Riding Nicholas Cage's recent momentum after Kick-Ass, but ironically no one have ever heard of until they went to cinema, or maybe it's just me, comes Season of The Witch. Set in Crusade War, two deserters must escort a witch to be judge in some abbey located in another city. Along the way, many trials await them and so forth. In all honesty, I was hoping for more cerebral or philosophical take on witch hunt, not a semi thriller with barely decent CG.
With the backdrop of the epic era such as the Crusade, one might think this is a dramatic war movie, but it's a bit superfluous since the Crusade part is only just a breeze in the opening part. It does set the tone for moody and drab journey though. The majority of the film takes places in tattered small towns and the open wilderness. Much of them have been plagued with great pestilence, Black Death, allegedly the doing of a certain witch, thus the witch must be judged to stop this plague.
Behmen (Cage) and Felson (Ron Perlman) play the tired warriors who just had enough of justified man-slaughter a la Dynasty Warriors and have a moral breakdown when they found out that they were massacring innocent people. I understand the tragedy of the church's reason of the genocide is to serve god, but it did take them almost ten years and a river of blood to realize, or even contemplate, that the enemies might be not so bad after all. It's just lazy or plain ignorance on their part.
So they are soon caught by a town's magistrates when stopping for resupply. They will be released if they agree to deliver the witch (Claire Foy) to an abbey far away. Cue the rag tag fellowship of being-killed-one-by-one and the dramatic journey begins. What boggles the mind is how few people were sent for this crucial task, even if the said town is being quarantined because of the plague. I can't help to wonder if these people are the only ones with the will, ability and balls for the task.
Along this perilous journey, the characters reflect on themselves and their motives as it progresses, like any altruistic bunch would do. Granted, there are a few moments that are captivating and interesting. It's good when Behmen is trying to figure out whether the chick is actually a witch or just another victim of misunderstanding, or when the witch acts quiet innocent and the monk is the one who actually seems like conducting domestic abuse.
Nicholas Cage did his best to look confuse all the time, it's not as colorful or dynamic as his performance in Kick-Ass, but his action movie lead cliche is definitely apparent. He is the main appeal for me watching this, I shamelessly admit. Ron Perlman also did good impression of war hardened grunting warrior, as he always does. It becomes predictable, but these two look comfortable enough in their roles to be decent. Although maybe after performing with cute talented little Hit Girl, it's quiet jarring to act beside big man Hellboy without red skin tone.
The witch, Claire Foy is actually interesting. She is cute in an odd sense of way, audience will mostly be sympathetic for abused little girl and stay suspicious when she goes witchy at the same time. The rest of the cast is good enough to fill their roles, the over-enthusiastic knight wannabe, the noble vanguard, dutiful monk and sly merchant. Each will predictably die a horrible death, aside for some, for your viewing pleasure.
The action sequences are not attractive, mostly plan-less hack and slash rather than well-choreographed fight scenes that I have accustomed to for this sort of fantasy movies. There is a distinct lack of well placed kill scene and gory moments that really decrease the entertainment value of an action movie. I expected decapitation and dismemberment, and found them disappointingly wanting here. There's just sadly not enough gore for a genre filled with violence.
[SPOILER AHEAD! Skip this paragraph if you haven't watch.. or not]
Perhaps the most disappointing part is when the witch turns into a bargain bin Van Helsing rip-off. From the first opening scene, it reeks of scarefest movie, but after some of the better scenes like the bridge crossing, I was hoping for more adult and believable ending. The latter part of the movie just wasn't good enough and there's a striking plot hole too. The demon can actually finish them off and escape from capture easily, by the excruciating visibly plain method of.. Gee, I don't know... FLIGHT!! IT HAS WINGS FOR GOD'S SAKE. Why it didn't do it, aside from adding run time to the movie, is beyond me.
"No, man. Stick to the script"
"Shiiit..."
I think I have to be grateful that there was still Hollywood movies to be had here. It's not bad, but I certainly had hoped for more mature theme than a horror movie dressed as historic drama. I was also hoping for Cage's performance like in Kick-Ass, but certainly prefer this than Pocong vs Kuntilanak. Serviceable but not great. Rate 6/10
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