Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Opening Weekend Box Office: #1 with $19,690,956
Domestic Box Office Gross to-date: $47,100,000
Gross Revenue: $131,100,000
Production Budget: $50 million
Director: Tommy
Wirkola
I grew up with the traditional Brothers Grimm fairy
tales, including the beleaguered orphans who had an unfortunate run-in at a candy
house, and back then, I never had any follow-up questions; but nowadays, even
though it may seem strange, there was certain logic in revisiting a
universally-recognized story. In terms of
battling the supernatural, audiences have responded very positively to vampire
slayers like Buffy and Blade, and neither one of them had as personal an axe to
grind as Hansel and Gretel, so maybe it would be fun to see the childhood
characters take on witches, a villain group that lost its edge considerably
after popular culture’s preoccupation with Hogwarts. Between Mission
Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The
Avengers, and The Bourne Legacy,
Jeremy Renner’s reputation and popularity as an action star has been
skyrocketing lately, and that kind of mass recognition and bankability would
help sell Paramount’s updated fairy tale…that and featuring Gemma Arterton in a
tight corset and leather pants. Though
the concept of Hansel & Gretel: Witch
Hunters was going to be a bit of a tough sell to traditional audiences, the
extensive training undertaken by the titular stars, the intriguing mix of
old-world environment and modern technology, and director Tommy Wirkola’s
adamant emphasis on filming in Germany in order to keep some remnants of the
original tale’s atmosphere, maybe this project wasn’t going to be as hokey as
initially anticipated. With its popular
stars, fun concept, and teased self-awareness, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters wasn’t necessarily going to
charm critics, but movie-goers both domestically and abroad were likely to
respond to an action-packed, 3D adventure.
Bringing a thoroughly dark twist to the classic
tale, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
tells the story of what happened after the orphaned siblings ran afoul of the
old witch and escaped from the famed gingerbread house: in the fifteen year
aftermath, Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton) have become
notorious bounty hunters revered for their brutal extermination of witches. After being summoned to the small town of
Augsburg, the two hunters discover that they have been hired by the mayor to
rescue several children that have been abducted by a feared local coven led by
the powerful elder witch, Muriel (Famke Janssen). Though the siblings do find allies in the
form of local fan boy Ben Wosser (Thomas Mann) and a town merchant formerly
accussed of witchcraft, Mina (Pihla Viitala), their tactics soon run afoul of
the skeptical Sheriff Berringer (Peter Stormare). In their first confrontation with the coven
and a mysterious troll, our heroes are soundly defeated, but not before Muriel
hints at knowledge of their dark past and reveals her plans to make all witches
immune to fire and therefore virtually indestructible. Armed with Gatling guns, shotguns, crossbows,
brass knuckles, stun guns, and razor wire (all of which are blessed with some
mystical help from Mina), Hansel and Gretel are ready for a fight, and in the
process they may get some answers as to why they ended up in that childhood
predicament all those years ago.
Hansel
& Gretel: Witch Hunters makes surprisingly creative use of
its source material, keeping energy and humor levels high, fully utilizing
great special effects and demonstrating a profound understanding of core
demographic that is undoubtedly filling the theater. If you would enjoy watching witches and other
villains executed in some of the most brutal and badass ways possible, rest
assured that this action-horror film makes full use of its R-rating and is sure
to satisfy even the most desensitized of action junkies…it sure was an
unfortunate choice for the witched to try and escape via broom after the
surrounding forest was booby-trapped with razor wire. As I mentioned before, this dark fantasy
thankfully doesn’t take itself too seriously, poking fun at its own concept and
setting up some truly clever expansions of the original story: for instance,
because Hansel was forced to eat so much candy as a child in order to fatten up
for the witch, he is currently afflicted with the “sugar sickness” and must
take daily injections to stay healthy…I don’t care who you are, that kind of
tongue-in-cheek humor is entertaining.
And though some of the over-the-top violence is clearly computer
generated, the special effects involving the witches and their spells, along
with the opening-credit animation, is just aesthetically impressive and
visually pleasing, especially in 3D. Add
it all together, and Hansel & Gretel:
Witch Hunters proves that you don’t have to be an Academy contender with
deep underlying themes and emotions to still represent a well-made and thoroughly
enjoyable time at the movies.
As you might have expected, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters has proven especially divisive
amongst critics, with mainstream analysts panning the “silly” concept while
affiliates of the horror genre praising overall execution and presentation; of
course, I side with the latter group.
Perhaps more so than any other film I have ever seen, Witch Hunters fully understands its
intended core audiences, and because of that understanding, it provides unabashed fan service that is as
shameless as it is entertaining. Whether
they are emphasizing the sexual attractiveness of Gemma Arterton or dispatching
unlikable characters in as brutal a way as possible, the narrative grants the
audience whatever their most immature fantasies could desire…to put it simply,
if you think it (within reason), chances are good that it will happen on
screen. True, it does some like a little
bit of a cop out to resort to these tactics rather than spend a little more
time or narrative flow and character development, but I’m still enjoying
myself, so I don’t necessarily care if our heroes are a little more crude and
brash than the average defender of small children. So, yeah, this isn’t necessarily the kind of
film that you would take grandma to, but this expansion (and perversion) of
classic lore doesn’t apologize for delivering on all of its potential with as
much attitude as possible.
Against the modest expectations of some of the
snobbier members of the distribution analysis pool, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters smashed the normally-slow
January box office with a beefy $19 million, 1st place debut. Maybe this mindless entertainment is exactly
what audiences were looking for after the deep and emotionally-weighted
critical darling season that saturates November and December (sorry, Movie 43). And, as you might have expected, the updated German
fairy tale had a remarkably strong presence overseas, pulling in 64% of its
receipts from the international market, and even representing one of the best
all-time openings in Russia (go figure).
A $50 million production budget isn’t exactly easy to cover, so
Paramount has to be proud of this newest debut, and I can only hope that a
sequel be approved, because the story definitely leaves things open for an
extended franchise, and I would love to see Renner and Arterton kick some ass
again. It may not have award-winning
accolades, but don’t immediate write-off this dark adventure; you may be
surprised by just how much you end up enjoying yourself.
