Krishna
Stay as far away from this as you can. Even the surprises and twists are cliché.
Unbelievable! The movie starts with the original Hansel and Gretel and how they get the witch killed.
Even that original part of the tale is told in an amateurish style. Then the movie tanks. The premise is that they grow up to be witch hunters and keep killing witches like there is no tomorrow. There are giants, ogres and all kinds of weird things in case you get bored of just seeing witches in grotesque features through the movie.
Grown up Hansel is Jeremy Renner, who has the right looks and expressions to play a hero, and used it to good advantage in, for example Avengers. (Reviewed here earlier). He is also getting noticed after the latest Mission Impossible movie and getting more roles. But he has not scaled the histrionic heights of a Tom Hanks or Johnny Depp and seems to settle down more in the class of a Keanu Reeves – much more comfortable with action than any kind of emotion.
Gretel is Jemma Arterton, known for Prince of Persia movie role. She manages to look cute and the epitome of the modern girl, but again, no great drama from her.
The plot is hackneyed, and finally they assemble an ensemble in the hope that, if this becomes a runaway hit, they can go for a sequel. I think it did well in the box office too, but I did not see any redeeming qualities there.
The action is mildly interesting but other than that, the plot and the filming style could have come from a 1950s flick.
The story repeatedly involves finding witches and killing them until they meet the Super Witch, and struggle against her. They also learn the ‘mystery’ of why her mother asked the father to drop them in the jungle. (Never mind that the original story says that it was the stepmother and that she hated the kids. That is too simple, is that not?)
To say more would be a repeat of all this all over again and so, I stop here, with a rating of 3/10
— Krishna