Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013): Review

I hate to say it, because I wanted to like this movie, but it was complete and utter crap.  I went in expecting it to not be the best movie I have seen recently but I expected it to be better then it was.  As I was watching it, I was confused as to what it was trying to be and felt that this movies big problem was that it was having an identify crisis. It never pick a what it was going for and because of this it never really went anywhere.
Hansel & Gretel: Which hunter is based on the basic story of Hansel and Gretel and starts with their back story as the set up. The main difference is that there is no step-mother and that their father is obvious about leaving them in the forest.  The kids wander and find the candy house, but the witch is OTT definitely a witch.  Hansel is forced to eat and Gretel is treated by a slave.  They kill the witch and then go on to become witch hunters.  The main story is when they are hired by the major of a town that has had multiple children kidnapped by witches.  They utilize over the top violence and swearing throughout the movie, as they hunt the witches involved.  While doing this they stumble upon their past.
There was no real plot to this movie, and it seemed like they went in one direction for a little bit and then went in another one that didn't really go with the first one. By doing this neither was every really fleshed out or developed, so I found myself not really caring about any of the characters.  They only one who had an charismatic quality was Hansel, played by Jeremy Renner, and the only interesting character was Ben, a local boy who idolizes Hansel and Gretel. There was a lot of violence and it was obviously OTT, there was also a lot of swearing but this dint seem to go with the feel of the movie, which was more junior.  I think this movie would have been more successful, if they dropped the OTT violence and swearing and aimed for a younger demographic.  How it is it is too inappropriate for a younger audience, but doesn't have anything that an older audience can grab onto and enjoy.
Again, I didn't want to say this because I was looking forward to seeing this movie, but it is not worth seeing.  It is not the worse movie I have seen but there wasn't anything that I would have missed if I had not seen it.

My Rating: 1