Seventh Son (film)

Seventh Son

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Sergei Bodrov
Produced by
Screenplay by
Story by
Based on The Spook's Apprentice 
by Joseph Delaney
Starring
Music by Marco Beltrami[1]
Cinematography Newton Thomas Sigel
Edited by
Production
company
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release dates
  • December 17, 2014 (France)
  • February 6, 2015 (United States & Canada)
Running time
 102 minutes[2]
Country United States[3]
Language English
Budget $95 million[4]
Box office $110.6 million[5]

Seventh Son is a 2014 American epic fantasy film directed by Sergei Bodrov and starring Ben Barnes, Jeff Bridges, Alicia Vikander, and Julianne Moore. It features music composed by Marco Beltrami, who replaced A. R. Rahman and Tuomas Kantelinen. It is based on the novel The Spook's Apprentice (titled The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch in the US) by Joseph Delaney. The story centers on Thomas Ward, a seventh son of a seventh son, and his adventures as the apprentice of the Spook. After having its release date shifted numerous times, the film was released in France on December 17, 2014 and in Canada and the United States on February 6, 2015.

Plot

The malevolent witch Mother Malkin is imprisoned in a chamber by Master Gregory, the last of a knightly order known as the Spooks who have long defended humanity against supernatural threats. After many years have passed, the beginning of a centennial event known as the Blood Moon increases Malkin's power, allowing her to morph into the form of a dragon and break free from her confinement. Gregory's apprentice Billy Bradley finds the Spook at a tavern, telling him the bells have rung for his help. After dealing with an armed man when he initially refuses to leave, Gregory answers the call and follows Billy to a small girl that appears to be possessed. Gregory realizes that she is possessed by Malkin, and exorcises the witch from the girl. Malkin attempts to control Billy with her magic, but he resists. The two attempt to subdue and burn Malkin, but she escapes while killing Billy in the process.

Tom Ward, the seventh son of a seventh son, has recurring visions of Gregory and an unknown girl, and realizes that he's going to leave home soon. When Gregory arrives, he offers Tom's parents a great deal of money if they allow him to take Tom as his new apprentice. Before he leaves, Mam gives Tom her necklace, which holds a strange stone.

In a town along the way, Tom sees a girl with pointed shoes about to be burned by a mob as a witch. Recognizing her as the girl from his visions, he reveals that he is Master Gregory's apprentice and insists that he be the one to decide if she is a witch and to deal with her if she is. After getting her away from the mob, he releases her. The girl, named Alice, tells him more about what happened to Gregory's previous apprentices, and encourages him not to tell his master about her.

Malkin returns to her stronghold, restoring it to its former condition. She meets with Bony Lizzie, her sister and Alice's mother, who has been disfigured by her last encounter with Gregory. Malkin heals her disfigured face, and the two begin gathering their allies and servants to conquer the world of humans. When Alice arrives shortly after, Malkin notes her human father and wonders about her loyalty. Alice becomes increasingly wary and distrustful of Malkin after she executes one of the assassins that the warlock Radu offers to her.

On the road, Tom meets Gregory's assistant Tusk, and goes through rushed training to learn how to fight witches before the Blood Moon is full and Malkin becomes too powerful to stop. Tom meets Alice a second time, who has been sent by the other witches to keep tabs on Gregory. At a city along the way to Malkin's stronghold, Gregory and Tom subdue one of Malkin's followers: a werebear warlock named Urag. Gregory instructs Tom to burn Urag, but the apprentice refuses with the Spook reprimanding him while burning the warlock himself. Gregory leaves on tense terms, while Tom remains behind. He and Alice briefly consider leaving on their own and getting away from the battle between Gregory and Malkin, but Tom has a vision of Malkin killing Gregory and unleashing destruction upon the world. He finds Gregory at a grave site, where the two reconcile and Gregory reveals more of his past with Malkin.

