Thursday, October 22, 2015

DAY 24 OF 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN: THE LAST WITCH HUNTER

THE LAST WITCH HUNTER
Summit
2015 color
106 Mins.
Action-Horror
Vin Diesel, Rose Leslie, Elijah Wood, Michael Caine, Julie Engelbrecht, Rena Owen and Olafur Darri Olafsson star.
Written by Cory Goodman, Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless
Directed by Breck Eisner
PG-13 for language, violence and gore.

So I'm a big fan of critically pummeled movies like this. So if you found yourself liking Legion, I Frankenstein and Seventh Son this one is for you. It's important to know that this film doesn't have a deep story it's not clever, it doesn't have well drawn characters or even fully deliver on the goods your hoping to see. What it does have is a likable star in Vin Diesel, some great special effects and it's just pretty darn cool. It starts off with Diesel's character going against the Queen Witch and finding himself cursed with eternal life before he sticks a sword through her dark heart. Fast forward to modern times where he hunts witches working for an organization in the church. But events transpire and he discovers the Queen Witch may be returning to life with intentions of world domination. It's all fairly by the book and most of it really does work. It's fun and light and the story is engaging. The main problem the film has is in it's delivery, every scene never goes where it could but it's a likable journey none the less. What the film makers did do is set it up a franchise that could be really interesting and even though the first film is deeply flawed it could build into something really unique. Even at it's most mundane the environment the film makers have created feels fantastical and layered. I don't think the film will become a franchise just cause I expect the box office returns to be mediocre at best. But who knows overseas could really help out. So all in all a pretty good watch. It's got a creepy, cool atmoshphere and likable performances from it's cast especially Diesel and Leslie as his witchy partner. ***.25/5







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