The Last Witch Hunter Review

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In all, The Last Witch Hunter was okay.

I can't say it was terrible but nor can I say it blew me off my feet.

As a movie with Vin Diesel, I expected a lot of action, and action I got. But in terms of his character, I felt no depth to him. It felt like the same character he is in pretty much every movie and well to be honest, you could have placed him in any movie and he still would be the same. For someone who has had so much loss in their life I would have expect him to have had a lot more emotional and more layers to him. But Diesel only really portrayed an action hero. For this reason, I feel like another actor may have been more suitable, someone who is more than just muscles and can really show character and emotion such as Liam Neeson. Giving Vin Diesel the main role in the film, made it a bit wishy-washy as he isn't a good enough actor (for this type of role) to carry a film by himself. 

In terms of cinematography, the scenes are beautiful. Like a Del Torro or Tim Burton film, it's very artistic with a dark edginess to it, which I really like in a film. I think it also works great with this kind of movie, as the genre is fantasy and magic so being so unrealistic and artistic makes it that more believable. The editing was also great, the witch looked like a real person, the butterflies in the jar looked stunning and the dark plants looked quite scary. It's so beautifully made and edited but it feels like such a waste as the story itself was quite poor.

In terms of the story line, I don't feel like there was one really. In terms of witch hunting, we don't see any of it. We see him on a plane and talking to a young witch, which seemed like it could be an interesting story line. But then it dives off into another direction and completely ignores the previous scene. The whole film feels a bit like random scenes that were put together. 

Also the plot line which seemed solely on getting revenge didn't fit the title or theme of the movie. That is an action movie of the good guy chasing the baddie, with fantasy elements just thrown into the mix to justify calling it a fantasy film. 

Another problem was that it didn't build up to a climax. The introduction was the first maybe 4 minutes of the film and then were straight to the plot. No real introduction of characters or building up the moment he finally gets revenge. We find out what happened to his 'supposed' dead friend within minutes of him dying! There's no mystery and no suspension, which really let itself down.

And the ending? What an anti-climax! Was I the only one who wanted him to die too at this point? It was just to obvious of an ending. There was a slight twist but as always the action hero wins and kills the baddie, then drives into the sunset with his pretty girl. Points for originality! 

The cloud to the silver lining is that, Rose Leslie's performance was flawless! She is such a great actress and I hope to see more of her in films to come. I think she really showed her potential in her role in The Last Witch Hunter. She went from being feisty to being scared and vulnerable in a matter of minutes. She definitely carries the film and without her supporting role I really think this film would have been a complete fail.

With such great editing and beautiful scenes I think they really could have explored the magic and the roles of the bad and good witches. They could have also shown the witches he has fought over his lifetime instead of flashbacks to his wife and child, which also is left un-explored.

In all, this movie had all the ingredients for success but mainly due to lack of direction, along side a poor story line and weak main character it has left for a let down of a movie.

Star Rating ☆☆☆