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THE LAST WITCH HUNTER (2015) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

THE last witch hunter (2015) movie

Genre | Fantasy Action

Classification | M

Running time | 106 minutes

Released | 29 October 2015

cast

Vin Diesel ... Kaulder
Rose Leslie ... Chloe
Elijah Wood ... Dolan 37th
Ólafur Darri Ólafsson ... Belial
Rena Owen ... Glaeser
Julie Engelbrecht ... The Witch Queen
Michael Caine ... Dolan 36th

director

Breck Eisner

writer

Cory Goodman ... (written by) and
Matt Sazama ... (written by) &
Burk Sharpless ... (written by)

cinematographer

Dean Semler

music

Steve Jablonsky

film editor

Chris Lebenzon
Dean Zimmerman

box office result

Worldwide $146,936,910

Australia $2,446,051

North America $27,367,660

the best dialogue

Dolan Thirty-Six: Witches live among us in secret. Their magic passed down from an ancient race, diluted, half-forgotten, but dangerously powerful. After centuries of conflict, a truce was forged. Witches would be allowed to live and govern themselves if they followed one strict rule, that magic never be used against humans. But a truce is a fragile thing.

Dolan Thirty-Six: [to Kaulder] I've been reading the history of your life. And I've written my fair share of it. But your story has no ending. You are the greatest soldier of the Axe and Cross, in a war between our world and the next.

Witch Queen: So many of us pretend to be something that we're not. But you, you've lived. A man who's walked through history. To have known Napoleon, Stalin, Hitler...
Kaulder: No need to be nostalgic. We have enough evil now.

THE LAST WITCH HUNTER (2015) MOVIE IMAGES

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THE LAST WITCH HUNTER (2015) STORY SYNOPSIS

The modern world holds many secrets, the most astounding being that witches still live among us. Centuries ago, Kaulder (Vin Diesel) managed to slay the all-powerful Witch Queen, decimating her followers in the process. Before her death, she cursed the valiant warrior with her own immortality, separating him from his beloved wife and daughter in the afterlife. Her resurrection now threatens the survival of the human race as Kaulder, the only one of his kind remaining, faces her vengeful wrath.

THE LAST WITCH HUNTER (2015) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty | Review date 27 October 2015
Pop Movee Rating ⭐⭐½

The only rational explanation as to why THE LAST WITCH HUNTER got made is because Vin Diesel got to star in it and produce it. There can be no other reason for a film like this being made; boasting a group of talented supporting actors, better-than-average production values and behind-the-scenes personnel who have been involved in feature films that have received both critical praise and enjoyed box office success. It’s a testament to Diesel’s ability to harness his fan base that investors would provide financing to a project that is about a man deliberately seeking to inflict pain and murder upon women; albeit dressed up in the guise of a tortured immortal soul keeping humanity safe from Witches who are out to destroy civilisation.

Watching THE LAST WITCH HUNTER unspool, frequent movie-goers may feel a sense of deja vu and start to recollect the last twelve months of viewing and recall movies like SEVENTH SON and DRACULA UNTOLD as films with similar plotting and story beats. It’s no surprise to learn, upon closer inspection of the production notes, THE LAST WITCH HUNTER was written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless; the two lads responsible for 2014’s DRACULA UNTOLD. This time they’re not wholly to blame, as Cory Goodman, writer of the 2011 film PRIEST (that is to Vampires what this movie is to Witches), receives a writing credit as well. Given the story went through more than one pair of hands to get to the screen, there’s a feeling that runs throughout the duration of the movie that committees were convened to discuss what the next set-piece would be all about. The scent of vanity hangs in the air throughout THE LAST WITCH HUNTER’s 106 minute running time.

The film opens stylishly enough, as Kaulder (Vin) battles the Queen Witch (Julie Engelbrecht) in an opening sequence that serves as a prologue to the story’s modern day New York setting and embeds a mythology into the viewer early in proceedings that will be revisited throughout the story. Director Breck Eisner almost does enough in this opening segment for the viewer to be encouraged; aided by Australian Academy Award winning Cinematographer Dean Semler. It doesn’t take long for THE LAST WITCH HUNTER to fall away, as the action moves to modern day New York. A poorly conceived set-piece aboard a commercial jet headed to New York serves as the introduction to the modern day version of Kaulder, who has been cursed by the Queen Witch to live for eternity. In a sign of things to come, Diesel’s character is like a Witch-hunting version of James Bond; endowed with the gift of being able to talk his way into sleeping with women. In another poor piece of writing, Dolan 36th (Michael Caine), who serves as Kaulder’s religious handler, is introduced in the wake of his charge finishing up with an air stewardess he has sweet-talked from the earlier plane flight. It’s utterly ridiculous and diminishes any gravitas Caine might have been able to bring to his character. (Unfortunately, like 2014’s INTERSTELLAR, Caine is horribly miscast in this role and agreed to be in the film because - strangely - he and Diesel are friends in real life. Truth really is stranger than fiction…)

In another piece of horrible casting, Elijah Wood is Dolan 37th; Michael Caine’s replacement. While will be forever fondly remembered by movie-goers as Frodo Baggins, his work since THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy has been patchy and he appears to pursue deliberately off-beat characters as if to prove he’s not just good at playing a Hobbit. The problem with his acting in THE LAST WITCH HUNTER is that his lack of nuance in the first two-thirds of the film make his character’s revelations in the last part of the film feel contrived and occur simply to create an artificial circumstance a plot point. Fortunately, GAME OF THRONES actress Rose Leslie brings some credibility as Chloe, a Witch who helps Kaulder in his effort to defeat those seeking to restore the dark reign of the Queen Witch!

THE LAST WITCH HUNTER tries hard to be a likeable film. Vin Diesel as Kaulder is simply playing a slightly different version of himself, which is a slightly different version of other characters from his other movies such as Riddick and Dom Toretto. The film’s final act falls apart under a mass of CGI effects that only serve to paper-over the extremely thin story that fails to deliver any real conclusion and, rather audaciously, makes the mistake that viewers will be so impressed with what they have seen that the door is left well and truly wide open for further adventures. The problem with this assumption is two-fold. The underlying misogyny of the film’s presence is a real issue in today’s society, especially when addressing the causes of domestic violence. This does not seem to be a good idea upon which to base a film franchise. The second, and more immediate, problem is THE LAST WITCH HUNTER is not a balanced film. It indulges when it should restrain, it lacks internal narrative logic and it fails to deliver a satisfying ending that pays a measure of respect to movie-goers who have paid good money to see it. Dare it be said, THE LAST WITCH HUNTER will cast more of a hex than a spell over viewers.