to make a "really scary film with really scary aliens", something which he had never done before.[2][3] Spielberg was intent on telling a contemporary story, with Kennedy stating the story was created as a fantasy, but depicted in a hyper-realistic way.[2]
| "For the first time in my life I'm making an alien picture where there is no love and no attempt at communication." |
| – Steven Spielberg[4] |
Spielberg accepted the script after finding it had several similarities to his personal life, including the divorce of his parents (Ray and Mary Ann's divorce), and because the plight of the fictional survivors reflects his own uncertainty after the devastation of the 11 September attacks.[3] For Spielberg, the characters' stories of survival needed to be the main focus, as they featured the American mindset of never giving up.[3] Spielberg described War of the Worlds as "a polar opposite" to Close Encounters, with that movie featuring a man leaving family to travel with aliens, while War of the Worlds focused on keeping the family together.[3] At the same time, the aliens and their motivations would not be much explored, as "we just experience the results of these nefarious plans to replace us with themselves".[8]
Although accepting the script, Spielberg asked for several changes. Spielberg had been against the idea of the aliens arriving in spaceships, since every alien invasion movie used such a vehicle.[6] The original Martian cylinders were discarded, where Spielberg replaced the origins of the Tripods with stating they were buried underground in the Earth long ago.[4][6]
Filming
The scene depicting the first appearance of the Tripods was filmed in Newark, New Jersey.[10] Later, Spielberg filmed several scenes in Virginia.[11] The continuous scene was filmed in California.[12]
The ferry scene was filmed in the New York town of Athens, and Mary Ann's parents house was located in Brooklyn (but was featured in the film in Boston).[2] For the scene involving a crashed Boeing 747, the production crew bought an out-of-use airplane, with transportation costs of $2 million,[13] destroyed it into pieces, and built houses around them.[2] The destroyed plane was kept for the Universal Studios back-lot tour.[13] Ray's house was filmed in Bayonne, New Jersey (with a soundstage doubling the interior); meanwhile, the valley war sequence was filmed in Lexington, Virginia and Mystery Mesa in California. The scene where the tripod is shot down and crashes through a factory was filmed in Naugatuck, Connecticut. The scene of the bodies floating down the river was filmed on the Farmington River in Windsor, Connecticut by a second unit using a stand in for Dakota Fanning (the back of her character) with the portion showing the faces of the credited actors cut in later. Some filming was shot on the Korean War Veterans Parkway in Staten Island, NY. [2][14] The film used six sound stages, spread over three studio lots.[2]
Design and visual effects
Industrial Light & Magic was the main special effects company for the movie.[15] While Spielberg had used computers to help visualize sequences in pre-production before, Spielberg said, "This is the first film I really tackled using the computer to animate all the storyboards."[2] He decided to employ the technique extensively after a visit to his friend George Lucas.[2][15] In order to keep the realism, the usage of computer-generated imagery shots and bluescreen was limited, with most of the digital effects being blended with miniature and live-action footage.[16]The design of the Tripods was described by Spielberg as "graceful," with artist Doug Chiang replicating aquatic lifeforms,[16] At the same time, the director wanted a design that would be iconic while still providing a tribute to the original Tripods, as well as intimidating so the audience would not be more interested about the aliens inside than on the vehicle itself.[8] The visual effects crew tried to blend organic and mechanical elements in the Tripods depiction, and made extensive studies for the movements of the vehicle to be believable, considering the "contradiction" of having a large tank-like head being carried by thin and flexible legs.[17] Animator Randal M. Dutra considered the movements themselves to have a "terrestrial buoyance", in that they were walking on land but had an aquatic flow, and Spielberg described the Tripods as moving like "scary ballet dancers". Most of the alien elements revolved around the number three – the Tripod had three eyes, and both the vehicle and the aliens had three main limbs with three fingers each.[8] Visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman considered depicting the scale of the Tripod as challenging, considering "Steven wanted to make sure that these creatures were 150 feet tall",[16] as it was the height described by Wells in the novel.[8] The aliens themselves had designs based on jellyfish, with movements inspired by red-eyed tree frogs,[17] and an amphibian quality particularly on the wet skin. A styrofoam alien was used as a stand-in to guide the actors in the basement scene.[8] Spielberg did not want any blood or gore during the Heat-Ray deaths; in the words of Helman, "this was going to be a horror movie for kids". So the effects crew came up with the vaporization of the bodies, and considering it could not be fully digital due to both the complexity of the effect and the schedule, live-action dust was used alongside the CGI ray assimilation and particles.[16] Digital birds followed the Tripods in most scenes to symbolize the presence of death, which Chiang compared to vultures and added that "you don't know if these birds are going to the danger or away from it, if you should follow them or run away."[8]
