The Last Witch Hunter Blu-ray delivers stunning video and reference-quality audio, but overall it's a mediocre Blu-ray release
The last remaining witch hunter battles against an uprising of witches in modern day New York.
For more about The Last Witch Hunter and the The Last Witch Hunter Blu-ray release, see the The Last Witch Hunter Blu-ray Review published by Jeffrey Kauffman on January 26, 2016 where this Blu-ray release scored 2.5 out of 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 post-prologue bulk of the film takes place in contemporary times, as the now (seemingly) ageless Kaulder has continued to keep witches
in
line down through the intervening centuries. For several hundred years, he's been working in tandem with a quasi-religious order known as
The Axe and Cross, which is where the 36th Dolan comes in. Since Kaulder keeps on living, kind of like a witch obsessed Energizer bunny, he
is
in need of regular replacements in the assistant category, and The Axe and Cross has helpfully provided him with a line of such acolytes, all
known as Dolan, with the appropriate number before their "name". The 36th Dolan is in fact preparing to retire as the film gets into its main
storyline, and has told Kaulder that a new helper, the 37th Dolan (Elijah Wood), will soon be joining the "good fight".
The Last Witch Hunter shows signs of either having been tweaked in post or (perhaps even worse) having been put into production
without a well thought out screenplay in place, for there are rather looming narrative gaps at play, even with those aforementioned
explanatory gambits. Characters show up with absolutely no introduction or context, and the whole conceit of the film is never really
adequately detailed, meaning viewers simply have to surrender to the haphazard presentation style and "go with the flow". The main plot
mechanics surround the (supposed) murder of the 36th Dolan, something that sends Kaulder and the 37th Dolan out on a snark hunt to take
down the witch who did the bad deed, something that in turn soon puts them in touch with a "dreamwalker" witch named Chloe (Rose
Leslie), a move that sends the film careening off into Dreamscape territory.
There's a lot of interesting content in The Last Witch Hunter, but it's so chaotically offered that my hunch is only those who love
bombastic soundtracks and lots of (admittedly quite inventive) special effects will find this compelling enough to sit through. There are a
number of predictable "twists" (including one character "reveal" which is about as unsurprising as possible), but even putting that
unfortunate tendency aside, the film simply never offers more than a sketch, rather than a fully completed illustration. Things probably would
have worked better had that prologue included more information about Kaulder's long trek from feudal times to the 21st century, as well as a
more solid explication of the whole "witches living among the humans" angle. Director Breck Eisner keeps things moving at a brisk pace, but
the film is ultimately kind of a shambles.
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.
Crafting the Magic: The Last Witch Hunter (1080p; 30:20) is a fairly standard EPK fest, though it includes some fun
interviews with tidbits like Vin discussing his love of Dungeons and Dragons.
Animated Short Films: The Origins of the Axe and Cross features a quartet of shorts narrated by Michael Caine:
Before Mankind (1080p; 2:43)
The Witch Lords (1080p; 2:18)
The Witch Hunter (1080p; 2:44)
Witches Live Among Us (1080p; 2:06)
The Last Witch Hunter Sizzle Reel/Paint It, Black (1080p; 1:36) is a brief quasi-trailer playing to the iconic Rolling Stones tune
(not sung by the Stones).
Commentary with Breck Eisner. Eisner is conversational but informative, going over a number of issues like the prosthetic makeup
and various special effects strategies.
Note: This is another recent Blu-ray that refused to load properly on my PC using PowerDVD. I am always more than willing to blame
PowerDVD for these issues, since it is unquestionably one of the glitchiest programs I've ever had the displeasure to have to use regularly, but in
this case the disc also refused to boot when I used another PC based Blu-ray player program, so this may (emphasis on may) indicate
some authoring errors which make it problematic for those wanting to watch on their computers.
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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