Klaus
First Post
I'm waiting for the Sean Bean medieval mystery movie where he goes to a small village that is seemingly immune to the Black Plague, Black Death
Season of the Witch
- Thread starter NewJeffCT
- Start date
El Mahdi
Muad'Dib of the Anauroch
My opinion: I though it was quite good. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and will probably add it to my movie collection when the DVD/BluRay comes out. My wife also enjoyed it, and I got the added benefit of my wife grabbing my arm during the more scary/surprise moments. It's mostly a medieval fantasy with a healthy bit of standard horror movie thrown in. It actually serves pretty well as a date movie. I honestly don't understand why the critics have been slamming this so strongly.
This is just a standard fantasy adventure/horror movie. It's not meant to be an Academy Award contender, and doesn't try to pass itself off as one - so I don't get the significant criticism by so called "experts"...?
Overall, it was a pretty solid movie. Not great, but far from bad. Good story line, decent visuals, good acting (I liked the chemistry between Cage and Perlman - and an honorable mention goes to Christopher Lee as a plague ridden, church high official), a few surprises (though as said above, most gamers will probably see them coming, but they're entertaining anyways), and a pretty cool ending. They missed a few opportunities where they could have made it really good (such as a missed chance to add some humor during the sword fight between Perlman and the kid). They had room to play with as far as time to add some extra touches (it's only 1 hour and 38 minutes), and given it the extra bit to make it reeeeaaaly good. But overall, I'd give it a solid B+/A-. I'd also agree that if this was one of the official D&D movies, it would probably be the greatest D&D movie ever made. This is the way the D&D movies should be done. Storywise, it's well executed and would make a perfect, one-off, low-magic, D&D adventure.
The setting is essentially a quasi-real world representation of our own. Historically, it doesn't match up with actual real world events. When we see Behman (Nic Cage) and Felson (Ron Perlman) fighting as (what I assumed to be) Hospitallers, along side Templars and against Saracens - we are told that the year is 1332. The movie shows them fighting in a number of major battles, involving thousands of combatants on both sides, over the course of nearly a decade. As far as I know there were no major Crusader battles in the middle east during this time. By this date, the Hospitallers were in Cyprus (as virtually all Crusader territories in the Middle East had already been reconquerred by the Muslims), and the Templars had been disbanded since 1312. The synopsis for the movie states that Behman and Felson are returning from the Second Crusade. The Second Crusade was in the late 1140's. Also, a major battle and major plot point that occurs in Smyrna (an ancient city in Turkey), is also something that has no real-world correlation. There was no Crusader army that conquerred Smyrna, especially in the early 14th century (though a Hospitaller army did attempt it, unsuccessfully, in 1330). And, not until the late 14th century does it really have any medieval historical significance, as that's when Tamerlane (a Mongol for those who don't know who he was), conquered it and slaughtered most of the population. So, I assume the movie is set in a quasi-real world, alternate history sort of thing. That being said...
The opening scene/back-story with the priest and the witches in the early 1200's was pretty good. It was a strong opening that definitely sets up a bit of a horror movie vibe mixed well with a medieval fantasy setting. A century later, we pick up the heroes of the story, Behman and Felson. The opening battle scenes are decent...not great, but decent. But that's okay as it's not really the focus of the movie. The battles are just meant to set up the characters for us. The armor and weapons are quite accurate for the stated period, and that's a strong plus for me. But, a criticism of mine is that the battles show armored warriors (mail for crusaders, scale for saracens) being cut down by slashing draw-cuts to the body. Sorry, swords cannot penetrate mail or scale with a draw-cut. With a piercing attack, there's a fairly decent chance of success - but not with a draw-cut. But, as this is fairly common to just about every hollywood portrayal of medieval combat, even the one's that critics do like, it's a relatively small criticism of the movie.
For reasons that I won't go into (a critical spoiler), Behman and Felson leave the Crusades and head back to Europe. The story from this point is set in Styria. Historically, Styria was once a March, and eventually a Duchy, encompassing parts of Slovenia and Austria (with lower Styria being in Slovenia, and upper Styria being in Austria). So the story here is set in Central Europe from the Mediterranian/Adriatic Sea to the base of the Alps (the Wikipedia synopsis mistakenly states that Behman and Felson return to England). Behman and Felson come across a city in the grips of a plague...a plague supposedly wrought by the curse of a witch...where Behman and Felson are arrested as deserters. Behman and Felson are coerced into leading a small group (a priest named Debelzaq; a roguish trader and guide named Hagamar - played by Stephen Graham - Al Capone in HBO's Boardwalk Empire; an altar boy who wants to be a Knight, named Kay; and a grief-stricken and aging Knight named Eckhart) who must transport the confessed witch to the monks in a northern city for trial, in exchange for a dismissal of desertion charges. The Monks in this city possess a special book containing ancient rituals that can be used to physically and spiritually destroy the witch and lift the curse.
This story is classic D&D. You have a disillusioned, noble born Knight (Behman/Cage) seeking redemption, a probably not so noble born Knight or Sergeant (Felson/Perlman) seeking wenches and a good drink, a rigid but strongly faithful priest, a roguish guide, a 1st level wanna-be Knight, an ancient tome, magical rituals, dark supernatural forces, a couple of skill challenges, a trek to a distant citadel through dangerous wilderness, an attack by a large pack of wolves (1 HP minions), a mystery to be solved, demons and zombies, and plenty of sword-play/combat in a fairly generic and recognizable medieval setting.
