Two Cases of Plagiarism

Dark is Rising - 2/5

Hollywood seems to think that children's/teenage fantasy is easy money at the moment, so any suitable books will be looked at for adaptation. The problem is that it's difficult to do well. Dark is Rising, adapted from Susan Cooper's novel, at least makes a decent attempt, but comes up some way short of the mark.

It at least avoids the trap of starting with a dodgily scripted narration explaining all the legends and mythology we need to get our heads round to understand it. In the fact the start is quite promising.

The story follows Will Stanton, an American boy moved to rural England. The youngest of 6 sons, with a younger sister, two of have his brothers have left home, the two immediately above him are twins with a taste for practical jokes. (And if that family arrangement seems rather familiar, Ms Rowling, it should be pointed out that Cooper's novel was written several decades before the Potter books). A bit of a loner, Will discovers that he is The Seeker, the chosen one who can step through time to retrieve the signs which will help light overcome dark. (Ok, thats the mythological mumbo-jumbo done - and at least it gets done by Ian McShane with a bit of a twinkle in his eye.

This potentially sets up an intriguing mystery to follow through, but the film entirely fails to grasp this opportunity and the Seeker doesn't so much seek and stumble blindly across said signs. On the way there is some passable special effects and some genuine scares (with some liberal borrowing from other sources (The Birds springs to mind at several points). The running time is kept short, but certain subplots are so condensed (like Will's brother being lured over to the Dark) that you wonder why they were included at all.

Alexander Ludwig is a bit too whiny and unengaging in the title role, but the biggest disappointment is Christopher Ecclestone as the villain of the piece. Despite a suitable look, he keeps it too straight and underplayed to make a really compelling bad guy. It is left to McShane to give proceedings a lift - he at least doesn't seem to take it all seriously and the few moments of light relief all involve him (my personal favourite being the part where he asks the teenage lead to express himself, with predictable results).

The film is not dreadful, although the mystery elements are all rather predictable. Its a step up from the likes of Eragon, but still some way short of the likes of Narnia or Potter, let alone Lord of the Rings. Despite its Christmas setting, the decision not to go for a Christmas release against The Golden Compass says it all really.

The Last Legion - 2.5/5

An attempt to bring together the likes of Gladiator and Rome (even to the extent of casting star of the TV series Kevin McKidd, confusingly as a barbarian) with Arthurian legend, it all ends up almost as much of a confused mess as Ben Kingsley's accent. The grainy look suggests an attempt at realism, but the action involving an Indian warrior-woman and castles that look decidedly medieval point the other way. At least the cast have the sense not to take it all too seriously.

As the barbarians take over Rome, the child emperor (Thomas Sangster from Love Actually and Nanny McPhee doing his earnest staring thing) flees to Britain accompanied by his loyal general (Colin Firth, doing his permanently bemused thing), teacher/mentor (Kingsley, doing the what accent is that meant to be thing) and said Indian fighter (Aishwarya Rai, Bride and Prejudice, doing the totally out of place but nice to look at thing). In Britain they find the lost ninth legion and make a final stand against the evil barbarians. The final battle wants so badly to be Helm's Deep from The Two Towers it hurts, but has nowhere near the budget to pull it off.

The whole effort is complete nonsense from start to finish, but the cast at least have the grace to realise it and manage to pull it off with enough of a hint of self-deprecation to make it quite entertaining and amusing with some nice fights scenes thrown in for good measure.