The Last Witch Hunter
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The Last Witch Hunter |
| Original title | The Last Witch Hunter |
 | |
| Country of production | United States , People's Republic of China |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2015 |
| length | 106 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 12 JMK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Breck Eisner |
| script |
Cory Goodman , Matt Sazama , Burk Sharpless |
| production |
Mark Canton , Vin Diesel , Bernie Goldmann |
| music | Steve Jablonsky |
| camera | Dean Semler |
| cut |
Dean Zimmerman , Chris Lebenzon |
| occupation | |
| |
The Last Witch Hunter is an American-Chinese fantasy film directed by Breck Eisner from 2015 . Vin Diesel can be seen in the lead role of a witch hunter who saves the city of New York City .
The film premiered on October 13, 2015 and was released in German cinemas on October 22, 2015.
action
The film begins 800 years before the present day. The queen of witches lets the Black Death loose on the people, killing the family of the witch hunter Kaulder. He manages to defeat the queen, but is cursed with immortality by the queen himself .
Kaulder is still a witch hunter in New York City , now the last of his kind for an organization called the Ax and Cross . This has set itself a ceasefire between humans and witches as a goal and ensures that witches who break the law are punished. At Kaulder's side there is a priest, the so-called Dolan. One day, the 36th Dolan tells Kaulder that he would like to retire and that he has already chosen a new, 37th Dolan as his successor. However, after the 36th Dolan apparently fell asleep peacefully at night, Kaulder and the 37th Dolan see a witch responsible and start the hunt for her. They quickly find out that the 36th Dolan is not dead, just under a curse that puts him in a death-like state that can only be broken if the witch who carried him out is killed. Kaulder finds a hint from the 36th Dolan that he should recall his past.
In a witch bar Kaulder finally meets the witcher Belial, who attacks the two bar owners. After one of them is killed by Belial, Chloe, the surviving owner, wants to help Kaulder hunt him down. Together they would like to use a memory spell on Kaulder to bring back the memory of how he died 800 years ago and how he came back. To do this, the two go to a woman named Danique. Instead of helping them, however, Danique drugs Kaulder and lets him fall into a deep sleep. Fortunately, Chloe manages to free Kaulder from his endless dream and the two escape.
Chloe finally manages to recall Kaulder's memories, and so he finds out that during the fight with the witch queen 800 years ago only her body was burned. Kaulder was burned beyond recognition, but found alive and slowly healing. As soon as you tried to injure the still beating heart of the witch queen, Kaulder also screamed in pain. Because of this magical connection between Kaulder and the Queen's heart, the Dolan at the time decided to keep the heart in secret in order to keep the immortal Kaulder as the order's secret weapon against the witches. Kaulder now learns that his immortality is directly linked to the heart of the witch queen: If the heart dies, he will die too. Kaulder and Chloe conclude that the 36th Dolan knew where the heart was hidden and was attacked by the witch for this reason. Now they also recognize Belial's plan to get the heart and bring the witch queen back to life.
Kaulder goes out alone to stop Belial from doing so, and quickly meets him. He manages to kill Belial, but his death brings the witch queen back to life. This releases the curse of Kaulder's immortality and flees to downtown New York. As before, the witch queen plans to unleash a great plague on humanity, and to do this she takes the witch's prison of ax and cross . She uses the witches trapped there as a source of energy and magic, which gives her enormous powers.
Chloe manages to kill one of the weakest captive witchers, weakening the flow of energy to the witch queen. Kaulder uses this moment to attack the queen. After a bitter fight, Kaulder is about to win, but is unexpectedly attacked by the 37th Dolan at the last moment. It becomes clear that he hates Kaulder for killing his parents, who were vicious witches. The 37th Dolan asks the witch queen for magical powers, but she refuses and kills him instead. The Queen uses Chloe as a substitute for the slain witch to reconnect with the captive witches and complete her plan. At the last moment, however, Kaulder conjures up a violent thunderstorm and throws his sword at the queen, who turns to ashes on contact with him. Kaulder runs to the queen's heart and is about to kill it, which would also mean his own death. At the last moment, however, he is stopped by Chloe.
The 36th Dolan becomes Kaulder's partner again, together with Chloe. The three of them turn away from ax and cross in order to form an independent witch-hunt team. In the final scene you can hear a muffled heartbeat coming from somewhere in Kaulder's apartment.
background
The screenplay for The Last Witch Hunter was on the 2010 Black List , which contains the previously unfilmed scripts most popular among Hollywood producers. Eventually, however, it was adapted into a script by screenwriters Cory Goodman , Matt Sazama , and Burk Sharpless . After initial discussions with the Russian director Timur Bekmambetow, the direction was ultimately taken over by the American Breck Eisner .
The character of the witch hunter Kaulder is based on a character from the pen & paper role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons . Vin Diesel brought this into the film during discussions with Cory Goodman.
Filming began late due to the death of actor Paul Walker , as Vin Diesel's work on their previous joint project, Fast & Furious 7, took longer. After all, it was shot in Pittsburgh from September 5, 2014 ; The shooting ran until December 5, 2014. For the German actress Julie Engelbrecht , the film is her acting debut in a Hollywood film.
The film had a budget of USD 90 million and premiered in New York City on October 13, 2015. In Germany, it opened on October 22, 2015.
criticism
The film received negative reviews from critics. He has a 16% rating on Rotten Tomatoes , based on 123 rated reviews and an average rating of 3.8 / 10. Metacritic rates the film 34/100, based on 22 reviews.
Andreas Staben from filmstarts.de awarded 2.5 / 5 stars and spoke of an "average fantasy spectacle with a pale Vin Diesel"
Web links
- The Last Witch Hunter in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official page for the film
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of Release for The Last Witch Hunter . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2015 (PDF; test number: 154 801 K).
- ↑ Age rating for The Last Witch Hunter . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ Donna Dickens: If it were not for Vin Diesel's 'Dungeons & Dragons' character, 'The Last Witch Hunter' would not exist ( English ) Retrieved on September 30, 2015.
- ^ "The Last Witch Hunter" Starring Vin Diesel Open Casting Call (English) , projectcasting.com. August 11, 2014. Retrieved September 5, 2014.
- ↑ The Last Witch Hunter at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- ↑ The Last Witch Hunter at Metacritic (English)
- ^ Review by Andreas Staben on filmstarts.de, accessed on September 28, 2016.