Justen Smith, Contributor
“Seventh Son” stars Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore and Ben Barnes as cogs in an uninspired fantasy cliché. Adapted from the novel “The Spook’s Apprentice,” “Seventh Son” revolves around the relationship between Gregory (Bridges) and his apprentice Tom (Barnes) after the death of his last student. Because I have not read the novel, criticisms of the plot may be seen as ill-fitting since they would be better applied to the source material than the film adaptation. However, a movie based on a novel should be able to stand up on its own, even if it has to drop a few of the more secondary details.
This movie does not hold up at all. Best described as lazy, “Seventh Son” treads every fantasy cliché there is. The character development is almost non-existent and the plot haphazardly lifts almost every element from older, better movies. Dodgy CGI prevents any of the fantastical creatures from being believable or interesting. Where “Jupiter Ascending,” a similar caliber of failure from this month, tries to cram too much into its world, this universe tries to stretch out its sparse exposition and conventions into a full movie, which just does not work.
If you crave all that is conventional fantasy, there may be something to enjoy here. For everyone else, let this one pass.
