Screen adaptation of Joseph Delaney’s “The Spook’s Apprentice” - Review

I’d like to start with my praise for the book series about the adventures of the Spook and his apprentice in the world of witches and all the creatures both imaginable and unimaginable. So the series’ very first book is named “The Spook’s apprentice” (referred to as "TSA" hereafter) and basically it shows us how a simple farmer’s son is about to take on a very hard and unpopular “profession” by becoming the apprentice to a Spook who’s sole purpose is destroying all harmful supernatural beings. But it’s fair to say that you don’t just choose to become a “fighter of the Dark”, it’s more like this path chooses you because you have to be the seventh son of the seventh son to become one! And unlucky for Tom Ward that’s who he is!

I was very young when I got my hands on “TSA” first and I remember clearly that I couldn’t part with the book for even a second. I took it with me everywhere! Gosh, I even took it with me to a restroom – sorry for that remark! It was that exciting! Especially the scene in the haunted house where Tom was left alone at his first night as an apprentice! All those noises and obvious steps in the darkness of the old house that’s supposed to be empty!!! And this is just a boy who was forced into this scary world of the death and black magic! He is frightened as one of us definitely would be but still stands against all the obstacles thanks to survival instincts. What I’m saying is that the plot doesn’t spare your feelings and it gets pretty rough at some places that you may forget that this book is actually for young teens.
Well, that’s all I will say about the book so I won’t spoil the reading for you if you haven’t read it yet.
All it was said for you to see how I respect the series and how long I’ve waited for someone to dare to shoot a movie!

Finally I’d found that film was to be released in 2014. It had been directed by Sergei Bodrov and had a good cast starring Jeff Bridges, Ben Barnes, Alicia Vikander, Julianne Moore and even Kit Harrington (in episodical role)! The film was to be titled as "The Seventh Son" ("the SS" hereon) which was fine with me.

I watched the trailer and noted that I was slightly disappointed that creators of the film decided to make Tom Ward a whole grown up man instead of the boy as he was originally in the book. But even though it didn’t sit in my head I still wanted to give this movie a shot.
Once the film was out I went to the cinema and it was a big - and I will repeat– BIG mistake! I felt so crushed like something sacred was disturbed and burned in flames right in front of my eyes!
Don’t get me wrong I don’t expect a movie to follow everything that’s been written in the book, it’s not supposed to be similar or identical. It’s ok to deviate, add or remove something from the story as long as the characters get to keep their special features and idea is intact. But in “the SS” even the idea of the book was lost somewhere during the production.

Tom Ward of the book besides the seventh son thing is somewhat ordinary, he learns this new world gradually, he actually studies and reads a lot of stuff so that his turning into the Spook happens step by step whereas Tom Ward of the film is a tall empty-headed hormones-struggling jerk! When this young witch Alice comes along he almost jumps all over her like a hungry boar! Sorry, but that’s how I saw it. I didn’t expect their first encounter to repeat that in the book but what was to appear there first is friendship. Their feelings for each other were growing with time. And I understand that most of the people would point out that time is something a film doesn’t have, that’s why they try to squeeze everything in one movie. Well, to my opinion better not show their romantic inclinations at all instead of showing it this sloppily.
Same goes for the skills and tricks of the Spook that Tom should have learned one at a time. But here he pulls some Superhero instantly becoming cool and experienced with the snap of the fingers. And does he have to look so smug about it?

Visual effects is another story. I am not an expert so I can’t really judge them. They may had seemed decent sometimes, not always though. What can I say? You can’t go without CGI in this kind of movies.
What I wanted to say by all the above is that “The Seventh Son” had the potential to be a great film because the original story it’s based on is fantastic, but the film-makers threw their chance into the garbage can. I can see them planning to attract more money aiming at the older audience by making main character a man instead of a boy and therewith allowing “The SS” to be seen by more people. However I’d say that they would have actually won the public by sticking to the story of the first book (“TSA”) and they may have had a chance for a sequel.
I still hope that someday I’ll see this story on a big screen again and be totally content with the result!

If you guys haven’t read the books I strongly recommend them to you and if you haven’t seen the movie you haven’t lost in a least!
But then again this is only my opinion, yours may differ and it would be totally normal. Please, add your opinions in the comment section and I'd appreciate if you follow me.
Thank you for staying with me until the end of the post and I wish you more good books and movies!