Film Review: Hansel & Gretel - Witch Hunters

**Spoilers**
If you have not yet watched this film, please go and do so before proceeding.

                 This is a very interesting film. After the disappointment of Jack the Giant Slayer and Mirror, Mirror I went in with very low expectations. As a result I was favourably surprised - but I wouldn't call the film anywhere close to stellar.

Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:

- The characters were almost all very enjoyable to watch and I personally felt that the brother-sister relationship between Hansel and Gretel was portrayed quite well. Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton have some great chemistry together and they played both the action/angst and dark comedy moments to perfection.

- I really liked the design of the opening credits with the flames and the newspaper clippings. It certainly got me excited for the movie as well as neatly gave out the back-story of what happened to the two siblings post-candy house. All too often nowadays a film will be lazy with the opening credits. But these, on the other hand, were almost as exciting to watch as the movie itself.

- I liked that this was a continuation to the Hansel and Gretel tale. One of the reasons I even watched this film, despite my low expectations was because that this particular story was my favourite fairy tale as a child (right up there with Puss in Boots and Jack the Giant Killer) and the trailer looked like it would be an interesting new take on my beloved bedtime story. Well it certainly was that!

- I LOVED the design of the witches in the story, especially at the great meeting of the coven towards the climax of the film. It was also very interesting that the story really stresses the idea that the witches are not evil because they are ugly but ugly because they are evil. Hansel talks about the way the dark magic eats away at the body and festers in the soul - quite a vivid description and a view that we don't really see explored in this fashion too often in film today.

- The weapons that the siblings use are also quite interesting and they made for quite a few awesome action sequences along with a few jokes in the vein of black humour that this movie is rife with. I enjoy a few dark jokes now and then, so the humour of this movie really appealed to me. The action sequences are great and, yes there is a bit of gore, but it's not in-your-face blood and guts and never exceeds what is shown during a single episode of Torchwood or Supernatural so even my relatively squeamish self sat though the entire experience without looking away in disgust once. It was (if you can ever apply this word to the subject) tastefully done.

- One thing that you have to understand going into this movie is what you should be expecting. It isn't a high epic or a magical quest...it's just a fantasy action flick with plenty of dark humour.

- The script feels half-finished and in dire need of some editing. It's not that it is full of plot holes or stupid contrivances, no, the problem here is that sometimes the story doesn't really focus all that well (like wasting time on the over-the-top sheriff subplot or that implied sex scene between Hansel and the White Witch). Those were elements that didn't really contribute anything to the plot and so slowed the entire story down quite a bit and at times even took me out of the experience as I groaned in frustration that we were bunny-trailing...again!

- In this story all of the sex and swearing elements really took me out of the universe. It is quite jarring to be watching a bunch of characters dressed in 'old-world' costumes and spouting out slightly archaic dialogue and then one of them suddenly cuts loose with a stream of vulgar and rather modern curses, particularly whenever people would never have used such language in a given situation in real life during that time period (like in front of a woman). As for the sexual content - which is fairly subtle and not shown on screen - my primary complaint here is that it really had nothing to do with the story. It was just kinda there for the sake of having two characters hook up. It didn't advance the plot and it didn't thicken the intrigue. I really feel that the movie could have benefited from less of it. It wasn't necessary and I hate it when writers add such things to an otherwise enjoyable story, just for the sake of having them in there.

- The sheriff of the town is annoying - and stupid - and unrealistic even for this universe of witches and candy houses.

- Edward the troll. Excuse me while I have a good laugh over this one...okay, I'm done. What didn't I like about Edward? Well, aside from the fact that he looks like Wreck-It Ralph's slightly uglier cousin, I just feel that he was a bit underdeveloped. I know, I know - he's a troll. But they could have made him a bit less of a random occurrence and I would both have not felt like his big choices came out of nowhere and I might have felt a bit of remorse whenever he 'died'. The troll from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone had more of a personality!

- There was so much wasted potential with this story! They took an interesting angle and gave Hansel diabetes as a result of all the candy that witch stuffed him with as a child. It's never named, but as he has to give himself injections every so many hours because of a sugar overdose anyone with half a brain could figure out what his condition is. But it's just kind of there, sitting in the script like a half-formed idea that never fully took shape but was so clever they couldn't bear to cut it out. Too bad because this could really have made the final confrontation more suspenseful and interesting.

- I am complaining a lot, but there really wasn't much of anything that really got my eye twitching. Usually how upset errors leave me is directly proportional to how much I care about the film in general and I honestly say that, while I enjoyed this one, it certainly wasn't something that I feel passionately about. Probably the only thing that makes my blood pressure start to rise is the aforementioned unfinished feeling to the script - the feeling that makes you believe that with just one or two more rewrites this film could have been something great.

- I did enjoy it, though. This is definitely something that is good for a bit of mindless action-filled fun and worth at least a second watch.

             Overall this is an enjoyable film if you have a couple of hours to kill and nothing better to do. It is a little bit cheesy, a lot melodramatic, and packed full of action and dark humour. I had fun watching it and I feel that it is something every fairytale geek should see at least once...despite all of the problems Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters ranks at about a 2/5



What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently?