Review - Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)

Starring Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton and Famke Janssen.
Directed by Tommy Wirkola.

So Hollywood decides to bring yet another childhood fairytale to life and as feared, they completely ruin it. As children, Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton) were abandoned by their parents for reasons unknown. The movie follows the pair of siblings who now dedicate their lives to hunting and killing witches after a close death encounter with one when they were children. They come to a small town where they are hired to retrieve a group of missing children who is suspected to have been taken by a witch.

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters opens up with a not so inspiring or convincing prologue. However the face-off which followed shortly afterwards involving Hansel and Gretel's encounter with a witch in the forest wasn't too shabby. I was hoping this action scene would set the bar for the rest of movie but I guess I was expecting too much. The two main characters played by Renner and Arterton came off as bad-asses in the beginning of the film but unfortunately as the movie went along, they got drowned in the film's weak script.  The performances weren't as awful as I expected but nobody really stood out. The story was predictable and blah and even the twists which were revealed were drowned because of the script.

Another thing I didn't like about this film was how the witches and trolls looked. They looked extremely cheap and pathetic and I think they could have done a better job in regards to makeup and CGI. Those weren't the only things that were looking cheap in this movie; some of the action scenes did too. But lucky enough, there were couple scenes which were a bit entertaining and bloody. Overall I'd say the action sequences is what would probably save this movie and make it watchable for some audiences.

I do believe Hollywood should leave fairytales alone. They should have just made this a movie for kids with kids in the starring roles instead of turning it into an action movie for adults with a lame story and script.

Rating: 3.5/10



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