Hmmm…The Last Witch Hunter…it was a Vin Diesel film, right?  The follow up to his incredibly successful (and goofily over-the-top) Furious 7?  Which in turn was his follow up to his cute (even though I personally didn’t like the overall film) vocal turn in Guardians of the Galaxy, right?

I mean, Vin Diesel was on such a roll!  Yet I recall The Last Witch Hunter (I’ll refer to it as LWH from now on) came and fled the theaters -and everyone’s memories- quicker than you could say, “Vin Diesel is in a new movie and its called–”

I kid, I kid.

But the reality is that while this film featured a big cast, including Michael Caine, Elijah Wood, and Rose Leslie in the principal roles, the studios seemed to smell a stinker and while the movie was released to theaters, it felt like not much of an effort was made in the promotion of this feature.  It kinda came and went.

The critics were certainly not kind.  Over on Rottentomatoes.com, LWH scored a pathetic 16% positive among critics yet, curiously, total reviews were only 123.  Generally, a “big” film release winds up with at least 200 “professional” reviews.  Furious 7, for example, had 233 professional reviews.  Suicide Squad had 294.  Jason Bourne 259.  Thus, LWH’s 123 is a pretty small amount.

The point is, critics weren’t all that interested in, or bothered, to review the film and those that did, obviously, hated what they saw.  Audiences, too, weren’t all that impressed.  Again based on Rottentomatoes.com, only 44% had a favorable opinion of it.

So why the heck did I like the film?

Don’t get me wrong: LWH is far from a “superb” film.  It loses steam as it goes along and the climax wasn’t nearly as exciting as it could have been.

And yet, I liked the damn thing.

In some ways the movie reminded me of the Hellboy comics/movies.  Here we have an alternate reality where the “real world” goes about its business yet in dark corners and alleys a parallel world of magic exists, in this case where witches go about their daily business.  At one time, however, witches and humans clashed.  800 years before Kaulder (Vin Diesel) and his people confronted a particularly evil witch.  Kaulder slayed her but she “cursed” him with immortality.

In the present, Kaulder works for a religious organization which has made peace with the witch population.  Kaulder acts as an enforcer, making sure the witches don’t stray and/or abuse their power.  While the witches view him as a stern, fascistic “cop” and rightfully fear he may end their lives at any moment, we find that Kaulder, while stern and no-nonsense and has a past which should make him hate all witches, is actually a very even keeled man who isn’t a bloodthirsty killer at all (I really liked the opening “present” day act on an airplane and the way Kaulder interacts with a witch who has accidentally endangered the entire flight).

Kaulder’s right hand man, a priest named Dolan (Michael Caine), is the 36th “Dolan” to have stood by Kaulder and helped him do his job.  When the movie starts Dolan 36 is set to retire and a new Dolan (#37, played by Elijah Woods) is set to take over.  But Dolan 36 dies of old age…apparently…and after the funeral Kaulder suspects something is amiss.

When Kaulder and Dolan 37 investigate Dolan 36th’s apartment, they find things indeed aren’t what they seem and a mystery is revealed…one that has ties to Kaulder’s origins.

I won’t go into more spoilers but, again, this movie entertained me.  The effects are top notch and the story moves along nicely.

It is a straight up fantasy story and perhaps those accustomed to seeing Vin Diesel play either sci-fi heroes (a-la Riddick) or macho car-driving heroes had a hard time accepting him in an action/fantasy role, especially when he plays a character who many think is a “bad ass” but turns out to be the type of hero that is willing to smile and has a soft spot in his heart for others…even if they may be witches.

Again, LWH isn’t The Greatest Thing I’ve Ever Seen™, but it is an entertaining action/adventure/fantasy that wasn’t anywhere near as bad as the studios and the relatively few critics who bothered to write about it thought it was.  At least IMHO!