‘The Last Witch Hunter’ slays its good qualities

A Vin Diesel movie is bound to fail if no one is being fast or furious and this film is no exception.

“The Last Witch Hunter,” directed by Breck Eisner and starring Diesel and Rose Leslie, comes off as the worst Dungeons and Dragons game put to film.

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Kaulder, an immortal  witch hunter, is the main weapon of an ancient religious faction. A friend of his is killed and it all leads to an enemy from the slayer’s past.

Fantasy can be a hard genre for successful content. Before the days of the Lord of the Ring and Harry Potter, fans had to settle for mediocre films like “Krull” and “Ladyhawke.”

“The Last Witch Hunter” plays out like the lackluster latter.

The movie wants too much to be a franchise. Newer blockbusters fail to capture the critical success Harry Potter or even Marvel has with connected universes. This has caused many films to worry more about the future than the present.

Many plot lines are brought up in this film and dropped seconds later.

Bigger and better villains are shown, just so the audience knows ideas are coming, instead of actually being in this current film, making villains and story points alike feel uneventful and boring.

Diesel also leads the entire movie to boredom.

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His acting is not terrible by any means, but the actor cannot let his character suffer from being weak or even flawed.

As an immortal, Kaulder is always the toughest guy in the room and never struggles or gets hurt.

Even when viewers are supposed to be impressed by the villain’s power, she never appears bigger than the hunter, which makes him flavorless and uninteresting.

Yet, “The Last Witch Hunter” does succeeds in having interesting concepts.

An immortal witch hunter with a troubled past and a religious faction hiding a dark secret are two great ideas that are only barely expounded on. In the right hands, this could be a fantastic TV show that would go for six seasons and a movie off of it.  

Unfortunately, this movie is in the worst hands imaginable.

Stars: 1.5 out 5

Jacob Pierce can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JacobPierce1_DE. 

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