Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

When I heard that this film is a completely unique twist on Hansel & Gretel, where the siblings have become witch-hunters & started taking them down, I was impressed with the idea. Its new, fun & can be an exciting take on an age old tale. How does it translate on screen?

Its got doses of fun but hugely lacks the gore, essential to a witch-hunting film.

Hansel & Gretel have a childhood story that leads them to hacking & burning witches. They travel from land to land in search of the evil and do it for a sum. The story revolves around a deadly witch who has a haunting connection to their past.

At around 90 minutes, the film is breezy & doesnt drag too much. Jeremy Renner is strictly ok while Gemma Arterton is at her fiesty best.

The action is good but nothing extraordinary. I expected the fun I had while watching Zombieland, where a lot more brutality was on display. Some brilliant touches are added, like Hansel having to take an injection for a diabetes like disease which he contracted as a child eating treats, a great way to draw an analogy to present day.

The finale is action packed but still doesnt quite match up to the many films in the same genre. The 3D is medicore & the visuals not that grand.

All in all, the film doesnt have enough meat in the screenplay department & is avoidable. Best watched on DVD if you must.

Remember 'The Brothers Grimm', Terry Gilliam's highly disappointing tale about the legendary Grimm Brothers and their adventures in Napoleon era Germany trying to help people get rid of witches and other demons as they travel from town to town. Well this one is kind of like that except with better visuals plus it has plenty of splatter effects like that movie, the same dark ages locations and setup plus it has Peter Stormare in an authoritarian role yet again.

Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Jemma Arterton) are a brother-sister duo of witch hunters who travel from town to town vanquishing evil in return for bounty. As kids their father left them in the middle of the woods and they found their way to the house made of sweets, only to be captured by the witch who wanted to fatten them up for eating presumably. They escaped unscathed and learnt the best way to kill a witch, burn her. Many years pass and their fame as witch-hunters spreads across the land. Business is booming for them until they come across the town of Augsburg, where there are reports of many children who have gone missing over the past few weeks. On the insistence of the town's mayor, the duo conduct investigations of their own stumble upon an old prophecy being brought about by a mighty witch, Muriel (Famke Janssen) which will happen on the night of the “blood moon” or some mumbo-jumbo like that which co-incidentally will take place in three days from when the duo arrive at Augsburg. There's also a love interest for Hansel, Mina (Pihla Viitala) who might hold secrets of her own and the back-story of the siblings themselves which might be more connected to the prophecy than they might know.

The movie's well aware of the it's less than stellar status and plays along winking at the audience, every opoortunity it gets. The 3D effects are used to hurl all kinds of objects right at your face and for once it's well done, even if not subtle at all. The splatter effects are outlandish and the acting over the top in certain cases like that of Stormare and Janssen but they seem to be having a lot of fun with their characters. That's what the movie is unapologetically sure about; it's dumb tone of things.

Forget about logic when it comes to the plot or characters, cause it's simply thrown out of window the first opportunity the movie gets. If you enjoyed Van Helsing or The Brothers Grimm you'll like this, else look elsewhere to spend your money this weekend.