The Last Witch Hunter

This review may contain spoilers!

This film had all the trappings of a good blockbuster if it weren't for the C grade plot. I would give The Last Witch Hunter a 4.5/10.

This film had some really nice visual effects, all the magic sequences looked incredible and the swarms of flies descending upon New York was stunning. The cinematography was another great element of this film, the camera really set up big expansive shots. The score was one of the best parts of the film, everything about it screamed major motion picture score.

Vin Diesel, who played Kaulder, was a pretty good lead in this film; Diesel gives a naturally likeable performance and discusses points of lore in this film with relative ease. Rose Leslie, who played Chloe, had a lot of screen presence; her emotional range was fantastic in this film and the scene where she breaks down over her friend dying was a great example of that. Michael Caine, who played Dolan 36th, is just straight up likeable; his line delivery is really good and he has some great chemistry with Diesel.

However the best performance came from Julie Engelbrecht, who played the Witch Queen. For some people Engelbrecht might seem like a strange choice but for me she is the only choice. What you get in her performance is one of the only characters that feels a part of the world the story attempts to create. Engelbrecht is terrifying in her role and her line delivery is phenomenal. She isn't just scary but she makes you interested in this fantasy world which is a feat few of the rest of the cast pull off.

This story is really hard to engage with because the lore and information about the witches, or the Axe and Cross or Kaulder are constantly being thrown at you throughout the film. Just as you think you have the grasp upon another piece of information you're force fed another fact. It's sloppy world building, a world should exist and present itself to you; you should not have to be told every piece of information about the world through some basic dialogue. The dialogue was another thing that suffered in this film, it was very basic and the good lines were few and far between. One of the points that really irked me about this film was that Leslie and Diesel seemed to be heading towards a sort of romance, despite the characters and actors having little chemistry when it came to this. The film constantly dealt out plot points that made no sense or undermined itself, it felt very rushed and not very well thought out. The editing was another irksome point as it was the only thing that let down the visual style; the cutting was too slow for a blockbuster film and so scenes moved slowly because of this.

Elijah Wood, who played Dolan 37th, is one of the most irksome and poorly written characters in this film; the 'plot twist' in which he betrays Kaulder comes out of nowhere and is rather ineffectual to the story. Olafur Darri Olafsson, who played Belial, was a really weak antagonist; he felt very stereotypical and you didn't much care what he did. Joseph Gilgun, who played Ellic, is barely understandable in this film; this is probably some of the worst line delivery that I've seen this year. Isaach De Bankole, who played Max Schlesinger, is a complete puppet to the plot; rather than being a character he simply acts as a means to an end for the plot. Michael Halsey, who played Grosette, lacks screen presence in this film; he's one of the characters that should have made me interested in this world but didn't really deliver much in the end. Dawn Olivieri, who played Danique, is another weak antagonist; you feel like she's hastily crammed into this film to extend the running time and push a last minute plot point.