Director: Sergey Bodrov
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Ben Barnes, Julianne Moore, Djimon Hounsou, Olivia Williams, Jason Scott Lee
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Ben Barnes, Julianne Moore, Djimon Hounsou, Olivia Williams, Jason Scott Lee
Sometimes movies get the shaft at the box office because of
a lot of crap that goes on behind the scenes, stuff sometimes we as an audience
are completely unaware of. For example, Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron
Munchausen (1989) was a huge box office bomb, not because it was a bad film,
but because of a shift in administration at Columbia Pictures, and so the new
head honchos treated the previous administrations films like crap, so
Adventures of Baron Munchausen wasn’t promoted well, the result was an
excellent film that died a quick death at the box office. Of course, now the
film is considered one of Terry Gilliam’s best, but when it was first released
a shift in administration at Columbia turned it into a 60 million dollar fiasco.
A similar thing happened to Seventh Son, not that Seventh Son is anywhere near
as awesome as Adventures of Baron Munchausen, but it is a film that deserved a
better chance at the box office. For me, it’s a fun film that’s far from being
terrible. The problem with Seventh Son was that it was produced by Legendary
Pictures, who at one point were going to partner up with Warner Brothers to
distribute the film (if you check the poster I've posted it actually has the WB logo!) but that partnership fell through and Warner Bros. and Legendary
Pictures parted ways. Then Legendary partnered up with Universal
Pictures, but by then, the film’s release had lost momentum. The thing is that
when movie buffs see constant delays and changes in release dates they get the
feeling that the film isn’t going to be that good, because the studio is
stalling its release. Film buffs can sniff a stinker from miles away! I myself
felt the delay was because the film wasn’t going to be that good. What did I
know about a shift in partnerships between studios? So the film was a box
office bomb in the United States which at least made its budget back with its worldwide intake. Still, I feel American audiences could have given this one a better chance.
Seventh Son is all about a Master Gregory, a sorcerer who
dedicates his life to killing monsters, demons and witches. He has an
apprentice, but loses him in a battle with an evil witch called Mother Malkin;
so since a sorcerer cannot be without an apprentice, now Master Gregory has to
find a new apprentice, The Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. You see, supposedly,
the seventh son of a seventh son makes perfect sorcerers’ apprentice. So
Gregory is searching for that special young man. Once he finds him, they have
to team up to go up against Mother Malkin, before she becomes all powerful and
rules the land with her coven of witches.
The thing about Seventh Son is that it was actually entertaining.
I was ready to rip it a new one, because honestly, I was expecting a terrible
film. The fact that the studio held this one back for so long made me raise a
red flag. Usually when a studio gets cold feet with the release of a movie, it’s
because the movie is bad and they are looking for just the right moment in
which to release it so it won’t have much competition at the box office. Also, who the hell was this director? I knew
nothing of Sergey Bodrov’s body of work, I didn’t know what to expect. I had no
basis of comparison. Thankfully the film turned my expectations around. Almost
immediately Jeff Bridges portrayal of Master Gregory got me to like the film, I
mean, here’s Jeff Bridges breathing life into this character, he gave it a real
unique persona, I liked that about it. Bridges infused the character with just
the right amount of comedy and charisma. So much so that some reviews say that it’s
Bridges Master Gregory that saves the film. I have to say that it certainly is
one of the films high points, but the film has other good things going for it
as well.
You see, this is a fantasy film along the lines of let’s
say, Willow (1988), Legend (1985) or Krull (1983); films in which our heroes
exist in a magical land filled with monsters, magic and witches. On these types
of films, the main character goes from zero to hero, sometimes in a matter of
seconds and obviously, always going through a quick training montage with their
‘master’. In this sense, Seventh Son is not original at all, which is one of
the reasons it doesn’t get a perfect score from me. You see, this film goes
through all the cliché’s of a heroes journey, finding his magical sword in a magical cave…being trained by his master and finally,
seeing the main character put what his
learned to good use in his first adventure. But it’s all cool, because it
surprised me that Seventh Son actually took some of those clichés and turned
them around. For example, there’s a moment in which the apprentice, Tom Ward, finds
a magical sword and grabs it from the hands of a corpse, a scene that reminded me
of identical scenes in Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Legend (1985), then the
film surprises me and has the spirit of the former owner of the sword actually fight
with Tom for his sword! So while Seventh Son isn’t completely original, it
still has the ability to surprise you at certain points. It's well aware of fantasy movie cliche's so it tries its best to turn them around. The dialog is quick and witty because the filmmakers know that we're savvy, so the dialog gets to the point rather quickly, it doesn't stall.
Films like Seventh Son are essentially monster films; they exist
to wow us with their monsters. Remember the two headed dragon in Willow (1988)?
Or Meg Mucklebones, the water witch from Legend (1985)? How about the army of
Skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts (1963)? All show stopping monsters! Well,
Seventh Son is this kind of film, filled to the brim with monsters at every
turn. I enjoyed the creatures on this one, in fact this film felt like a homage
to all those old Ray Harryhausen fantasy films like Sinbad and the Eye of the
Tiger (1977) or Clash of the Titans (1981). Actually, one of the creatures that
they fight in Seventh Son feels like a total update of the Kali Statue that
Sinbad fights in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973). So at least the filmmakers
behind Seventh Son knew exactly the kind of film they were making. They made
sure the monsters were awesome to behold. Modern “monster films” sometimes offer
us generic monsters that we can’t really take a good look at, in Seventh Son
the monsters are a showcase and I have to admit I loved that about it. Not only
that, I found them to be well animated. The only time I like computer generated
images is when they are done right, and on this show they got the monsters
right. The only negative thing I can say about the effects is that they decided
to use morphing effects, which I think are out dated. Sadly they use them on
Seventh Son all the time, which was a huge let down. So the computer effects go
from freaking awesome, to not so freaking awesome and in that sense the film is
a bit uneven. But I will say that in terms of effects, the good out weights the
bad.
Above, a creature from Seventh Son (2014), below The Kali Statue from The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973)
So what we got here ladies and gentlemen is not a classic or
a masterpiece, but a damn fun fantasy film with cool monsters and a cool
character thanks to Jeff Bridges Master Gregory, who infuses enough comedy and
charisma into the proceedings to keep us entertained. The monsters are cool,
and the film harkens back to the old Harryhausen fantasy classics, where
monsters mattered! And speaking of the monsters and the effects on this movie, the visual effects were produced by John Dykstra, the visual effects genius who's worked in films like Star Wars (1977), Lifoforce (1985) and Spiderman (2002) among many other effects heavy films, so this is probably the reason why the monsters on this film are so cool. Plus it has an excellent cast. We even get a The Big Lebowski (1998) reunion with Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore working together again. The only thing that brings it down is that it isn’t all that
original, and the CGI is sometimes off. But otherwise, we have a fun film you
should give a chance to if you like fantasy and monster films.
2 comments:
Hey Fran, I've never even heard of this one. Granted, I've been out of the loop on most modern movies, but I don't recall hearing anything about this one at all. Looks and sounds fun, Fran. Thanks for the engaging write up. It's made me interested in checking this one out.
Hope you enjoy it if you give it a chance, it's fun, albeit cliched filled. But its got cool as hell monsters, a lover of fantasy films should enjoy it. I know how much you love Harryhausen movies, which is why I think you will dig this one!
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