The Last Witch Hunter: Dungeons, Dragons and Diesel

.

The Last Witch Hunter ain’t Shakespeare but it is a lot of fun. Anytime a movie creates a new world and features Vin Diesel punching witches I’m sold. I’ve grown tired of watching sequels, remakes and prequels so I’m happy a movie as ridiculous as The Last Witch Hunter was released. I was able to take my brain out and appreciate a world full of plague trees, shadow walkers and gnarly beards.

.

The Last Witch Hunter is based on a Dungeons and Dragons character that Vin created during his D&D days. He is a massive gamer and thought it would be cool to make a movie about the character. With the Fast & Furious series making insane amounts of money I guess Vin Diesel was given carte blanche when it came to creating this film. Thus, a script was written and Breck Eisner (The Crazies) was pegged to direct the movie about a suave immortal witch hunter.

Think of The Last Witch Hunter as the anti-Constantine. In Constantine the character was dying and looking to atone for his wrong doings via eradicating evil. In The Last Witch Hunter Kaulder (Diesel) was cursed with immortality and uses his powers to wrangle up trouble making witches. He is basically a mixture of The Highlander, Constantine and Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters. Throw in some James Bond and tailored shirts and you have Kaulder.

.

The plot centers around Kaulder preventing his old nemesis the witch queen from rising again. He laid the smack down on her 800 years prior and now he has no urge to  battle with the deadly villain again. So, he travels around town with his handler Dolan (Elijah Wood) and deals with various trouble makers in order to get a handle on the strange things that are afoot. His journey leads him to potions, curses, cupcakes, plague flies, hell portals, fizzy drinks, double crosses and a shadow walker named Chloe (Rose Leslie).

My favorite part of the movie was watching Kaulder traveling around doing detective work. I loved how the world unfolded and I definitely caught a strong John Wick world building vibe. A lot of nerd energy went into building this gonzo world and I would have been happy if it would have lead to a simple detective story as opposed to the obligatory CGI battle that doesn’t make a lick of sense. If there is a sequel I hope it becomes more grounded but still fashionable.

.

This isn’t a knock on Vin but I’m glad they made his character immortal because he is basically going that route in the Riddick and Fast series. The immortal angle allows Vin to run through skeleton creatures whilst still being relaxed. He is an unstoppable force that is immortal for a pretty good reason. I won’t give it away but when the big moment comes and you learn about his immortality you get it. Vin came up with a good idea and I really we get another installment because I’m down for more witch punching.

I’m not saying The Last Witch Hunter is as good as Constantine or as fun as The Mummy. I’m saying it creates a new world and you can tell Vin loves every second of it. For me as consumer I appreciate new stories and I think Vin’s world is perfect for further stories about witches getting  drop kicked.