How Vin Diesel has risen to be the box office magnet he is, is quite the mystery! Prominently featuring in the Fast and Furious franchise, we rarely get the opportunity to see him in his solo outings – could the hotly anticipated The Last Witch Hunter bring a change to this? We don’t think so!
Diesel plays Kaulder, a witch hunter cursed with eternal life while hunting the forces of evil…witches of course being a big part of that bracket.
Its always good to see an actor try something new and break the mould. Unfortunately however, with some dodgy scripting, questionable dialogue and overall substandard acting, we can only hope he won’t be rushing into that genre again in a hurry.
Writers Goodman and Sazama have brought nothing new to the genre, instead settling for an uninteresting and cliche ridden story. Their attempt at making something original flips on its head, revealing something quite unoriginal in its place. Its this inept story line that doesn’t keep the audience focused as we all know what will happen in the end! The distinct lack of any heart (pun intended for those who have seen it) meant I didn’t care an ounce about any of the characters in the film nor did I care what they did.
Aside from the glaringly obvious script issues however, my one biggest problem, and believe me, it’s a BIG problem, is Vin Diesel. The terrible California born actor has to be, in my opinion, one of the most fortunate people on this planet. To be an actor with no acting ability is quite impressive considering that the performance is a very important part of your job. This is yet another failed attempt by Vin Diesel to try and break out of his comfort zone and see if he can overcome his stereotypical persona, but his macho manly attitude breaks through his character and we are left with nothing. There’s a reason why he voices a tree in a Marvel movie that only says three words.
If there was one positive to take away from the experience however, it would be how the film was shot. Although suffering occasionally from cheap green screening, Breck Eisners approach was quite well achieved, its just a shame that it wasn’t enough to save it.
Overall ‘The Last Witch Hunter’ is a pretty terrible movie that’s only made worse by Vin Diesel wearing a wig and fake facial hair. How films like this get funded over films like ‘Dredd 2’ is shocking. Rant over.
‘The Last Witch Hunter’ is far from enjoyable, un-original and hugely embarrassing. 1 out of 5 stars.
All Things Movies UK 