Dizzying ‘Seeker’ a nauseating quest

Filled with dizzying camera angles, strobelike lighting and a confusing plot line, "The Seeker: The Dark is Rising" is memorable not for its positive attributes but for the ones that make the viewer nauseous.

The movie, based on the book by Susan Cooper, tells the story of Will Stanton (played by Alexander Ludwig), the seventh son of a seventh son, as he seeks out six signs -- small, cross-shaped objects -- made by one of his distant ancestors. The objects are the only things that can stop the Rider (Christopher Eccleston), a representative of the Dark, from destroying the Earth.

It all begins when Will's life as a fairly normal, invisible, American teenager living in England is turned upside down when he turns 14. Representatives of the Dark start to harass him for the signs, first at a mall when a security guard turns into a monster and later when Will takes a walk and is stopped by the Rider, who wants to take the signs away from him.

Luckily for the boy, a group of seemingly unconnected townspeople who call themselves the Old Ones -- people who live outside of time and serve the Light -- come to his rescue. The group, which includes Miss Greythorne (Frances Conroy), the owner of the local mansion; Merriman Lyon (Ian McShane), her servant; and Dawson (James Cosmo) and Old George (Jim Piddock), two townsmen who do odd jobs for a living, challenge the Rider, who cannot stand against them all at once. They take Will away through time, out of the wintry forest and to a secluded, summertime building that is a sanctuary, the place where their powers are greatest.

The Old Ones explain to Will that he is the Seeker, the last Old One to be born. Like them, Will has the power to step through time, move objects and even make light and fire. Unlike them, Will has the ability to sense the signs.

The Old Ones tell Will that it is his duty as the Seeker to locate each of the six signs -- five of which were hidden in time and the last of which is a human soul, given to the Light, which was never hidden at all. Will has five days from his birthday to find all six signs before the Rider comes to his full power.

While Will goes about his quest, hopping back and forth between time periods, new difficulties enter his 21st-century life. A fierce winter storm caused by the Rider brings power outages, food shortages and intense cold. To make matters even worse, Will falls for Maggie Barnes (Amelia Warner), an older girl one of his brothers is dating, who is not afraid to toy with Will's affections. Learning about his older twin brother, who was kidnapped when they were 2 weeks old, does not make Will's life any easier or less confusing.

"The Seeker's" major high points were the parts that included Will's mischievous older brothers, the twins Robin and Paul (Edmund and Gary Enton), who provided virtually the only comic relief to be found in the movie, which was slightly too serious for anything aimed at kids.

While it had a decent, though predictable, plot line and average actors, the worst part of "The Seeker" was the confusing camera angles used throughout the movie. At some points, parts of a scene would be literally upside down, and at other points viewers had to tilt their heads to accurately see what was going on. This was worsened at the climax of the movie, when a strobe light effect made it difficult to look at the screen without getting an instant headache. Combined with the camera angles, this made it almost impossible to keep track of what actually was occurring onscreen.

Overall, "The Seeker" was an average movie, clearly an attempt to take advantage of the recent success of the fantasy-based "Harry Potter" and "Lord of the Rings" movies, both of which also were based on books.