Season of the Witch (2011): Like a Game of Thrones Filler Episode [Joey’s Review]
It’s hard to watch SEASON OF THE WITCH and not think of it as an episode of GAME OF THRONES where Arya’s just walking around for an hour. Sure, there are cool moments, but the whole thing is just positioning to get us set up for a big future set piece. The shame here, though, is that the movie isn’t building toward some major event, but rather a strange end-of-movie confrontation between Cage and his ragtag group (which is too big and vaguely written) and a demon (the Devil?). Sigh.
Season of the Witch was a movie I was dreading re-watching. I saw it for the first time a few years ago because How Did This Get Made? covered it. (Woah, it was their second episode ever?!) It had been a while since I’d seen it, and in my head I had blended it with IN THE NAME OF THE KING: A DUNGEON SIEGE TALE, which is a worse movie. But because they blended in my mind, I thought Jason Statham was going to be in this. He wasn’t, but the good news is that Season of the Witch is a better movie!
While it’s better, it’s not good (on a whole). This is frustrating because the first 10 minutes are sort of amazing! Cage and Ron Perlman are swashbuckling and holy warring their way through history, and it’s great. They’re having fun, the movie is fun, and it’s just a good time. Then, they have a change of heart and decide to no longer fight for the church, and then no one smiles for the rest of the movie — neither the characters nor the audience.
There are cool ideas here, some exciting action, and cool character moments. But they’re all too few and far between, and it’s all bogged down by the incredibly slow pace. There just isn’t enough to like here. I guess, I guess, if you buy into the atmosphere and time period and what’s happening, there may be things to like. I can see people getting into this. But it’s just sold effectively enough or told in an interesting enough way to have anyone but diehard medieval fans really enjoy most of this movie.
How can I watch it? You have to pay a few bucks to stream it, but you really don’t have to do that.
What’s up next? We’re breaking out of Hell with DRIVE ANGRY.
