Andy Summers 🤠’s review published on Letterboxd:
Sometimes Nicolas Cage must wonder why he signs on for movies like this. Maybe he needed another pay-day or thought that working with Dominic Sena again after "Gone In 60 Seconds" was something he wanted to do. Who knows,but I bet he regrets it now.
Well where do we start? The premise of focusing on European history's dodgy Crusader past and their passion for burning "heretics" was interesting. But if you want to see it fucked up within 10 minutes then this is the film for you. Witches,religious zealots and guilt-ridden knights that have lost their faith,this has them all. For the record,Cage is American. For the record,Stephen Graham isn't. In a European set period piece why the fuck did Graham have a ridiculous American accent. Ron Perlman is something of a B-movie star. When you want a big grizzled "desperate Dan jawed" loony then he's your go-to-guy. In fact Perlman reminded me of his turn in "The Name Of The Rose" where he was a mongo. These are just some of the glaringly shitty on screen fuck ups that Sena is known for. I was waiting on a soft rock ballad to go with Cage's eighties hair and lets not even talk about the crappy CGI.
Medieval yarns have all the ingredients for horror. From that gothic time-period to it's dark history it is perfect for a movie like this. What a waste then that this lacks any sort of tension, the supernatural elements are lame, and the whole thing looks as cheap as an Aldi carrier bag. Sorry Nic,I still luv ya but this was shit.