TSS looks like it will be more in the category of dark fantacy. The books are geared toward children 10 and up, but have been criticized for being far too gorey and frightening for children. They've been called more of a young adult series for that reason. They're quite engaging. I've read up to book 7.
The synopsis more or less tore my heart out because it sounds
nothing like the book, but oh well. The sad thing is I only started reading the series (which is titled the The Last Apprentice, here in America and The Wardstone Chronicles in the UK, for those interested in reading it
) because of Ben. Had there been no film of the book series I would've never heard of, much less read, it. Now that I've read the books I am halfway dreading the film, as it looks to be utterly different from the series. Yet I have high hopes that it will still be good.
In the books
Tom Ward is supposed be a thirteen-year-old boy who's been apprenticed to the local Spook (not knight!) to learn to fight witches and boggarts and creatures of "the Dark" as the series refers to them.
The Spook is completely mortal and he imprisoned the which within a normal lifespan.
The first book isn't near so epic and cheesy as the synopsis of the film sounds. Their goal isn't to save the world from the most evil witch the world has ever known. It's more about teaching Tom how to protect the County (Yes the County not the entire world) from things of the dark. Yes there is a witch who escapes, (more like Tom accidently frees her from her pit because he's young and naive) but she doesn't get out until much later in the book and she is NOT the main focus. Tom's journey of growing up, leaving his family, learning to face more fears than any child should ever have to face, and learning to defend the people of the County is the focus.
I'm sorry to go off on a rant like that
I'm just not to crazy about how they took these original tales, stripped the stories of heart and soul and put it back together in cheesy Hollywood style. But hopefully I'm wrong the summary is just really bad.
As for Ben's role as Tom Ward, as I stated Tom is supposed to be 13. Ben is well... definitely not going to pass for 13. But Caspian was also supposed to be really young and I think Ben did a superb job as Caspian's character even though he was older than he should've been. He plays young, naive and innocent well so I'm not worried about Ben at alll. I have great faith in him as an actor. It's just everything else that worries me lol