Jul 4 Season of the Witch - Blu-ray Review
4.1 Stars (out of 5)
Synopsis
In 14th-century Europe, a courageous knight (Nicolas Cage) leads a group of weary warriors across impossibly treacherous terrain in order to transport a suspected witch (Claire Foy) believed to be responsible for spreading the devastating Black Plague. (Buy Now $22.99)
Starring:
Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Claire Foy, Stephen Campbell Moore, Stephen Graham, Ulrich Thomsen, Robert Sheehan, Christopher Lee
Director:
Dominic Sena
Blu-ray Release Date:
June 28, 2011
Subtitles:
English, French, Spanish
Rating
Overall rating weighted as follows:
Audio 40%, Video 40%, Special Features 20%, Movie - its just our opinion so take it with a grain of salt
Audio 4.3 Stars (out of 5)
Dolby and DTS Demo Discs used as basis for comparison
● Subwoofer - 4.0 Stars
● Dialog - 5.0 Stars
● Surround Effects - 4.0 Stars
● Dynamic Range - 4.0 Stars
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Season of the Witch features a crisp DTS-HD Master Audio presentation that helps bring the action alive. What stands out the most (of course) are the battle scenes. Swords clang with decent range and punches land with heavy thuds. Rear channels very active until the third act of the film. When they do, the room seams to expand with evil sounds and fearful men. This movie does seam to lack some sounds of ambiance, I don't remember hearing many animal sounds, rustling leaves, or weather when they were outside in the woods, and they were outside alot. However, this is considered to be a budget movie, so maybe sound design wasn't high of the list of priorities.
Video 4.6 Stars (out of 5)
Spears & Munsil Benchmark Blu-ray Edition used as basis for comparison
● Color Accuracy - 4.5 Stars
● Shadow detail - 4.0 Stars
● Clarity - 5.0 Stars
● Skin tones - 4.5 Stars
● Compression - 5.0 Stars
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC, Resolution: 1080p, Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1, Original Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
The video performance of this film is much better than the movie is. This film has pristine clarity that features burlap sack style stitch work on clothing and grey beard stubble on the aging actors wrinkled faces. The colors and skin tones were accurate and approtately changed to natural light. Dark colors were sometimes too dark and lost detail, however it did assist in setting the mood for the movie.
Bonus Features 3.0 Stars (out of 5)
- Deleted Scenes (HD; 9:56) Some of them would have acturally made the movie better.
- Becoming the Demon (HD; 8:29) A short about creating the specail affects in the film's climax.
- On a Crusade (HD; 6:07) Shows how much work the put into make the Crusades come alive.
- Alternate Ending (HD; 9:20) I acutally liked this version better.
- Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:26)
Movie - 2.0 Stars (out of 5)
Review
It's no coincidence that Season of the Witch was a flop at the box office the movie is a mess. It has horrible writing and is directed like it was made for TV SciFi movie. Nicolas Cage has been in financial trouble and seams to be taking any role offered to him. It's been hit or miss on finding a good Cage movie. For instance, I loved Kick Ass, but Drive Angry and Knowing I can live without. This movie can be added to the bad list. I feel like he was in this movie for a payday, and it shows. Every supporting actor gives a better performance than "the star"
The plot of this film is too simple. It basically ends up being a medieval road trip movie. There are so many plot holes in the story, I would myself asking, "Why did that just happen?" several times. It also lacks any exposition, so when weird things start happening there is never any type of explanation. The movie never makes it's mind up on what it really wants to say. For instance, it spends lots of time bashing the Crusades and witch trails and almost proves them right in the end. Speaking of which, I find it extremely annoying when a film's setting is 700 years ago, and they throw in modern day sensibilities to prove a point. Did Lord of the Rings need discussions about how women weren't permitted to go to battle? Did the passion of the Christ need to have a scene about how wrong child molestation is? No they didn't, and this movie didn't need it either. But it did have it, and it added to the smell of failure.
Reader Comments (2)
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Movie aside, and I too would like a new Cage movie worth watching, contemporary societal values thrust upon us at the movies, so a group of people can feel good about themselves(rid themselves of guilt), needs to stop! We watch movies to get away from all of the sickening and unfair aspects of human existence. If I want to have that material ramrodded down my throat I'll watch Fox News, MSNBC, CNN or the like.
Movies are escapism! Please let us escape... 2 stars or not!
Hey M. Lobitz -
I'm so glad you feel the same way. I almost feel like some movies are trying to rewrite history when they throw modern day values in them. As far as Nick Cage goes, he's already scheduled to have 2 more movies released this year, they don't look like winners. I'm surprised he's still making movies, he hasn't had a real "hit" since National Treasure.