Seventh Son

This review may contain spoilers!

I feel like we haven't seen a good fantasy film released in a very long time. I would give Seventh Son a 4/10.

Seventh Son is the film that worked hard on it's special effects and so this became the highlight of the film, looking at the dragons, disintegrations and animated suits of armour you see where the film thrived. The editing is also very smooth and sets the scenes in a good light; moving the action along well. The fight choreography was great to watch too, there was a lot of fighting for the sake of it but it all looked sharp.

Kit Harington, who played Mr Bradley, really suited his apprentice role quite well; in fact he probably would have fitted the lead of this film much better than Barnes did. Djimon Hounsou, who played Radu, was easily the best of the witches; he managed to not play into stereotype and instead became an incredible warrior menace that entertained onscreen.

The best performance was absolutely Jeff Bridges, who played Master Gregory. Bridges fits well into a mentor role and always knows how to evolve these types of roles in a way that is satisfying to watch unfold. I struggled with his choice of voice for the role at first but it did add to the effect of grouchy teacher. His comedic wit and his nicely placed banter and one liners made Bridges stand out amongst the rest of the cast.

This was classic B-list plot, a tale fabricated in a way that wasn't grounded and really lacked purpose or empathy. The plot dragged for a long time, you really got tired of seeing these countless scenes filled with exposition. Not to mention how utterly predictable the film was and how moments of tension were completely removed because of this. A lot of scenes introduced plot points for the sake of advancing the story in a convenient way. The score was annoying, in fact the best way to describe it would be to say that it was repetitive and lacked diversity in how it sounded. I also thought the cinematography was incredibly basic, there was no sense of originality or exploration in how shots were constructed.

Ben Barnes, who played Tom Ward, was a terrible lead; his performance lacked a sense of emotion and I'm not convinced that he really formed an understanding of his character or the script. Julianne Moore, who played Mother Malkin, really does underwhelm me when she plays a role in a blockbuster film; she otherwise goes for monotone drone or the incredibly over the top and exaggerated performance we got in this film. Alicia Vikander, who played Alice, wasn't very convincing as Barnes' love interest; in fact she had no chemistry with Barnes and felt incredibly stiff in her performance. Antje Traue, who played Bony Lizzie, lacked chemistry with Vikander and Moore; she also had very little screen presence and was just used as a special effects prop in the end.