Witchville (2010)

Overrated and overhyped

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

When I saw the word 'Syfy' appear on the screen, I immediately raised my defenses and thought 'oh no, this is going to be one of those movies'. As you might know, if you are familiar with Syfy Channel's previous works, then they have a habit of putting out some fairly questionable movies that tend to be lacking proper special effects.However, "Witchville" actually surprised me in a good way. Well, aside from the poor choice of title for the movie, then Syfy actually managed to pull this production off quite nicely.The movie has a fairly alright story, although it was quite predictable and not really bringing anything innovating to the fantasy genre. And actually most of what was in the movie have been seen in other similar movies. But still, "Witchville" worked out well enough.What really impressed me was the production value that Syfy had upped and put into this. Especially the costumes and wardrobes, that was just brilliant work. I liked the armor and all the detail they had put into those. However, I just didn't fully understand the obsession with skulls, almost every armor and outfit was adorned with skulls in one way or another, even the king's armor had a skull on the shoulder piece of his armor, that just wasn't proper attire for a king. Skulls are associated with death and evil, and shouldn't be adorning a king's armor. But aside from this skull-fetish, then the armors and costumes were just amazing.And as for the special effects, well Syfy isn't exactly known for their million dollar investments on the CGI side of movie-making. However, the effect that they put into "Witchville" were actually nicely executed and seemed to work well enough on screen. Don't expect to be dazzled out of your seat, though, but it is a great step up the ladder effects-wise for Syfy. So thumbs up on that account.The people they had cast for the various roles were also working out well enough, most of them anyway. Personally I think that the lead by Luke Goss should perhaps have been cast differently, as he was not a particularly strong actor in this movie. The movie was really carried by the performances of MyAnna Buring (playing Jozefa), Sarah Douglas (playing the Red Queen) and Simon Thorp (playing Kramer).I am a huge fan of this particular fantasy genre (perhaps because of my 26 years of playing Dungeons & Dragons), and I did enjoy "Witchville". So you might ask why I only gave it a 5 out of 10 rating? Well because the story was somewhat of a mess, there were a lot of dead ends in the movie and the coherency of it all was just overall blurry. The movie lacked a proper red line to follow, and as such, the end result turned out to be somewhat jumpy and half-hearted."Witchville" is well worth a watch if you enjoy this particular type of fantasy movie, just don't expect too much from the movie in the story department.And thumbs up for the people behind the design of the DVD cover, because they really buffed it up and made the movie appear much more interesting that it actually turned out to be. So as the saying goes; "don't judge a book by its cover".

SyFy movies are a dime a dozen on Saturday nights and this one has a decent and original story line. There are no big blockbuster effects and no deep philosophical plot twists or ideologies. It's simply a sword and sorcery fantasy movie with tidbits of action here and there. Taking it for what it is keeps it in perspective. Those individuals who will think its "apallingly bad" are individuals who can't look past the low budget presentation of the film, although this one isn't that low budget in presentation.The acting is decent for a SyFy movie, the effects are decent, fight scenes decent and setting decent. Again it's not your top of the line straight to the box office film....take it for what it is and stop trying to be the newest critic on the block. We have enough of those.This review is mostly written to counter one of the complaints given in another review. The following may contain spoilers: The story showed Jozefa's (MyAnna Buring) conflict with her mother, the Red Queen from the Red Queen's initial introduction. So the fact she found out the King is her brother along with the fact that she's taken a liking to the King's best friend is the catalyst for her betrayal. Not to mention the King's best friend talking her down.

Now let me explain I'm giving this a 6 because when it comes to SyFy Channel movies they usually get a 2-4 yet this one had a bit of something different. While the actor I expected to deliver a good performance was only OK (Luke Goss who was so great in Hellboy II) acting by everyone was good, well not counting Sarah Douglas who was well just campy. Now as for the Movie some interesting action scenes & special F/X kept the movie going though dialogue bogged this movie way down. Not many movies are made of Swords & Sorcery so I had my pop and snacks ready watched the whole thing and found it a nice change of pace. Filmed in China some scenes are beautiful. Lots of visual F/X that play well even if they had budget constraints the director worked with what he had making the most of it. I never heard of him before but apparently he has a cult following with a film called Gene Generation. In an interview I googled he discussed putting himself well into the project determined to make a quality film to that end he did considering his budget and a poor script. A stand out was Eragon's Ed Speelers who has grown up a bit and was really kinda funny in the movie. The movie is a mixed bag (well what syfy movie isn't) at times slow, with odd fight scenes at times fun to watch and enjoyable overall if you can record it and skip the commercials you may like it more...until next week when Syfy will no doubt bless us with yet another Saturday Original flick Nuff Said

"Prince Malachy returns home from the Crusades and finds the kingdom haunted by a dark force after his father's death." The one talent of this director is he/she was able to make a low budget movie look like it had money behind it. It sports some decent choreographed sword fights, and good looking if repetitive special effects.What this movie lacks, is any sort of story or characterization. The characters have hard to pronounce names and do nothing to drive the action along. Several seem to drop out of the movie with no explanation.Myanna Buring is the one person who stands out in this mess. Unfortunately, like Kristanna Loken in T3, she was given almost nothing to work with.SPOILER The fact that she sets the hero free to defeat the Red Queen makes her the one important character in the movie, WHY she does it is a mystery.Yes I watched the movie, King Malachy is the Evil Queens son and Jozefa is his half sister. Jozefa finds this out, and it's enough for her to turn on her own mother and everything she has known in life up till this point? END SPOILER In short, this movie is boring and soulless, and really not worth watching unless you desperately need to waste 90 minutes of your life.Edit: I would like to add "What do you expect from a Syfy original movie?" Is not an excuse for producing such a low quality film.