Shannon Costello

I was struck by the level of incoherence in the film The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, based on Susan Cooper’s books.

The agents of darkness disguised as policemen turn into flying crows as their empty clothes fall to the ground. It is unclear why they do not follow Will back into the mall. The Old Ones are prevented from helping Will in the crypt because they are struggling under heaps of snakes.

Of course neither of those examples sound coherent to persons who are not familiar with the book or the movie. However, once one is immersed in either work, the action should move along in a somewhat plausible manner. Cooper’s presentation of the terror of darkness was quite unsettling in spots. This makes sense in a book about an epic battle between light and darkness. But the oppressive power of darkness was replaced in the movie by flocks of crows, snakes, and destructive walls of water. Crows at least appear in one scene in the book, but why snakes? And how could four powerful Old Ones be so immobilized by them?

There was a chase scene that I also found to be more of an abstract work of art than something that I could follow. I admit that I like more clarity in chase scenes than is often provided- like the dotted lines on the map in The Emperor’s New Groove. Here it was unclear why two of the Old Ones did not consider the possibility of the Rider appearing and why Will decided to flee on foot from an unknown man on horseback accompanied by a couple of dogs. I’m sure the screenwriters arranged the first because it gave them an opportunity to work in the adolescent Old One theme (which they beat to death and which does not appear in the book) and the second because it was dramatic. It also is not in the book. I think then that the disjointedness I observed springs from a poor attempt at melding new themes into the original work.

I contrast this to a film such as The Wizard of Oz. One could walk in well after the beginning and quickly get involved in the story. This may not be so true of Harry Potter films. I once watched an excerpt of the fourth movie with CJ. While trying to see it from his perspective, I was surprised at how hard it was to follow the story line.

I wonder if the level of coherence in kids’ movies has increased and, if so, what the implications are.