It's becoming a sub-genre of it's own of late. Kid or kids find a magic gizmo or power and all by themselves have to save the world against some evil magic. A recent count shows about two or three others of this type of film coming out within the month, not to mention a few of years past I can think of. There's an explosion of them (another example of Hollywood's increasing lack of originality).

That said, this film's actually pretty good. A kid finds he's the inheritor of a power and a responsibility to save the world from the rising dark. Before five days is up he must find the scattered pieceds of the power of the Light with which to fight the Rider, the local embodiment of the Dark, before the world falls away into shadow forever. Throw in a few immortal guardians who must protect and advise him, and you got the plot. As well, staring as the Rider is Christopher Eckelston, a former Dr. Who, and he does a very good job in his role.

A couple of plot elements you can see comming from the word Go, but nevertheless enjoyable. The film has the usual magic in modern times feel, superhuman powers with a lot of brief time traveling thrown in, and only one straining of logic towards the end when the 14 year old Seeker actually believes the cries of what are so obviously NOT his family crying out behind that big door.

A nice little family fantasy flick , worth the matinee' price for lovers of this growing sub-genre of fantasy.