The tale follows a powerful witch, Gray Alys and her hunter-companion Boyce, whom she has hired to hunt down a wolf shapeshifter in order to grant the beast’s power to The Queen. The catch in the quest is one of the Queen’s enforcers, The Patriarch (head of the tale’s unsubtle religious sect), who is hunting down Gray Alys to execute her for heresy due to her magical powers.
I felt that the characters were sloppily established, with very little to make them feel like real people. Milla Jovovich’s Gray Alys was aloof and wooden - supposedly to demonstrate her immortality - but she came across as bland and dull. Dave Bautista’s Boyce appeared as a thick-headed stereotype: ready to sling guns, drink neat liqueur and bed the nearest women at a moment’s notice. I liked some of the transition work, the way they used the moon to track the passing of time and the use of the world’s map to track the two characters’ journey, but not much else.
Watch at your own peril.
My main gripe was the script; the filmmakers clearly allocated a lot of the budget to the CGI, which still wasn’t decisive enough to establish a world that felt real, leaving a lot of onus on the dialogue to map out character dynamics and plot. Resultantly, the script was very heavy-handed, with each conversation being too on-the-nose, effectively spoon-feeding the viewer.
I think this film would’ve benefited from fewer individual settings, allowing the CGI to be more judicious and the worldbuilding more closely focused, which would ultimately increase the viewer’s immersion and alleviate the pressure on the script…it could probably also do with a new script entirely. Ultimately, the translation from short story - where sparse description can still be compelling - did not translate well to a visual medium, with underdeveloped characters and clumsy execution.
This film would suit an uncomplicated movie night where you don’t want to think too hard, but won’t be lauded by diehard fans of Game of Thrones. Watch at your own peril.
2/5