Movies
[Review] ‘The Last Witch Hunter’ is a Silly and Mindlessly Entertaining Film
The Last Witch Hunter feels like a slightly more mature young adult novel adaptation. It is an origin story with plenty of fight scenes to enjoy, mythology to learn and an ending that clearly sets up future sequels. However, it also displays some of the worst qualities of those films as well, with stilted dialogue, poor CGI effects and flat characters. It’s not an overtly bad film, but it’s not particularly good either.
During a prologue set in the 1300s, Kaulder (Vin Diesel) destroys the cause of the Black Death, Witch Queen (Julie Engelbrecht), but not before she curses him with immortality. In the present, Kaulder now acts as a witch hunter, with Dolan the 36th (Michael Caine) acting as his friend and mentor. After an attack leaves Dolan incapacitated, Dolan the 37th (Elijah Wood) steps up to take his place. Kaulder and the new Dolan begin an investigation, eventually teaming up with a local witch named Chloe (Game of Thrones‘ Rose Leslie) who helps them to discover a secret plot to resurrect the Witch Queen and unleash a new plague.
Surprisingly, it is Leslie who is the real star of the film. She steals nearly every scene she is in. After her star-making turn in last year’s Honeymoon and now, with her ability to make her poorly-written dialogue in The Last Witch Hunter sound convincing, one can hope that we will be seeing more of her in the future. Both Wood and Caine are sorely underused in the film (they pretty much disappear after the first 30 minutes, only to re-appear during the climax). Diesel is the weakest link of the film, spouting off quite a bit of expository dialogue that he doesn’t seem particularly interested in.
Speaking of expository dialogue, The Last Witch Hunter has it in spades. The film apparently thinks the audience is incapable of figuring things out for themselves, as there are voiceovers aplenty and stilted dialogue that sounds forced and out of place, all for the sake of explaining things that you are fairly capable of figuring out yourself. Out of all of the film’s flaws (of which there are many), the dialogue is the most egregious. Critics of CGI will find little to love about The Last Witch Hunter, though there are a few practical effects, mostly involving the Witch Queen, that impress.
The film falls apart in its final act, with an anticlimactic showdown that features editing so choppy that is difficult to ascertain exactly what is happening. It’s also a shame that Leslie is incredibly underserved in the film’s final scenes. The first two acts seem to be setting up Chloe as the real hero of the story, only for her to be relegated to a typical damsel in distress by the time Kaulder faces off with the witch queen. There is also an 11th hour twist that feels contrived and completely shoehorned in. Had the film not gone for the “gotcha!” route, it would have been all the better for it.
This is disappointing since everything that came before, while by no means Oscar-worthy, has been so much fun. Ultimately though, it serves to set up a potential sequel for this would-be franchise. It would be interesting to see where the story (and these characters) go from here, so on that level The Last Witch Hunter is a success, but is it a good sign when the idea of a sequel sounds better than the film you’re already watching?
All of this being said, The Last Witch Hunter is a lot of fun. Dumb fun, to be sure, but fun nonetheless. The fight scenes are highly entertaining and, with the exception of the aforementioned climax, well choreographed. There are moments of humor sprinkled throughout the film that surprisingly work in the film’s favor. It’s also never boring, which is always a plus with mindless action flicks nowadays.
The Last Witch Hunter is harmless action fluff. There isn’t anything particularly memorable about it, but it’s nowhere near the trainwreck people are making it out to be. There are worse ways to spend 100 minutes, and if you can shut your brain off and enjoy the ride, you may just find yourself liking The Last Witch Hunter.
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
Adam Simon (The Haunting in Connecticut, “Salem”) and Tim Metcalfe (The Haunting in Connecticut, Kalifornia) penned the script. The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallace.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
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