Judging from what I had heard and seen from many critics I was expecting a pile of horse poop. So while Season of the Witch was not as bad as it could've been, to me that didn't mean much. The costume and set design are great, the effects are good if too over-reliant in the last third of the film and Ron Perlman is a nice presence. So what spoilt it?
The two assets that spoilt it for me were the cheesy, anachronistic writing and the characters, that were both bland and clichéd. The storytelling is often thin in structure and sluggish in pace, and further hampered by a final third that is nonsensical and reliant too much on special effects. I missed the intimacy of the choreography of the action sequences as well, not sure whether it was lack of heart in the performances or the moments of hackneyed editing there was, and the direction shows signs of awkwardness. Perlman aside, the acting is pretty awful, and hurt even more by inconsistent accents. Nicolas Cage is especially wooden.
Overall, it wasn't quite as bad as I'd heard, however to me it was still one of the weakest of a very hit-and-miss year. 3/10 Bethany Cox
The two assets that spoilt it for me were the cheesy, anachronistic writing and the characters, that were both bland and clichéd. The storytelling is often thin in structure and sluggish in pace, and further hampered by a final third that is nonsensical and reliant too much on special effects. I missed the intimacy of the choreography of the action sequences as well, not sure whether it was lack of heart in the performances or the moments of hackneyed editing there was, and the direction shows signs of awkwardness. Perlman aside, the acting is pretty awful, and hurt even more by inconsistent accents. Nicolas Cage is especially wooden.
Overall, it wasn't quite as bad as I'd heard, however to me it was still one of the weakest of a very hit-and-miss year. 3/10 Bethany Cox