Dominic Sena’s films have never been known for their quality. Gone in 60 Seconds wasn’t any good. Swordfish had a cool factor, but I think we all know the only real buzz around that film was Halle Berry’s widely reported $500,000 nude scene. It then took eight years for Sena to make another film and when he did I can’t believe Whiteout was the return to the big screen he envisioned.
If there’s a plus to Season of the Witch it’s that it’s not as bad as Whiteout. Instead, it’s a below average movie that probably cost too much to make for it to go direct-to-DVD, but is hardly worthy of a respectable theatrical release.
Season of the Witch re-teams Sena with his Gone in 60 Seconds star Nicolas Cage whom, alongside Ron Perlman (Hellboy), plays a 14th century knight. The two are tasked with escorting a woman (Claire Foy), known only as The Girl until the film’s final seconds, charged with witchcraft to trial.
Cage and Perlman are both defectors from the Crusades after finally losing faith in the church’s army after 12 years of raping and pillaging. As a member of the audience you will recognize the atrocities going on here in a couple of seconds during the blurred stew of montaged battles that introduce our two warriors. The fact it takes these two gents 12 years to sort it all out doesn’t speak too highly of their intelligence, or the whole of Season of the Witch for that matter.
To learn this isn’t a very good movie is most likely of no surprise. January is the dumping season for bad cinema and Season of the Witch fits right in.
I would also assume audiences have become wary of any film involving Cage at this point as his tax debt pretty much means he’ll sign on for any script thrown his way. However, I won’t pile on Cage here, he’s not too bad in a role that requires him to say some words and occasionally wield a sword. Perlman is also satisfactory, he’s given a few one liners, but neither Cage or Perlman are in the form we desire to see them. Perlman’s best when his sarcasm is on overload and Cage when his whole being is on overload. This isn’t that film, it’s not even trying to be that film.
Season of the Witch‘s one true curiosity is to wonder how Sena roped Christopher Lee into playing a Cardinal stricken with the plague. Made up with a large pustule above his right eye and a missing upper lip causing his false teeth to protrude from his mouth, I’d wager you wouldn’t know it was Christopher Lee had I not told you. Now that I think about it, I hope I haven’t ruined the film’s only real mystery.
I will say this, though, had this film actually gone down the path of Cage’s character losing faith in God and not only the church, his journey back to belief would have made it a far more interesting film. To that point, people are daring to utter a comparison, albeit a negative one, to Ingmar Bergman’s iconic The Seventh Seal, but they are empty comparisons as this film doesn’t even scratch the surface.
For most of the duration we’re talking about a horseback road trip with sporadic challenges along the way such as a pack of hungry wolves, a pit of dead bodies, a rickety bridge and CG demons too many to count. Like I said, this is direct-to-DVD stuff with a slightly larger budget and it serves as a mediocre time waster, but it’s nothing I’d waste actual money on.
