Each employs the same wooded backdrops (either England or Canada), the same baroquely designed creatures, the same muddy digital cinematography, the same wide-angle shots that remain uncluttered to the point of aesthetic vacancy. Part of the problem is that the fantasy movies of the past several years are starting to blur together. But the material here, based on the series of best-selling novels by Joseph Delaney , is deathly and free of any sort of forward narrative momentum, charm or memorable action set pieces. Given that logline, one assumes some amount of gee-whiz fun wrung out of this concept, especially with the admirable cast (including the excellent Alicia Vikander as a young witch who falls in love with Tom) under the direction of Sergei Bodrov, who made the tactile historical action movie “ Mongol” and works here from a script co-authored by the always-great Steven Knight (“ Eastern Promises,” “ Locke“). Various monsters and ghosts and ghouls pop up along the way. The two set out on an adventure to kill an evil witch queen named Mother Malkin ( Julianne Moore) who has the power to turn into a dragon and who resides in an impractical volcano lair. Enter Ben Barnes‘ Tom Ward, who as the seventh son of the seventh son is predestined for such sticky situations. He is called upon to rid the land of the forces of darkness no matter what form they may take (possessed little girl, unconvincing CGI bear, etc.) or how fearsome they might be. Situating itself as a kind of medieval “ Men in Black,” “Seventh Son” follows Jeff Bridges‘ John Gregory, colloquially known as “the Spook” ( Maybe calling a character a “spook” in 2015 isn’t the best idea?).

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Where was the movie seventh son filmed