When a movie gets its release
date pushed back by two years, it usually doesn’t bode well for its
prospects. Originally slated for release
back on February 15, 2013, ‘Seventh Son’ (based on the novel of this review’s
title) was pushed back for various reasons, the chief among which was production company Legendary
Pictures’ having to find a new distributor after Warner Brothers backed out on
distributing it. You’d think a movie
boasting such star power as Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore and Djimon Hounsou would
garner a little more respect.
You'd also be wrong. While ‘Seventh Son’ (no abbreviations here
for obvious reasons) isn’t an unwatchable 'fantasy epic’ by any means, its
familiar storyline, generic ordinariness and mundane action set-pieces just don't quite cut it at a time when we expect more thanks to having been spoiled by Peter Jackson.
Jeff Bridges harrumph-ed his way throughout the movie as the gruff and less-than-noble knight Sir Gregory, whose particular skill was mainly his high tolerance for
liquor whenever he’s not fighting evil supernatural forces. And Julianne Moore still looked great and was okay as the evil
witch Mother Malkin, but even these two reunited ‘Big Lebowski’ stars couldn’t
elevate the movie above its soul crushing mediocrity.
‘Seventh Son’ does have some nice
visuals in its action set-pieces (with a $95 million production budget one should
hope so), but they’re not anything that we haven’t seen before in the well-tread fantasy
genre. Some of the creature designs are
cool, such as the drakes the witches turn into, a werebear played by Jason
Scott Lee and a four-armed swordsman influenced by Kali, the six-armed goddess of
Hindu mythology. Alas, visuals and
creature design alone just aren’t enough to recommend this movie nowadays. Maybe I should’ve watched ‘Jupiter Ascending’
instead after all.
Grade: C
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