Based on Joseph Delaney's book series, "The Wardstone Chronicles",
Seventh Son stars Jeff Bridges as Master Gregory, a marble-mouthed cuss
of a wizard, or a "spook" as he's referred to here. He's sortof a
wizard in the Gandalf mold, only more ornery, more drunken, and considerably
less intelligible. When we first meet him he's just locked away the evil witch
Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore), only to have her escape ten years later more
powerful than ever. In the process she kills his most recent apprentice (a
rather big star in a barely-there role), and now he must find another one by
seeking out a seventh son of a seventh son. What he finds is Tom (Ben Barnes),
the son of seemingly normal farmers, and soon the two are on a crash course in
defending the world from evil.
During the few moments when you can make out what Bridges is saying
(seriously, it's like he's eating cornmeal mush the whole time), he's typically
rattling off the names of one mythical creature or another, or telling Tom how
useless he is. Truthfully, Tom is pretty lousy but he has the protection of a
magical stone given to him by his mother (Olivia Williams), an object Malkin
desperately seeks before the all-powerful Blood Moon arrives. Apparently she
gets stronger or something when the Blood Moon arrives.
Seventh Son isn't exactly dull, which is a good thing, but there's
nothing about it that stands out from the pack. The director is Sergei Bodrov,
who may not be a household name but some will recognize his work from the
excellent historical epic, Mongol. The rocky, sword 'n sorcery world he
creates bares many of the same aesthetic touches until he slathers on so much
CGI that it becomes unrecognizable. Every villainous character can transform
into some other creature, and they transform often....even when it seems they
don't really need to. Moore's character turns into a dragon...there are a few
dragons, actually...while another turns into a bear and another a panther. It
grows tiresome pretty quick, especially since it distracts from some solid
character work from Bridges and Moore. Bridges seems to have taken his True Grit, Tron: Legacy, and The Big
Lebowski characters and combined them into one memorable mess. Moore is the
latest A-list actress to strut her stuff in a showy role as an evil witch. It's
not her strongest suit going big in such a way but she makes the most out of a
hammy role. Certainly she's more impressive than the bland Barnes or
underwhelming Alicia Vikander, who plays a love interest for Tom and possibly a
traitorous witch. She's overcome some bad roles before (most recently in Son
of a Gun) with her raw sensuality and presence, but she has little to work
with this time. Others who pop up for no apparent reason are Oscar winner
Djimon Hounsou, Antje Traue, and Jason Scott Lee.So will there be a chance to see the Seventh Son's further adventures? That's hard to predict, as said before. Who would have thought The Maze Runner would be a hit? Or that The Golden Compass would be a dud? Seventh Son seems to have more in common with the latter. While there's potential in what could come next, the first film is so flawed the franchise probably won't get that far.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
