By KAREN JAEN
Nicholas Cage stars in the new film Season Of the Witch PG-13, that released Jan. 7 alongside Hell Boy star Ron Perlman. Cage has been in almost 70 movies throughout his career and this film has definitely not added anything worthy to his resume. The story is set during the 14th century Black Plague era.
Cage’s character, Behmen, and his partner Felson have retired from fighting in the Crusades after a battle that leaves Behmen feeling guilty about his job as a knight; barely a month from their retreat from knighthood, they make it to a town that has been suffering from the Black Plague and are asked to participate in a mission crucial to the town. The church believes the plague is being caused by the Black Witch. Behmen and Felson escort, alongside three other men, her and they want to a remote abbey where the monks there will perform a ritual to abolish her witchcraft.
Although the story is set in an interesting period of history, the plot is dragged out and dull; the movie is basically a group of men battling against a girl while trying to “save” her from her witchcraft. With poor attempts at humor and failed attempts at action, the story remains bland to the audience. The action scenes are expected so the outcome is too obvious to the audience taking away their interest. The special effects also fail to impress, they take away from the seriousness of the film. Most of the movie involves the character’s being in some sort of makeup that looks highly exaggerated and too ridiculous to look repulsing to the audience, which is the intended affect.
None of the characters are fully developed which does not help the audience’s interest, there is no character with any emotional appeal. The only character worth watching is Claire Foy who plays the Black Witch. She maintains her deceiving demeanor convincingly throughout the entire film.
Overall, this film is not recommended unless one has a fancy towards poorly told stories.