Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)

*This review is five months overdue. Spoilers ktnx*

I actually enjoyed this film. I actually forgot to nitpick during the movie.

Despite the accent inconsistencies (at least Gemma Arterton’s matched Jeremy Renner’s), the steampunk, the insulin (diabetes!) and all those little niggly details that would normally annoy the crap out of me, I had a great time at the movies that day.

H+G opens with a short sequence summarising the original fairy tale, and moves quickly into the artsy woodcut opening credits, showing how Hansel and Gretel both develop a reputation for hunting witches and saving children. The main story revolves around the siblings hunting the High Witch and her coven, who are kidnapping children to sacrifice to the Blood Moon so that the witches can be immune to fire and etc., for eternity. Along the way, the Americans Hansel and Gretel inadvertently find out more about their origins (unintentional abandonment FTW!), and . In the end, it culminates in a massive bloodbath with machine guns(!!), and a bad-troll-turned-good not getting brain and organ damage despite falling off from a really, really high place.

In the end, they (including that troll) and their fanboy (seriously) kick down another witch's door and have a shoot-out in slow-mo. It looked pretty stylish, actually.

Yes, it's ridiculous, it's even more mindless on paper, but the good thing about this movie is that it doesn't take itself seriously. If it did, I think it'd be completely unbearable.

Also, also... Visuals.

I'm a massive sucker for gorgeous art direction, even though nowadays it's all computer-generated, and this movie lays out the violence and gore like nobody's business. No wonder this wasn't released during summer. It's almost as brutal as Dredd, except I feel it caters a bit more to young adults, probably because of the MTV branding.

[Seriously. MTV Studios is behind H+G. I didn't even know they've branched out into film.]

Despite being an action whore, I also get a kick from watching fairy-tale variations (Oz review also coming soon!! I have many coming-soons, actually :S), and I thought this movie's take on the Hansel and Gretel story was pretty brilliant, so with this and aforementioned awesome visuals, this movie doesn't get too low marks in my book.

6/10. This review is a bit short, because even though I have a good impression of the movie, that's about all I have on this movie.