Review of Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013) by Hoops2448 — 26 Aug 2013

From the surreal imagination of Tommy Wirkola, the director of Dead Snow, Norway's answer to the Evil Dead, comes this unconventional and fun re imagining of the Brothers Grimm tale of Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton).

The film follows Hansel and Gretel as they are cruelly abandoned by their parents and taught a valuable lesson about trust by an evil witch. This gives them the strength to continue and take up the mantle of Witch Hunters.

The film actually takes place years after the events of their childhood but this is still an origins story for these two characters. Renner's version of Hansel is quick witted, relentless and a born leader while Arterton's Gretel is vicious, warm and occasionally stupid as hell.

The film does a decent job of depicting these characters as the crafty children who tricked and killed their first witch. However the film also tries to flesh Hansel and Gretel out with predictable backstory that is told one movie trope at a time.

The film is pretty generic, its fairly slow and doesn't do a good job of keeping your attention and worst of all the films lead villain as played by Famke Janssen is awful and in the brief time she has been out of the limelight she has somehow forgotten how to act.

. That being said, it is a funny feature, with Wirkola's signature dark and goofy humour shining through the films many problems and the unsettling feeling of mediocrity, making the film an oddly fun experience, not a perfect one, not a great one even but a fairly decent start to a franchise I can see getting better with age.