Read More @HJ Previews: Video Overview (Bruce) By David Bruce, Webmaster Life Isn't What You Expect CoachZ

Walden Media interjects itself into the literary world again, and pulls out another of my childhood favorites. This time, the world of Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising sequence comes to the screen, as The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising. And, like Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Narnia, a pre-adolescent will lead us.

Fourteen-year-old Will Stanton finds out that he is the sign-seeker, the one who will unite the six signs together to return the Light to its proper place. Surprisingly, he's not an orphan, as typical tales of childhood heroes cut them out of the community of family. Still, in a technological world, it's apparent that magic is older, and that the meta-narrative is grander than most have imagined.

With the watchful group of Old Ones looking on, Stanton learns the story of the battle a thousand years ago, when Dark and Light battled. Now, the Old Ones, led by actor Ian McShane, tell him that he has little time to find the signs and unite them against the Dark. Of course, the Dark has other plans, with creepy mall security guards who aren't really security guards, lots of evil crows, and a dark Rider who threatens all of Stanton's family.

Undergoing changes like Peter Parker once spider-bitten, Stanton must discover the signs, and in the process discover himself. Literally, in that final discovery, our young hero comes into his own knowledge of himself, and what he's capable of. It's unreasonable to think that the company who delivered the Chronicles of Narnia, and who will soon deliver Prince Caspian, had anything less than Christian imagery in mind.

What we can learn from the movie: the Light or Greater Good always rises up from community, within community, and to care for community. Each person's journey to that good is individual, but we're often aided by people and "signs" which point us in the right direction. When recognizing who we are and what we're capable of, we often see that it's been available to us the whole time, with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but we've been blinded by evil and gloom to that truth.

The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising is more than a fantasy, it's a coming-of-age story, a coming to faith. By the end, Will Stanton believes—in himself and the power of Light. We'll have to wait and see if DVD sales and rentals merit a follow-up: there are still a few more good novels where that come from.