Pedestrian horror sorta-superhero starring Vin Diesel
An 800 year-old immortal Witch Hunter (Vin Diesel) now lives in swank New York City, still hunting malevolent witches with the help of two priests, an aged one (Michael Caine) and a novice (Elijah Wood). Rose Leslie plays a winsome witch with mettle while Ólafur Darri Ólafsson is on hand as a formidable evil warlock.
I thought I’d like "The Last Witch Hunter" (2015) since it mixes “End of Days” (1999) with “Van Helsing” (2004) and elements of “Ghost Rider” (2007) and “The Mummy” (1999) but, while Vin Diesel towers in the lead role, the story is meh. The overblown intro with its CGI-laden witch grotto sequence wasn’t a good first impression. By the halfway mark I wanted to turn it off, but I persevered.
Everything is here for a quality movie of this sort, but the story isn’t captivating and doesn’t build any drive. It just goes through the motions. The script needed a serious rewrite. But Vin Diesel is charismatic as the witch-hunting ‘James Bond’ and redhead Leslie has some appeal.
The film runs 1 hour, 46 minutes and was shot in Pittsburgh and Southern Cal.
GRADE: C/C- (4.5/10)