On their continuing journeys, the two encounter an enormous creature in the woods. Gregory tells Tom to make a run for it. It pursues them over a cliff and into the river, and Tom narrowly manages to kill the creature and survive being swept down a waterfall. He is then confronted by Bony Lizzie, who attempts to cut out his heart, but he overcomes her using the stone that his mother gave him. Lizzie claims it belongs to Malkin and flees in her beast form. After Tom reunites with Gregory, he reveals to Tom that the stone increases the power of witches and belonged to Malkin's clan. From this, he deduces that Tom's mother was a witch.

Lizzie returns to Malkin and tells her about the stone. They instruct Alice to use Tom's feelings for her against him and steal the stone, promising to leave Tom alive if she does. Malkin and her minions then proceed to attack the city to avenge Urag. Mam reveals her presence when she kills one of Malkin's allies after sending her husband and her daughter to safety. Mam is confronted by Malkin and is killed by the witch as she mocks her for giving away the stone that would have saved her life.

Alice finds Tom one more time and pleads with him to leave with her, taking the stone without him noticing. Gregory attempts to kill Alice, calling her a spy, but Tom stops him and lets her go, insisting that she isn't the enemy. More of Malkin's minions, led by Radu, come and attack Tom and Gregory. Although they fight back, the minions capture Gregory and knock Tom off a cliff, leaving him for dead. Tom then has a vision of his mother, who tells him not to mourn for her and that he must stop Malkin from using the stone.

The witches gather as Malkin attempts to seduce Gregory into joining forces with her and the clan with her magic. Alice is horrified to hear that Tom was left for dead. Remorseful of her actions, she grabs the stone from Malkin and runs away with it, breaking Malkin's hold on Gregory. Radu briefly turns into a dragon before Gregory convinces the warlock to fight him man to man, while Bony Lizzie is forced to turn on Malkin to protect her daughter as Alice drops the stone. Tom arrives looking for the stone and confronts Alice. After she reveals her reasons for stealing it, she fights against Malkin's minions and kills several, but is overcome by an Indian warlock called the King of Swords. Eventually Tom finds the stone and kills the King of Swords and another of Malkin's servants while Gregory kills Radu with one of his blades. Malkin defeats and kills Bony Lizzie in front of Alice, but is mortally wounded in turn. Gregory confronts Malkin in her room as she appears close to death. He conceals a knife, but Malkin grabs him with her claws. Tom arrives and throws a blade at Malkin, freeing Gregory, and finishes her off by burning her body.

Afterwards, Gregory acknowledges Tom's training as complete and gives him the brand that signifies his status as his replacement. He believes he is set to depart with Gregory, but Gregory tells him he is ready to stay with Tusk and defend the town as the new Spook. Tom and Tusk board the carriage and ride off together to the sound of the bells, ringing for their services.

Cast

Production

Sam Claflin was in negotiations to star as Tom Ward,[7] but in June 2011, negotiations with Claflin fell through and Ben Barnes replaced him.[8]

The film reunites The Big Lebowski stars Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore.

Production began on March 19, 2012, in Vancouver, British Columbia.[9] In February 2013, Legendary Pictures agreed to give $5 million to recently bankrupt visual effects house Rhythm and Hues Studios so they would complete their work on Seventh Son.[10]

Music

It was originally announced that A. R. Rahman and Tuomas Kantelinen would compose the score for the movie.[11] However, in July 2013, Rahman left the project due to scheduling conflicts.[12] Subsequently, in December 2013, Kantelinen was replaced by Marco Beltrami.[1]

Release

The film was originally scheduled for release February 15, 2013 but was moved back to October 18, 2013 to complete post-production.[13] It was moved again to January 17, 2014 due to the film's production partner Legendary Pictures parting ways with Warner Bros., who were initially intended to distribute the film.[13] On August 15, 2013, it was announced that Legendary has sold the distribution rights to their new partner Universal Studios, which pulled the film again.[14] On November 27, 2013, It was announced that the film would be released on February 6, 2015.[15] The film premiered in France on December 17, 2014.[16]

