The Spook here is Jeff Bridges as Master Gregory (he just played a similar role supporting a younger leading man in “The Giver”). He fights evil sorcerers, like Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore), who, at the start of the movie, is shown escaping from her prison and killing Master Gregory’s first assistant (played by Kit Harrington who’s Jon Snow in “Game of Thrones”). She now aims to seek vengeance by destroying humans with her army of evil sorcerers and shape-shifting entities.
The problem with the generic story is that most of its basic elements are now all too familiar after having seen similar action-adventure fantasies like “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, “Perry Jackson and the Olympians”, “Stardust”, “Golden Compass”, “Van Helsing”, “Chronicles of Narnia” and even the “Harry Potter” series. In other words, the universe shown in “Seventh Son” is similar to what cinema and television have been picturing over the past few years, both thematically and visually, so you have this feeling of déjà vu while watching it.
Still and all, we must say that “Seventh Son” offers some good action scenes and awesome special effects that will surely please fans of adventure-fantasy flicks. The opening scene showing Julianne Moore escaping from her prison and her later attack on the city with her minions are very well staged and executed. It also helps that both Julianne and Jeff take their respective roles seriously as the glamorous witch and her nemesis who turns out to be her lover once.
Ben Barnes also does quite well as the young hero, who’s the 7th son of a 7th son born with prophetic visions. If he looks familiar, it’s because you’ve seen him before in another costume movie as Prince Caspian in the “Narnia” franchise. Here, he is given a romantic interest, Alicia Vikander, who he rescues from townspeople that want to burn her. What he doesn’t know is that she happens to be a niece of Julianne Moore spying on him and Jeff while they’re on their way to Julianne’s lair in the mountains.
