Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters...

[ffutures]

...is a VERY silly film. Gratuitously violent and bloody, deliberately anachronistic and full of in-jokes for the 21st century cinematic audience. It isn't great art, but it's a lot of fun - if you liked Van Helsing you'll love it. It stars Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton in Avengers Assemble) and Gemma Arterton (Kelly Jones in St. Trinians) and a wonderful cast of grotesques. Where it really seems to score for me is that a lot of the stunts are done using wire-work etc., not CGI, and feel much more realistic than the equivalents in Van Helsing. The plot sort of makes sense, the lead characters' resistance to vast amounts of damage is a bit hard to swallow but otherwise it works pretty well, and there are some awesome steampunk weapons despite it being set much earlier.

Bottom line, it's worth seeing if you can get the DVD cheap, or rent it.

Comments

[nwhepcat.livejournal.com]

There is a delicious crossover fic w/ H&G/Avengers called "By Any Other Name" by Liannabob. Not sure where it lives in text; I heard the podfic by the author, which I found on Jinjurly's audio archive.)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've read it - on A03

http://archiveofourown.org/works/670908/chapters/1226394

About 15-20% of H&G fic seems to be Avengers crossovers, which is what got me interested in the first place. I really hadn't expected the movie to be so spectacularly silly.

[ggreig]

I didn't like Helsing and I did like this.

The troll is also not CGI. I really liked that.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

They really seem to have tried hard to avoid CGI, though I suspect it's still there in the background etc. You'll notice they haven't got any fights on collapsing bridges, which is usually a sign that the CGI pixies are at work!

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was very concerned about it because I felt like it was going to be Helsing-esque. But it's not, it's just... ridiculously silly and actually quite good fun.

Not sure it deserved the slating it received on reflection.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I didn't notice the reviews - rarely pay much attention to them if the idea of the film interests me.

[lonemagpie.livejournal.com]

We still have that in the bought-but-not-seen pile, along with Red Riding Hood, and another fairytale-themed one who's title I forget...

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

It's very silly - can't claim that it's art, but I had fun watching it.