Reception

Box office

As of 22 February 2015, Seventh Son earned a gross of $16,033,000 in North America and $83,600,000 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $99,633,000.[5]

North America

The film featured in the list of "The Riskiest Box Office Bets of 2015" published by screenrant.com.[17] The film posted a gross of $295,000 from the Thursday preview.[18] The film earned an opening day gross of estimated $2,300,000, an estimated $3,000,000 for its second day and $1,801,000 for its third day.[19] The film was a box office bomb, according to Variety the film has a "projected loss of $85 million",[20] earning only $7,101,000 weekend gross, by playing in 2,875 theaters, with a $2,470 per-theater average and ranking #4.[5]

Other territories

The film opened in France and Lebanon on December 21, 2014, a month and a half ahead of its North America release, and earned $1.2 million.[21] The following weekend the film added $18.4 million from 24 new markets where it debuted at #1 in Russia, Romania, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Russia opened with $8.6 million while Spain generated $1.2 million.[22]

Critical response

Seventh Son received generally negative reviews from film critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 13%, based on 104 reviews, with an average rating of 3.8/10. The site's consensus reads, "Seventh Son squanders an excellent cast and some strange storyline ingredients, leaving audiences with one disappointingly dull fantasy adventure."[23] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 30 out of 100, based 32 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[24]

Peter Debruge of Variety gave a negative review criticizing the film's tired plot, special effects, lack of chemistry, and of the cast's performances such as that of Bridges' and Moore's, and calling the film an "over-designed" and "under-conceived fantasy epic".[25] The Hollywood Reporter's Jordan Mintzer writes that it "takes an A-list crew and cast—including Moore sporting a black feather dress and matching eyeliner—and goes nowhere new with it, investing lots in VFX and locations but not enough in an original story anyone cares about".[16] Los Angeles Times‍ '​ Betsey Sharkey said that the movie would "certainly be a contender" for "the worst movie of the year," she notes, "For acclaimed Russian director Bodrov, this foray into English-language filmmaking is a rare fail. Bodrov certainly knows his way around epics, as his excellent Oscar-nominated films Mongol and Prisoner of the Mountains attest. Seventh comes as a shock. Virtually every performance falls flat, aided no doubt by the vapid dialogue. And Bridges is saddled with an awful accent he never masters."[26] USA Today's Claudia Puig says, "The 3-D effects are off-putting: Smoke spills out at the audience, and the camera swooshes high and careens over cliffs. It's more dizzying than dazzling. Further mucking up the attempts at magical fantasy is a distracting, bombastic musical score and feeble attempts at humor. Seventh Son is thoroughly ill-conceived, a pale imitation of its more adventurous and breathtaking brethren."[27] The Guardian's Jordan Hoffman gave the movie two out of five stars and explained, "While Seventh Son has trace of Saturday afternoon fun, its unoriginal nature gets the better of it... There are flashes where you think Seventh Son is going to be wise enough to put a spin on the standard script, but by the end it just devolves into another loud, messy CGI brawl. How much more ruined masonry can moviegoers take? A lot, it seems, as this genre seems to be in no danger of going away."[28]

The New York Daily News‍ '​ Joe Neumaier was more complimentary of Moore's and Bridges' leading performances. "Saints be praised for whatever strange magic brought Bridges and Moore together for their own little mini–Big Lebowski reunion, whether it was playfulness, paychecks or an open spot on their calendars. Because they save this mediocre medieval fantasy adventure from the ash heap."[29]

CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.[30][31]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Marco Beltrami to replace Tuomas Kantelinen on "Seventh Son"". Film Music Reporter. Archived from the original on February 14, 2014. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
  2. ↑ "SEVENTH SON (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. February 11, 2015. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Seventh Son (2015)". AllMovie. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
  4. ↑ "Box Office: ‘Spongebob’ to Top ‘Jupiter Ascending,’ ‘Seventh Son’ - Variety". Variety. Archived from the original on February 4, 2015. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Seventh Son (2015)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 10, 2015.
  6. ↑ Brian Gallagher (June 24, 2011). "The Seventh Son Gets Ben Barnes". MovieWeb. Archived from the original on June 26, 2011. Retrieved June 24, 2011.
  7. ↑ Kroll, Justin (March 31, 2011). "'Seventh Son' finds young leads". Variety. Archived from the original on November 2, 2013. Retrieved April 1, 2011.
  8. ↑ Sneider, Jeff (June 24, 2011). "‘Narnia’ star Ben Barnes is WB’s ‘Son’". Variety. Archived from the original on April 16, 2014. Retrieved April 15, 2014.
  9. ↑ Schaefer, Sandy (March 26, 2012). "‘Seventh Son’ Begins Filming; Official Synopsis Released". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on October 21, 2013. Retrieved March 31, 2012.
  10. ↑ "'Seventh Son': Rhythm & Hues Seeks Judge's Approval of $5M to Finish Jeff Bridges Film". The Hollywood Reporter. February 20, 2013. Archived from the original on February 24, 2013. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  11. ↑ "A.R. Rahman and Tuomas Kantelinen to Score 'The Seventh Son'". Film Music Reporter. October 25, 2012. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  12. ↑ "AR Rahman pulls out of Hollywood film The Seventh Son". The Times of India. July 14, 2013. Archived from the original on May 25, 2014. Retrieved April 15, 2014.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Jen Yamato. "[VIDEO] ‘Seventh Son’ Trailer: Delayed Jeff Bridges Fantasy - Deadline". Deadline.com. Archived from the original on December 18, 2014. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  14. ↑ "‘Seventh Son’ Moves to Universal". Variety. Archived from the original on January 3, 2015. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  15. ↑ "Universal, Legendary Push Back ‘Warcraft,’ ‘Seventh Son’ Dates". Variety. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Jordan Mintzer (December 17, 2015). "'Seventh Son': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  17. ↑ "The Riskiest Box Office Bets of 2015". screenrant.com. Retrieved February 9, 2015.
  18. ↑ "‘SpongeBob’s $56M Pair Of Pants; ‘Jupiter’ $19M, ‘Seventh Son’ $7.1M – Sunday B.O. Final Update". deadline.com. Retrieved February 9, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Seventh Son Daily Gross". boxofficemojo.com. IMDB. Retrieved February 9, 2015.
  20. ↑ "Two Hollywood Flops in One Weekend at the Box Office". variety.com. Variety. Retrieved February 9, 2015.
  21. ↑ Nancy Tartaglione (December 21, 2014). "'Hobbit' Rules; 'Bullets' Fire Up China; 'PK' Lands; 'Museum' Opens Doors: Intl BO". Deadline.com. Archived from the original on December 22, 2014. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  22. ↑ Nancy Tartaglione (January 4, 2015). "‘Hobbit’ Passes $500M; ‘American Sniper’, ‘Taken 3′ Skillful: Intl Box Office Update". Deadline.com. Archived from the original on January 5, 2015. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
  23. ↑ "Seventh Son". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. February 6, 2015. Retrieved April 4, 2015.
  24. ↑ "Seventh Son". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
  25. ↑ Peter Debruge (December 17, 2014). "Film Review: ‘Seventh Son’". Variety. Archived from the original on January 3, 2015. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  26. ↑ Betsey Sharkey (February 6, 2015). "Review 'Seventh Son's' medieval fantasy falls flat on every level". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  27. ↑ Claudia Puig (February 6, 2015). "Medieval dud 'Seventh Son' wastes a ton of talent". USA Today. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  28. ↑ Jordan Hoffman (February 5, 2015). "Seventh Son first look review – who you gonna call? Witchbusters!". The Guardian. London. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  29. ↑ Joe Neumaier (February 6, 2015). "'Seventh Son': Movie review". Daily News. New York. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  30. ↑ "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  31. ↑ "'SpongeBob's $53M Pair Of Pants; 'Jupiter' & 'Son' Descending – Late Night B.O. Update". Deadline.com. Retrieved February 8, 2015.

External links