'The Seeker'dodders aroundPotter's territory

The forces of Light and Dark are at it again in The Seeker, David Cunningham's stilted fantasy about a pubescent lad charged with defeating evil and earning millions of US dollars for an American movie studio. Let's all try to recall where we've heard that before.

On the eve of his 14th birthday, everything changes for Will Stanton (Alexander Ludwig), an American living in Britain with his extremely large family. (Naturally, Will is the seventh son of a seventh son, so the old-woman-who-lived-in-a-shoe vibe is essential, if distracting.) When darkening skies and a masked horseman (Christopher Eccleston) get between Will and his crush (Amelia Warner), he is dismayed to learn that he is really a warrior who must find six signs and release the Light. From where is anybody's guess.

Feebly assisted by a bunch of dodderers known appropriately as the Old Ones, Will braves a Viking war and 1,000 slithering snakes. Yet despite the creepiness of a scene featuring a pair of morphing mall security guards, John Hodge's screenplay is frequently dreary and overly literal. Will's Googling of "the light and the dark" is only the most risible example.

Based on The Dark Is Rising series of books by Susan Cooper (who has claimed "enormous" differences between her work and the screenplay), The Seeker feels passe and lacks a charismatic lead. Too bad Daniel Radcliffe is an only child.