Vin and vigour

Vin Diesel's latest movie outing is a salutary parable about the vanity of fast food.

 

THE LAST WITCH HUNTER

Director: Breck Eisner
Cast: Vin Diesel, Rose Leslie, Elijah Wood, Michael Caine
Rating: (M)

 

The Last Witch Hunter is built on a promising premise.

Cursed with immortality, 800-year-old witch-hunter Kaulder (Diesel, Fast and Furious franchise) keeps the peace in contemporary New York.

But trouble is brewing, so he enlists the help of humans Dolan 36 (Sir Michael Caine, Zulu, Educating Rita, Interstellar) and Dolan 37 (Elijah Wood, The Lord of the Rings), and young witch Chloe (Rose Leslie, Game of Thrones) against evil forces who plan to resurrect the witch queen.

Scriptwriters, with experience in other fantasy adventures, create an engaging world and a plot that clips along at a good pace.

Director Breck Eisner (The Crazies) employs interesting angles and lush, vivid settings.

Story threads with intriguing possibilities abound: two people groups whose ignorance of each other fosters mistrust and resentment, the young woman who must learn to embrace who she is, the man alone who has forgotten how to trust, the organisation that uses people like chattels ... But, sadly, the potential is not realised.

Instead of a satisfying, plot-driven exploration of the metaphorical landscape, the film is a quick trip down a predictable, well-worn road.

The Last Witch Hunter is undeniably entertaining, but nothing more. It is rather like a cookie-cutter fast-food meal; pleasant enough to consume but quickly forgotten.

Bruce Munro 

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