All-in-all, a solidly entertaining and pleasantly scary romp.
This is just a standard fantasy adventure/horror movie. It's not meant to be an Academy Award contender, and doesn't try to pass itself off as one - so I don't get the significant criticism by so called "experts"...?
Overall, it was a pretty solid movie. Not great, but far from bad. Good story line, decent visuals, good acting (I liked the chemistry between Cage and Perlman - and an honorable mention goes to Christopher Lee as a plague ridden, church high official), a few surprises (though as said above, most gamers will probably see them coming, but they're entertaining anyways), and a pretty cool ending. They missed a few opportunities where they could have made it really good (such as a missed chance to add some humor during the sword fight between Perlman and the kid). They had room to play with as far as time to add some extra touches (it's only 1 hour and 38 minutes), and given it the extra bit to make it reeeeaaaly good. But overall, I'd give it a solid B+/A-. I'd also agree that if this was one of the official D&D movies, it would probably be the greatest D&D movie ever made. This is the way the D&D movies should be done. Storywise, it's well executed and would make a perfect, one-off, low-magic, D&D adventure.The setting is essentially a quasi-real world representation of our own. Historically, it doesn't match up with actual real world events. When we see Behman (Nic Cage) and Felson (Ron Perlman) fighting as (what I assumed to be) Hospitallers, along side Templars and against Saracens - we are told that the year is 1332. The movie shows them fighting in a number of major battles, involving thousands of combatants on both sides, over the course of nearly a decade. As far as I know there were no major Crusader battles in the middle east during this time. By this date, the Hospitallers were in Cyprus (as virtually all Crusader territories in the Middle East had already been reconquerred by the Muslims), and the Templars had been disbanded since 1312. The synopsis for the movie states that Behman and Felson are returning from the Second Crusade. The Second Crusade was in the late 1140's. Also, a major battle and major plot point that occurs in Smyrna (an ancient city in Turkey), is also something that has no real-world correlation. There was no Crusader army that conquerred Smyrna, especially in the early 14th century (though a Hospitaller army did attempt it, unsuccessfully, in 1330). And, not until the late 14th century does it really have any medieval historical significance, as that's when Tamerlane (a Mongol for those who don't know who he was), conquered it and slaughtered most of the population. So, I assume the movie is set in a quasi-real world, alternate history sort of thing. That being said...
The opening scene/back-story with the priest and the witches in the early 1200's was pretty good. It was a strong opening that definitely sets up a bit of a horror movie vibe mixed well with a medieval fantasy setting. A century later, we pick up the heroes of the story, Behman and Felson. The opening battle scenes are decent...not great, but decent. But that's okay as it's not really the focus of the movie. The battles are just meant to set up the characters for us. The armor and weapons are quite accurate for the stated period, and that's a strong plus for me. But, a criticism of mine is that the battles show armored warriors (mail for crusaders, scale for saracens) being cut down by slashing draw-cuts to the body. Sorry, swords cannot penetrate mail or scale with a draw-cut. With a piercing attack, there's a fairly decent chance of success - but not with a draw-cut. But, as this is fairly common to just about every hollywood portrayal of medieval combat, even the one's that critics do like, it's a relatively small criticism of the movie.
For reasons that I won't go into (a critical spoiler), Behman and Felson leave the Crusades and head back to Europe. The story from this point is set in Styria. Historically, Styria was once a March, and eventually a Duchy, encompassing parts of Slovenia and Austria (with lower Styria being in Slovenia, and upper Styria being in Austria). So the story here is set in Central Europe from the Mediterranian/Adriatic Sea to the base of the Alps (the Wikipedia synopsis mistakenly states that Behman and Felson return to England). Behman and Felson come across a city in the grips of a plague...a plague supposedly wrought by the curse of a witch...where Behman and Felson are arrested as deserters. Behman and Felson are coerced into leading a small group (a priest named Debelzaq; a roguish trader and guide named Hagamar - played by Stephen Graham - Al Capone in HBO's Boardwalk Empire; an altar boy who wants to be a Knight, named Kay; and a grief-stricken and aging Knight named Eckhart) who must transport the confessed witch to the monks in a northern city for trial, in exchange for a dismissal of desertion charges. The Monks in this city possess a special book containing ancient rituals that can be used to physically and spiritually destroy the witch and lift the curse.
This story is classic D&D. You have a disillusioned, noble born Knight (Behman/Cage) seeking redemption, a probably not so noble born Knight or Sergeant (Felson/Perlman) seeking wenches and a good drink, a rigid but strongly faithful priest, a roguish guide, a 1st level wanna-be Knight, an ancient tome, magical rituals, dark supernatural forces, a couple of skill challenges, a trek to a distant citadel through dangerous wilderness, an attack by a large pack of wolves (1 HP minions), a mystery to be solved, demons and zombies, and plenty of sword-play/combat in a fairly generic and recognizable medieval setting.
All-in-all, a solidly entertaining and pleasantly scary romp.
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