During the scene where Ray's minivan is attacked by a mob, Janusz Kaminski and Spielberg wanted a lot of interactive lights, so they added different kinds of lights, including Coleman lamps, oil lanterns, flashlights and Maglights.[2] The IL&M crew admitted that the destruction of the Bayonne Bridge was the toughest scene to be made with heavy usage mix of CGI effects and live action elements,[18] and a four-week deadline so the shot could be used in a Super Bowl trailer.[16] The scene originally had only a gas station exploding, but then Spielberg suggested blowing up the bridge as well.[16] The scene involved Tripods shooting a Heat-Ray towards the minivan and minivan escapes from it involved a lot of CGI layers to work out. Over 500 CGI effects were used in the film.[19]
Costume designer Joanna Johnston created 60 different versions of Ray's leather jacket, to illustrate the degrees to which he is weathered from the beginning of the journey to the end. "He begins with the jacket, a hoodie, and two t-shirts," explains Johnston. One piece of Dakota Fanning's costume that takes on a special importance is her lavender horse purse: "I wanted her to have something that made her feel safe, some little thing that she could sleep with and put over her face," Johnston notes. "That was the lavender horse purse. We tied it up on a ribbon and Dakota hung it on her body, so it was with her at all times." Johnston dressed Robbie for an unconscious emulation of his father, "They're more alike than they realize, with great tension on the surface," Johnston says.[2]
Music
| War of the Worlds: Music from the Motion Picture | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Film score by John Williams | ||||
| Released | 2005 | |||
| Genre | Soundtrack | |||
| Label | Decca Records | |||
| John Williams chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [20] |
| Filmtracks | |
| ScoreNotes | C+ |
| SoundtrackNet |  |
A soundtrack album was released by Decca Records, that featured the film's music and Morgan Freeman's opening and closing narration.[23][24] The songs "Little Deuce Coupe" and "Hushabye Mountain" are also featured in the movie, the former sung by Tom Cruise, and the latter by Dakota Fanning.[25][26]
| [show]War of the Worlds: Music from the Motion Picture | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Themes
The film was described as an anti-war film, as civilians run and only try to save themselves and their family instead of fighting back the alien Tripods.[27] Debra J. Saunders of San Francisco Chronicle described the film as "If aliens invade, don't fight back. Run." Saunders compared the film to Independence Day, where the civilians do run, but they support the military efforts.[27] Many reviewers considered the film tried to recreate the atmosphere of the September 11 attacks, with bystanders struggling to survive and the usage of missing-persons displays.[28] Spielberg declared to Reader's Digest that beside the work being a fantasy, the threat represented was real: "They are a wake-up call to face our fears as we confront a force intent on destroying our way of life."[29] Screenwriter David Koepp stated that he tried not to put explicit references to September 11 or the Iraq War, but said that the inspiration for the scene where Robbie joins the army were teenagers fighting at the Gaza Strip – "I was thinking of teenagers in Gaza throwing bottles and rocks at tanks, and I think that when you're that age you don't fully consider the ramifications of what you're doing and you're very much caught up in the moment and passion, whether that's a good idea or not."[7] Retained from the novel is the aliens being defeated, not by men's weapons, but the planet's smallest creatures, bacteria, which Koepp described as "nature, in a way, knowing a whole more than we do".[8]Even so, the troops who fought the evening engagement against the aliens, while employing the most powerful weaponry they possessed, fought them not to defeat them, but to buy what time they could for the refugees' retreat as revealed by conversations among the troops during the battle. Their willingness to face inevitable death for the sake of the civilians remained a constant theme throughout the film, where soldiers were not portrayed deserting or running away.
