Seventh Son (2014) Movie Recap-Criticism and analysis
The Seventh Son is the bi-product of the success of the Harry Potter films and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, as studios scrambled to find a new successful franchise, and how does one go about making a new fantasy film franchise? Well the first thing you need is a popular book series, one that has enough entries to ensure several films. Do you need to actually follow the source material? Of course not, because getting the fans of the books pissed off at you is half the fun.
This movie is based on “The Spook’s Apprentice” by English author Joseph Delaney, and it’s the first part of “The Wardstone Chronicles” and aside from name dropping of characters from the book this movie bears little resemblance to the source material. Guaranteed sure fire hit…right?
The film opens with Master Gregory (Jeff Bridges), a knight of the order of Spooks, imprisoning the evil witch Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore) inside a nasty pit. It is important to note that both the movie and the North American release of the book The Spook’s Apprentice changed the title because of the derogatory historical nature of the word “spook” knowing it would not fly on this side of the pond, but for some reason the filmmakers decided to keep the name in the script which resulted in me cringing every time someone called Jeff Bridges a spook.
We flash forward a couple of decades to find Master Gregory getting drunk at a local tavern, but his libations are interrupted by his apprentice Mr. Bradley (Kit Harrington), who informs his master that a young girl is possessed and needs their help. Because Gregory is a drunken asshat he ignores his apprentice, and continues to drink. A soldier is offended by Gregory’s callous behavior, and tries to intervene, but even drunk Gregory is a badass fighter and completely humiliates the soldier. Just when we are wondering who is supposed to be the hero of this film the church bells ring out, which apparently means that a spook is required, and Gregory must answer the call. So exactly what was the point of Gregory beating up a random soldier whose sole crime was in wanting Gregory to do his bloody job?
The rest of the movie is your typical fantasy road picture, where Gregory and Tom will encounter various monsters and witches until we get the final showdown with Mother Malkin. Director Sergey Bodrov has assembled quite the good cast for his movie, but most of them are either phoning it in or going over the top. I’m not sure what Jeff Bridges was going for here as his Master Gregory, as not only is he completely unlikable but he gives him a voice that is a cross between his Rooster Cogburn from the remake of True Grit and Tom Hardy’s Bane. It’s laughably bad. Ben Barnes is so bland throughout the films running time that all one can think of is how much better it would have been if Kit Harrington hadn’t died at the beginning of the film. Julianne Moore is swinging for the fences in her portrayal of
The Seventh Son is the bi-product of the success of the Harry Potter films and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, as studios scrambled to find a new successful franchise, and how does one go about making a new fantasy film franchise? Well the first thing you need is a popular book series, one that has enough entries to ensure several films. Do you need to actually follow the source material? Of course not, because getting the fans of the books pissed off at you is half the fun.
This movie is based on “The Spook’s Apprentice” by English author Joseph Delaney, and it’s the first part of “The Wardstone Chronicles” and aside from name dropping of characters from the book this movie bears little resemblance to the source material. Guaranteed sure fire hit…right?
The film opens with Master Gregory (Jeff Bridges), a knight of the order of Spooks, imprisoning the evil witch Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore) inside a nasty pit. It is important to note that both the movie and the North American release of the book The Spook’s Apprentice changed the title because of the derogatory historical nature of the word “spook” knowing it would not fly on this side of the pond, but for some reason the filmmakers decided to keep the name in the script which resulted in me cringing every time someone called Jeff Bridges a spook.
We flash forward a couple of decades to find Master Gregory getting drunk at a local tavern, but his libations are interrupted by his apprentice Mr. Bradley (Kit Harrington), who informs his master that a young girl is possessed and needs their help. Because Gregory is a drunken asshat he ignores his apprentice, and continues to drink. A soldier is offended by Gregory’s callous behavior, and tries to intervene, but even drunk Gregory is a badass fighter and completely humiliates the soldier. Just when we are wondering who is supposed to be the hero of this film the church bells ring out, which apparently means that a spook is required, and Gregory must answer the call. So exactly what was the point of Gregory beating up a random soldier whose sole crime was in wanting Gregory to do his bloody job?
The rest of the movie is your typical fantasy road picture, where Gregory and Tom will encounter various monsters and witches until we get the final showdown with Mother Malkin. Director Sergey Bodrov has assembled quite the good cast for his movie, but most of them are either phoning it in or going over the top. I’m not sure what Jeff Bridges was going for here as his Master Gregory, as not only is he completely unlikable but he gives him a voice that is a cross between his Rooster Cogburn from the remake of True Grit and Tom Hardy’s Bane. It’s laughably bad. Ben Barnes is so bland throughout the films running time that all one can think of is how much better it would have been if Kit Harrington hadn’t died at the beginning of the film. Julianne Moore is swinging for the fences in her portrayal of
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