sff_corgi_lj | Warning: The 'Dark is Rising' film adaptation is Not Scottish.

Excerpted from Zealot Benmergui, Baron BardHaven's journal, which reproduces the commentary from The Guardian:

...the film has opened, and the verdict is...

..that the film is a total abomination. It appears they sucked out everything interesting about the plot and made it into yet another disposable teen age adventure film.

Sigh.
...Ah, but caveat emptor! The makers have taken considerable liberties with their source material - not only changing the nationality of the hero and his family (to American), and the title throughout the rest of the world (to The Seeker), but also excising virtually the entire back story of the town and its inhabitants, and turning the original narrative - fairly gripping, you might recall - into little more than a find-the-treasures video game. Thus, after a thousand years of inactivity, The Dark is marshalling his power (why now? we’re never told). In order to save the world, our hero, Ludwig, must locate six “signs” - all of which happen, conveniently, to be located within a few miles of his own home. No mention of their connection to the elements. No trace of the Lady, or the Walker.

These changes would be bad enough. But more seriously, Walden have assiduously removed every trace of the pagan (ie, non-Judeo-Christian) elements that were crucial to the original plot, all that fine old Celtic/Arthurian folklore - the Sleepers, Herne the Hunter, the Old Magic - presumably because they ran counter to the
“family values approach to positive messages” which the film’s makers seek to impart....

I thanked the Baron for saving me $10+ and the time it would take to drive, park, be horrified and disgusted, and return home a broken Dog.

(Ludwig?? Is more 'American' than 'Will'?!?)