A Film Addict Reviews! Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters

It was towards the end of 2012, a big year for Marvel as they finished up phase one. Avengers was a smashing success in the box office and everyone wanted more. Some of the year passes by and suddenly a trailer for a little movie called Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters comes on. Little me thought, this movie looks cool. I want to see that. Hawkeye was great in the Avengers, least see what he can do without his super pals on the big screen. Man, was I excited to see it back then. I’ve thankfully had the chance to rewatch it recently and oh boy, I remembered it being much different.

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters is about a brother and sister duo, Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton), who become witch hunters after a traumatic experience with a witch. Many years pass and they get hired by a small village, whose children are being captured by witches, to save the children.

The Story

Now, the movie itself is very short. It only clocks in at 1 hour and 25 minutes so there isn’t a whole lot of room to expand upon the world building aspects of the film. But, what it does do during those minutes is actually give you are presentable story. Sure, it kinda grasps at straws when it comes to one of the objects the witches need to finish the ritual. Character development felt nonexistent for either Hansel or Gretel. They only come to terms with literally one thing and that’s it. They don’t change as characters. Neither of them seemed different from the beginning of the film compared the end. Other than that, it was a passable film. I do wish that it would have been a little longer in order to explain things more clearly. It would have been nice to learn more about the witches and why specifically they go for children. Another thing they could have expanded is why is there good witches and bad witches.

The Acting

This portion was pretty much the same of how the story felt, passable. Jeremy Renner did a decent job at playing a rogue like character. Some sass here and there was nice but other than that what else could he really do besides that. Gemma Arterton was about the same, if not then less than Jeremy. She could have done better considering I do feel like she could have been focused on a little bit more than Jeremy. It looks like the Gretel was the more sociable one and Hansel was more of the I don’t care what happens, as long as the witch is dead, I’m good.

The Effects

This is where I think the film actually shines. I have always been one to go for practical effects over CGI and this movie sure made me happy. The make up of the witches were all real from what I could tell. The troll was a guy in a costume for most of it minus a couple shots here and there. The flying even looked like they filmed it in a studio and just slapped on a background which is perfectly fine by me. Even the buildings and the destruction of them were real. The effects of it were just fantastic and made the film more believable for me and I’m sure the actors as well since they have something they can physically see and touch.

Cinematography

The shot choices were your typical action movie shot choices. Nothing really stood out to me shot wise. There was no clever angles or interesting ways of approaching certain scenes. It felt pretty straight forward.

Opinion and Verdict

At the end of the day, it’s just an action film. It was an interesting take on a familiar tale that has been told for centuries. The practical effects really made me like the film more than anything else. I would recommend that you at least see this once. It did make me question why I liked it when I was younger though.

If you enjoyed this review, please check out my last one: https://vocal.media/geeks/a-film-addict-reviews-baahubali-2-the-conclusion