6 | / 10 |
Users | 2.6 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.6 |
The last remaining witch hunter battles against an uprising of witches in modern day New York.
Starring: Vin Diesel, Elijah Wood, Michael Caine, Rose Leslie, Ólafur Darri ÓlafssonAction | 100% |
Adventure | 64% |
Fantasy | 50% |
Supernatural | 10% |
Horror | 4% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS:X
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS 2.0
Spanish: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: DTS Headphone:X
English, English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
His character’s name isn’t Alfred this time around, but Michael Caine really might have thought he was signing up for another iteration of The Dark Knight Trilogy for all intents and purposes in The Last Witch Hunter. While not a butler per se, Caine’s character of Dolan (more properly the 36th Dolan, but more about that later) is an avuncular elder who tends to a mysterious superhero who is tasked with keeping various nefarious baddies out of a Manhattan metropolis which (again, for all intents and purposes) might as well be called Gotham. Caine is perhaps luckily shunted off to the sidelines for much of The Last Witch Hunter, a “high concept” offering that is so high (in a manner of speaking) it requires not just an explanatory prologue, but then an additional post-prologue voiceover by none other than Caine himself to further explicate some salient plot points. The bottom line is that Vin Diesel portrays a Middle Ages warrior named Kaulder who, in that aforementioned prologue, is part of a feudal team tasked with taking out a nasty witch who has unleashed the “Black Plague” (as they call it) on the populace. The Witch Queen (Julie Engelbrecht), who will perhaps remind some science fiction fans of another queen, namely the royal Borg played by Alice Krige in Star Trek VIII: First Contact, engages in some hocus pocus that mesmerizes various other combatants, leading to a showdown between herself and Kaulder. Kaulder has plans to kill both the Queen and himself in one epic move, since Kaulder like all good heroes (super and/or otherwise, but rather similarly to a certain Caped Crusader) is a wounded soul nursing the trauma of his family having been killed and has no reason to continue living. The Witch Queen is kind of a mean girl, though, and as she (supposedly) dies, reaches right into Kaulder's chest and “gifts” him with eternal life. Whew! And that’s just the prologue, folks.
The Last Witch Hunter is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Digitally shot
with Arri Alexa cameras, The Last Witch Hunter is often rather sumptuously handsome, benefitting from a nicely detailed production
design and some well done special effects which combine both CGI and practical effects. While there are the requisite color grading gambits, as
well as some other bells and whistles applied to scenes that include flashbacks and "dream walking", overall detail levels remain great, especially
in close-ups. The film is often quite dark, but shadow definition is typically well above average. There are a couple of very brief moments of
image instability, including a brief aerial establishing shot of New York where some minor aliasing creeps in, but generally speaking, this is a top
flight video presentation which should easily please the film's fans.
Note: The Last Witch Hunter 4K is
going to be among the first wave of 4K UHD releases which are due in about a month. It will be
interesting to see if the new release significantly improves on an already impressive visual quality.
The Last Witch Hunter features a similarly impressive DTS:X audio track (DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 core, the version reviewed here). There are a number of outstanding effects, including some great panning moments when various special effects sequences overtake the narrative. There's quite a bit of forceful LFE in play, especially in the "showdown" scenes with the Witch Queen, as well as a couple of the "dream walking" sequences. Source cues, including covers of such iconic tunes as "Paint It, Black" also fill the surround channels quite convincingly. Dialogue is cleanly and clearly presented and is well prioritized.
- Before Mankind (1080p; 2:43)
- The Witch Lords (1080p; 2:18)
- The Witch Hunter (1080p; 2:44)
- Witches Live Among Us (1080p; 2:06)
Considering the blistering reviews The Last Witch Hunter received when it was first released (including by our own Brian Orndorf), I expected the film to be an absolute disaster. I was therefore at least somewhat surprised at how much of the film I actually enjoyed. A smarter, better structured screenplay could have solved a lot of the issues here, especially if just a little more time had been spent detailing Kaulder's transformation from feudal warrior to contemporary witch "enforcer". Too much is elided here to give the film any emotional resonance (not that it's aiming for any to begin with), leaving the plot just kind of frayed and ill defined feeling. The film is nonetheless often quite enjoyable from a purely visual and sonic standpoint, and so some folks may want to check it out for those reasons. Technical merits are very strong for those considering a purchase.
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