Movie: Season of the Witch (PG-13)
Released: January 7th, 2011
Runtime: 1 hr. 38 min.
Ticket Price: $6.00 Early Matinee
Refreshments: Large Popcorn and Large Sprite
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Stephen Campbell Moore, Claire Foy & Robbie Sheehan
Director: Dominic Sena
Rating: It Might Be on TV One Day
Synopsis: Two knights no longer believing the Crusade they vowed to take part in is just and decide to desert. On their travels home they learn of the Plague that is sweeping over the land and that the church believes it is the work of a witch that has been captured. Only the monks in a remote monastery possess the knowledge to end the curse. The two knights are tasked with taking the witch on a dangerous journey to the monastery.
Review: Season of the Witch is an example of movie making at its worst. It brings together great actors, an interesting concept and a decent budget and blows it all on a bland 98 minutes of a supposed supernatural thriller.
I can see why the initial concept would be purchased for a movie, but can’t understand why anyone would move forward with this script. The dialogue is downright dumb. I mean, I don’t really even expect for a movie set in the 14th century to use the exact language of the day, but you’ve got to at least try to make it sound a little like they are from that time period. Many of the lines traded between Cage and Perlman sound like they are from some badly scripted present day buddy movie.
The special effects don’t help things out either. If you turned “spot the greenscreen scene” into a drinking game and then watched this movie, you’d be smashed well before it ended. There are just way too many moments that pull you out of the movie, because they look so phony.
My dad and I like to laugh about how fake the car scenes in the new Hawaii Five-0 look. It is so obvious that the two characters are conversing in a car sitting stationary on a soundstage with greenscreen backgrounds. Well, there is a horse-riding scene in this that reminded me of them. Except, I don’t think Cage and Perlman were actually on horses when it was filmed.
The movie culminates in a final battle that comes off more silly than the epicness they were probably shooting for. Which, given what we’ve seen up until now actually makes sense.
The one minor plus is Foy’s performance as the accused witch. She is the only thing worth watching, at all, in the whole movie, but not nearly enough to make the movie actually worth watching. This is cause she doesn’t say a whole lot and her performance relies mostly on how she looks and reacts. As for Cage and Perlman, I don’t think they really ever had a chance, given what they had to work with.
Overall, Season of the Witch is a waste of some talented actors and a couple hours of my time. I’d recommend going to see pretty much anything else at the movies this weekend.
If you see Season of the Witch, let us know what you think.
