Well, you can hardly blame them. When The Seeker (2007) was made, Harry Potter was at the height of its popularity, and everyone was eager to try to ride that wave to the cash nirvana. On the face of it, it seemed like a sure thing. An adaptation of the 1973 classic The Dark is Rising had all the familiar elements: a young eleven-year-old English boy suddenly coming into his power, having to face dark forces and live a secret life apart from the Muggle ... pardon me, mundane world. You could not even accuse it of plagiarism, because it had already established tropes that the whole genre (including Rowling) was utilizing. So what did they do? They aged up Will, made him and his family Americans, and made it 'relevant' to the youth by adding cell-phones and internet culture in the stupidest way. Instead of making it atmospheric and evocative they turned it into a cliché-ridden theme park ride. I tried to watch this travesty of one of my beloved - even foundational - childhood classics, then regretfully saw it pass into the abyss of the Shadow Library.
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