‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’... ‘Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters’. There’s certainly no denying what these movies are about. Hollywood has taken a turn for the literal these days, but with no success.
‘Hansel & Gretel’ is primed as a great popcorn extravaganza complete with 3D, but falls so shockingly off the mark that even its charismatic cast can’t save it. At a far too vigorous 88 minutes, the story and its characters aren’t given any room to breathe, moving briskly from exposition to exposition, leaving every “shocking” twist and turn to be met with a resounding “Duh!"
HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS - RED BAND TRAILER
The violence is so over-the-top with gore that it's comical, while the comedy is a violent attack on humour that's anything but funny. Every mark is infuriating and frustratingly missed. Even the film’s stars Jeremy Renner (‘The Avengers’) and Gemma Arterton (‘Tamara Drewe’) share little if no chemistry as brother and sister or in any other partnership. Everything from the make-up, costumes, ghouls and goblins are painfully uninspired.
While I wouldn't go so far as to call the movie boring, it’s quite simply not good, and a complete waste of a film and an opportunity to make something fun and clever.