Vin Diesel is a unique cinema persona. With his stoic physicality, particular onscreen charm and a voice smooth as gravel, he's hardly the greatest or broadest talent. But smart decisions have made him profitable at the box office and popular with audiences through his work in the Fast And Furious and Riddick franchises. The Last Witch Hunter is his latest attempt at another Diesel-centric franchise.
The Last Witch Hunter follows the titular immortal witch hunter Kaulder (Diesel) who must battle once more against evil witches in modern day New York.
The film is a passion project for Diesel, based on his love of playing a Witch Hunter in Dungeons And Dragons. Unfortunately, that love grew into an utter monstrosity of a film with little redeeming qualities. The script, written by three writers is a mess, with vague mythology, sparse character and laughably bad dialogue (witch prison, seriously?). This is coupled with horrible pacing, bad camerawork, choppy editing and worst of all, atrocious direction from Breck Eisner.
Diesel is bland, sleepwalking through the film. In support, Rose Leslie of Game of Thrones comes off best, with a pinch of personality. Meanwhile, Elijah Wood is awful. It's also depressing seeing Michael Caine subjected to such drab material.
The Last Witch Hunter is absolute trash and a puerile attempt to kick-start a franchise.
