Walden Media seems to be making every effort to corner the market on cinematic kid-lit adaptations, and with some notable success. Walden’s take on “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” although arguably beefier on the action sequences, was largely faithful to C.S Lewis’s original text and was a huge moneymaker. The “live action” remake of “Charlotte’s Web” stands as a kind and cuddly tribute to E.B. White’s enduring farmyard classic. Although falsely marketed almost as another chapter in the “Narnia” chronicles, Walden’s screen version of “Bridge to Terabithia” pulled no punches with the surprisingly heavy themes of Katherine Paterson’s 1978 Newbery Award winning novel.

Having witnessed these considerable successes, and having come to trust this company’s taste in project selection and courage with occasionally troublesome material, it comes as something of a shock to walk into the cold stone wall that’s been built out of Susan Cooper’s acclaimed (and also Newbery Award winning) 1970s fantasy adventure “The Dark is Rising” series.

The original story, about a 10-year-old English farm boy discovering, with the help of a wizened mentor, a peculiar gift for elemental control and time travel, was satisfyingly saturated with particularly Arthurian, even pagan, themes, pitting him, almost literally, against the looming shadows of an imminent winter solstice. In this overly modernized, heavily diluted treatment, writer John Hodges (whose previous works include indie cult favorites “Shallow Grave” and “Trainspotting”) perplexingly strips out all deep or archetypal reference. Although maintaining the original story’s rural British hamlet setting, he’s inexplicably recast the hero’s large family as Americans. In a world that has so plainly and warmly embraced the jaunty British accents of Harry Potter and the Pevensie clan, it comes as something of a head-scratcher why this alteration was necessary. Even more telling may be Hodges’ decision to update the year’s darkest day to simply “Christmas,” thereby removing all sense of foreboding or significance from evil’s approach.

From Arthur to Anakin, stories about adolescents awakening to previously hidden magical powers are certainly nothing new. One common thread that runs through most of these tales is the removal of the protagonist’s guardians, a time proven device that forces the youths involved to buck up, grow up and solve their own problems. Whether it be poverty, oppression or simple neglect, the hero is generally trying to overcome something tangible in “real” life that echoes through the larger journey. But in “The Seeker,” there’s no such imperative. William, here re-envisioned as a 14-year old, second youngest of a large and affectionate family, spends most of his time hanging around the house, eating warm dinners and doing his chores. Far from the Cinderellian, runt-of-the-litter type that audiences are accustomed to seeing, the worst oppression William faces is an occasional soccer ball to the head from his older siblings. Brothers Grim this isn’t.

With little to no explanation, William is corralled by a enigmatic crew of local “immortals” (lead by droopy-eyed thesp Ian McShane, who excelled as the Shakespearian Al Swearengen of HBO’s “Deadwood,” but is here reduced to idling listlessly and trying to look like he’s not wondering why he’s dressed so funny) and told that he’s been born to a crucial destiny. Evidently, William is the last champion of “The Light,” and he alone carries the power to identify and capture five talismans hidden (somehow) by a distant ancestor throughout time. When brought together, the talismans will stave off an oncoming storm—here personified by the skinny, shouting, black-clad figure of recent Doctor Who Christopher Eccleston, who thunders randomly in and out of the action on a curiously stenciled white horse, threatening to cover the world in eternal darkness.
As the movie plays, there is a pitiable dearth of logic attached to the placement of these “signs” William’s charged with acquiring. Not to give too much away, one is in a Viking shield, one turns up tied to a stuffed chicken in an old local pub and one, even more inexplicably, he purchases completely by accident from a vendor at the mall.

Other questions abound: What is “The Light?” They never really say. From whence does “The Dark” come, and what is the source of its power? The audience is expected to just choke down these vexing mysteries and move on.

The bigger confoundity at work however, is that the story requires exactly zero effort from William to earn a bit of his power, and once clued in, he blithely squanders his new-found abilities with a gape-mouthed grin, attempting to impress girls, or burning down innocent buildings in pubescent, angst-ridden tantrums. Handed the keys without the slightest instruction, he proceeds, with nary a “Golly, Mr. Peabody,” to casually hop through time, grabbing the talismans as he goes. He balances his mystical duties with such other fundamental tasks as, well, attending church services and running out to the shop for his mum.

The law of averages might dictate that for every “Lord of the Rings” there’s bound to be an “Eragon,” and, sadly enough, for every “Harry Potter” it stands that we should expect a “Seeker.” Here’s hoping Walden Media learns from this dreary and convoluted mistake, and returns to form with next year’s “Prince Caspian.”