From the first shot, this film knows its environment and it works. Not for a second do I doubt the believability of world the filmmakers have created, nor the amazing detail in every last costume, hair and makeup design, weapon, prop or set piece. It’s all beautifully done. Combined with surprisingly impressive special effects and supernatural battles, this could have been one of the big action-adventure fantasy films of the year.
Unfortunately, the look did not deserve the clichéd, predictable and outdated plot it got. With the usual “only one can save the world” story, one-dimensional supporting characters with little development and Vin Diesel’s performance as the same hero he’s played in nearly everything in the past 10 years, this is a case of all style over no substance.
The modern world holds many secrets, but the most astounding secret of all is that witches still live amongst us. In this story, they’re vicious, supernatural creatures fixed on unleashing the Black Death upon the world.
Armies of witch hunters battled the unnatural enemy across the globe for centuries, including Kaulder (Diesel), a valiant warrior who managed to slay the all-powerful Queen Witch. In the last moments before her death, the Queen curses Kaulder with her own immortality, forever separating him from his beloved wife and daughter in the afterlife.
In 2015, Kaulder is the only one of his kind remaining, and he has spent centuries hunting down rogue witches, all while yearning for his long lost loved ones. However, unbeknownst to Kaulder, the Queen Witch’s followers are planning to resurrect her. Now, she seeks revenge on her killer causing an epic battle that will determine the survival of the human race. With the help of a priest (Elijah Wood) and a modern witch (Rose Leslie) opposed to the feud her kind prolonged, Kaulder takes on the queen determined to end her evil reign forever.
More than a supernatural fantasy flick, this movie seems like just another one of those cop shows set in New York. Somebody tried to kill someone else and now we have to find out who did it. Simple enough. But because the way it’s shot is so much more beautiful and overwhelming than a stereotypical cop show, a lot of the menial cop stuff looks more interesting. Much of Kaulder’s job seems to involve forensics: collecting, examining and interpreting dead flies, bloody fingerprints, soil samples and mystic runes written in window condensation.
If this were anyone else other than Vin Diesel, who knows how much worse of a supernatural schlep this would have been, because Diesel is not a great actor most of the time. He is just so nice and likeable as a person that you can’t help loving Diesel, even with his monotone delivery of silly lines in his barely audible mumble. To be fair, he does care about his role. He’s just not very good at acting it out.
The rest of the cast is pretty forgettable. Elijah Wood and Rose Leslie must have just needed the paycheck, because neither gives more than the bare minimum for passable performances. With the script they were handed, though, it’s not all their fault. No character has noteworthy development if any development at all. With cardboard cutout characters to work with, Wood and Leslie may have just done the best with what they had. Either way, it failed.
Not surprisingly, however, Michael Caine can do no wrong. I’m sure he’s just phoning it in too, but Caine loves to work, even when he’s been the same character in everything since 2003. His role as Kaulder’s previous priestly assistant is important to the plot considering it’s the attempted murder of Caine that gets the story moving. But then Caine is out of it for the rest of the story, neither doing anything nor even spouting advice rooting in all his wisdom as he usually does. If there was even 15 minutes more of Caine here instead of Wood or Leslie, this could be a completely different review.
However, the visuals save the movie from being a complete bore in every way. They’re creative, their quality is impressive, the attention to detail is astounding and most importantly they all make sense within the universe while all the battles are going on between Kaulder and the various witches and their queen.
The queen, portrayed by French actor Julie Engelbrecht, suffers from bland supernatural villain dialogue. But with the disturbing (in a good way) production design and art direction, the queen, the depiction of powers, spells, and curses, in general, elevate every scene with here. Adding in the striking cinematography that loves playing up the nighttime and shadows and unique execution of supernatural folklore, fantasy nerds will enjoy at least some of this rollercoaster production.
If you love Vin Diesel, supernatural thrillers, old-school fantasy and Michael Caine, then this is the movie for you. If none of that sounds good, see James Bond or Charlie Brown instead.
Quigley Films Unlimited 