"The Seeker" | Potter wannabe seeks Harry's magic

Although its origins can be traced back to the late 1960s, "The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising" plays like a Harry Potter knockoff. It communicates almost no sense of its own identity; everything seems borrowed and tired.

Alexander Ludwig, a young actor best known for his work in sports sequels ("The Sandlot 3," "Air Bud 3"), plays the Potterlike hero, Will Stanton. Christopher Eccleston is his chief adversary, a monstrous creature known as "The Rider," who might as well be called Lord Voldemort.

Trying to steer Will in the right direction are a couple of well-meaning spirits played by HBO regulars Frances Conroy ("Six Feet Under") and Ian McShane ("Deadwood"). Did they sign on because HBO required it as part of their contracts? They certainly behave as if they'd rather be elsewhere.

The idea behind "The Seeker" may have been to court the audience that made Potter and "Lord of the Rings" such cash cows. If so, the filmmakers have misunderstood that audience, which wants its dark fantasies presented in the form of marathon three-hour epics that thrive on complicated story lines.

"The Seeker" is almost insultingly short and simple. Based on a series of 1970s children's books by Susan Cooper, it transforms Cooper's 11-year-old British hero into an American teenager who discovers, on his 14th birthday, that he alone can save the universe from the destructive forces of The Dark.

Given only five days to accomplish the task, Will is nevertheless required to flit through several different periods of time. He is, of course, a reluctant hero. Told that he must be The One because he's the seventh son of a seventh son, he points out that he has only five brothers. In no time he discovers a solution to the problem.

John Hodge, the Scottish writer whose screenplay for "Trainspotting" earned him an Oscar nomination a decade ago, created the remarkably uninteresting script. The apparently unengaged director is the Swiss-Hawaiian filmmaker David L. Cunningham, who made the much-debated 2006 TV movie, "The Path to 9/11."

There's almost nothing magical or clever or amusing about "The Seeker." But Eccleston does score one genuinely scary moment, when The Rider disrupts a Christmas church service by singing "Joy to the World" with an enthusiasm that's truly jolting. Maybe the whole thing would have worked better as a horror movie.

John Hartl: johnhartl@yahoo.com