Release
War of the Worlds premiered at the Ziegfeld Theatre on 23 June 2005. There, Tom Cruise revealed his relationship with Katie Holmes.[30] Six days later, on 29 June, the film was released in approximately 3,908 theaters across America.[1]Secrecy
Spielberg kept most of the parts secret in the filmmaking, as the cast and crew were left confused about how the aliens looked.[31] When asked about the secrecy of the screenplay, David Koepp answered, "[Spielberg] wouldn't give [the screenplay] to anybody". Koepp explained he would e-mail it to him, and he would give a section of the script that was relating to whatever somebody was doing.[31] Miranda Otto thought of not even discussing the story with her family and friends. Otto said, "I know some people who always say, 'Oh, everything's so secret.' I think it's good. In the old days people didn't get to know much about movies before they came out and nowadays there's just so much information. I think a bit of mystery is always really good. You don't want to blow all of your cards beforehand."[32]Spielberg admitted after keeping things secret for so long, there is in the end the temptation to reveal too much to the detriment of the story at the press conference of War of the Worlds. So, Spielberg only revealed the hill scene, where Ray tries to stop his son from leaving, stating "to say more would reveal too much."[33] The secrecy caused The Sun to claim the film would surpass Titanic's 200 million budget, which at the time held the record for the most expensive film ever made.[34] The actual budget of the film was US $132 million.[1][35]
Marketing and home media releases
Paramount Pictures Interactive Marketing debuted a human survival online game on its official website,waroftheworlds.com, on 14 April to promote the film.[36] Hitachi collaborated with Paramount Pictures for a worldwide promotional campaign, under the title of “The Ultimate Visual Experience”. The agreement was announced by Kazuhiro Tachibana, general manager of Hitachi’s Consumer Business Group.[37]
Kazuhiro stated, "Our ‘The Ultimate Visual Experience’ campaign is a
perfect match between Spielberg and Cruise’s pursuit of the world’s best
in film entertainment and Hitachi’s commitment to the highest picture
quality through its digital consumer electronic products."[37]The film was released on VHS and DVD on 22 November 2005, with both a single-disc edition and a two-disc special edition featured production featurettes, documentaries and trailers.[38] The film grossed $113,000,000 in DVD sales, bringing its total film gross to $704,745,540, ranking tenth place in the 2005 DVD sales chart.[39]
Although Paramount had the worldwide theatrical rights, the US DVD rights were with DreamWorks, while Paramount had international DVD rights. War of the Worlds was one of the last DreamWorks DVD releases to be distributed by Universal Studios Home Entertainment, since Paramount would announce its acquisition of DreamWorks a few weeks after the DVD release (it was completed in February 2006, though DreamWorks would later become independent again). Because of the Paramount/DreamWorks merger, Paramount now has inherited the rights originally with DreamWorks, and future re-releases on any media will be distributed by Paramount (which had produced the 1953 version alone). Paramount released the film on Blu-Ray on 1 June 2010.
Reception
Box office
On 29 June 2005, the film grossed approximately US$21 million worldwide,[40] and earned the thirty-eighth biggest opening week gross with grossing $98,826,764 in 3,908 theatres, averaging $25,288 in each theater.[41] Meanwhile, on Independence Day weekend, War of the Worlds grossed $64,878,725 in 3908 theatres also, giving an average of $16,601.[42] This is the third-biggest film opening on Independence Day weekend.[43] The film earned $200 million in 24 days, ranking thirty-seventh place in the list of fastest films to gross $200 million.[44] The film has grossed $591,745,550 worldwide,[1] making it the fourth highest grossing film of 2005, and the sixty-sixth highest grossing film worldwide.[45][46]Reviews
The movie gained positive critical consensus. Review aggregator website Metacritic gave it an average score of 73 based on 40 reviews.[47] On another website, Rotten Tomatoes, War of the Worlds currently garners a 74% "fresh" rating based on 250 reviews and the critical consensus stating [that] "Steven Spielberg's adaptation of War of the Worlds delivers on the thrill and paranoia of H.G. Wells' classic novel while impressively updating the action and effects for modern audiences."[48] Among Rotten Tomatoes' Top Critics, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs, the film's reception was more ambivalent with a score of 67% based on 42 reviews.[49]James Berardinelli praised the acting and considered that focusing the narrative on the struggle of one character made the film more effective, but described the ending as weak, even though Spielberg "does the best he can to make it cinematically dramatic".[50] Total Film's review gave War of the Worlds 4 out of 5 stars, considering that "Spielberg finds fresh juice in a tale already adapted for film, TV, stage, radio and record", and describing the film as having many "startling images", comparing the first Tripod attack to the Omaha Beach landing from Saving Private Ryan.[51]
Los Angeles Times' Kenneth Turan, who felt the special effects were unusual, stated that Spielberg may actually have done his job in War of the Worlds "better than he realizes", showing how fragile the world is. Turan claimed Spielberg raised a most provocative question: "Is the ultimate fantasy an invasion from outer space, or is it the survival of the human race?"[52] However, Broomfield Enterprise's Dan Marcucci and Nancy Serougi did not share Berardinelli and Turan's opinion. They felt that Morgan Freeman's narration was unnecessary, and that the first half was "great" but the second half "became filled with clichés, riddled with holes, and tainted by Tim Robbins".[53]
Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three and a half stars (out of four), saying "War of the Worlds definitely wins its battle, but not the war." Wilmington stated the film brought the viewers on a wild journey through two sides of Spielberg: the dark and the light. He also said the film contained a core sentiment similar to that of Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.[54] About.com's Rebecca Murray gave a positive review, stating, "Spielberg almost succeeds in creating the perfect alien movie", with criticism only for the ending.[55] Jonathan Rosenbaum of Chicago Reader praised the special effects and Cruise's performance.[56] Roger Ebert criticized the "retro design" and considered that despite the big budget, the alien invasion was "rudimentary" and "not very interesting", regarding the best scenes as Ray walking among the airliner wreckage and a train running in flames, declaring that "such scenes seem to come from a kind of reality different from that of the tripods."[57]
The French film magazine Cahiers du cinéma ranked the film as 8th place in its list of best films of the 2000s.[58] Japanese film director Kiyoshi Kurosawa listed the film as the best film of 2000-2009.[59]
