Season of the Witch

Nic Cage is becoming the master of these kinds of movies. I'm not talking supernatural thrillers, I'm talking films that themematically start out a certain way and then flip in to the land of complete crap somewhere along the way. (The recent film "Knowing" springs to mind as an example) As the film progressed, I thought it was interesting, albeit far darker then I was expecting. By the end, the story spins off to freaky land and beyond. A movie you think could be directed towards exploring religious fanaticism or even faith itself instead spins in to a supernatural clusterflub of demons and stupidity. The ending and terrible direction absolutely ruins what was a pretty good first two-thirds of a movie. What makes this twice as bad is the fact that it's a "journey" film, meaning that everything that was set up leads to the resolution. In this case, the resolution is nonsensical and unsatisfying and negates just about anything good about the first two-thirds of its running time.

SOTW may be a mediocre film, but at least it manages to entertain. Nic Cage really makes an effort and Ron Perlman, well has never been better than in a middle ages setting. For all the historic inconsistencies they at least got the atmosphere about right. What makes it entertaining in the end is the sustained air of suspense while being on route. Not that it keeps you on the the edge of your seat, but it is decent enough. Travelling in the middle ages must have been a sort of Russian Roulette with little more than a sword to rely on. Unfortunately the last 20 minutes or so, the film goes over the top in a strange , pointless , exercise of CGI effects. The CGI itself is passable, but in contrast with the subtle air of discomfort during the voyage that makes up for the 2nd part of the film. As proclaimed, a painless sit-through , but could have been better with a subtle last act..

I am really wondering why is this movie rated so poorly. Yes, it isn't a movie which would be a surprise and something new. Season of the witch is a movie that will be just perfect for anyone who wants to fill his/her Saturday afternoon in warm couch with beer/hot tea and snacks.

Atmosphere of the movie is really nice, I liked the factor of paranoia which slowly gets into minds of main characters. Movie tempo unwraps in best possible way, not too slow and not too fast, and it will keep you in the center of action and happenings all of the time. Pure fun in my opinion! Characters aren't elaborated to some detail levels, but just enough for you to like and know them. Music in the movie, I don't know was it something wrong with me, but now when I try to remember the music - I just can't! Was it because the music wasn't there, or it was really bad, or I was in a weird mood? Don't know!

All in all a good movie with good tempo and plenty of fun, I would recommend it. Oh yes, and it has a cool little twist at the end, a bit naive and without much sense maybe, but I loved it since I didn't expect it.

I went into this film with a relatively open mind, knowing I'd never seen a Cage film (shocker) in its entirety and neglecting to look at any reviews, but I was pleasantly surprised. For the most part it's well acted, Perlman played a blinder as Cage's sidekick and Cage himself was quite good too. It was good to see MisFits star Robert Sheehan in a starring role, and the writing wasn't bad either, aside from the odd cheesy line. As far of the story goes, it works, although some of the aspects (such as Cage's motivation for going on the journey in the first place) seem a little far fetched, it's difficult to understand that Perlman's character in particular would go to such lengths for something which only affects Cage, perhaps a more developed background of the two knight's may have helped. The special effects, although in my opinion at times rather unnecessary, are pretty good, and I think the atmosphere of England suffering from the plague was recreated very well, except for the plague suffers seemed to look a little extreme.

I would have scored the film higher, except for that I feel it is very much aimed at quite a small audience, if you don't like the themes this film explores, you won't like it. The film could also have been longer (at 1h34m including a 10m credit sequence) I feel certain things (such as the Cage/Perlman background) could have been developed further to provide a more well-rounded film. Still worth a watch though, not as bad as people are saying.

Well shot, surprising cast, cheese on toast script and the effects aren't bad.

There are very few dark fantasy movies around, this isn't as bad as the internet pundits would have you believe.