Hansel and Gretel review

By Joanne Lee

Candy. Evil stepmother. Evil witches. Happily ever after. This is what was in my mind when I first thought of Hansel and Gretel, and hence I went with low expectations. However, I was pleasantly surprised. With believable acting from a seasoned cast and nice cinematography effects (cue: blood, worms, gore and broken nose), it was actually an enjoyable night for me.

Lets start with the storyline, shall we? I personally felt that the storyline was pretty ok, as it had a plot and wasn’t just trashy. The storyline was actually pretty easy to follow. Basically, Hansel and Gretel had to battle a whole team of strong witches to save not just the life of 12 children, but ultimately, their own. Since Gretel was the heart of the story all along, everything revolved around her – the witch sisters, Benjamin, Edward the troll, and even the most unfriendly sheriff. Of course there had to be a little bit of romance – Here’s where Minah, another white witch came in for Hansel. Pretty unnecessary though, if you ask me. The twist about the mother, how it turned out that Gretel was a white witch ,was a surprise to me. At least it’s a twist, and the story actually makes sense, since Muriel, the evil witch has been chasing her high and low.

The acting was largely believable, and the special effects added the special edge. The part where the sheriff’s man exploded with lots of worms and blood, and the scene where the Sheriff was stepped on by Edward the troll drew “ewwww’s” and “yucks” from the crowd. The supporting cast, such as Muriel and Benjamin did their jobs to make the movie an enjoyable one.

My favourite characters apart from the main cast? It’s got to be Edward. Yes, the troll. “Edward” reminded me of the Twilight version…and I can bet my money that many think that this Edward is way better. For me, I just had a soft spot for him. I felt so sad that he was mistreated by his mistresses. And I like how they linked the storylines of how he saved Gretel, which was totally unpredicted. And when he ended up with the witch hunting team, I guess I saw it coming but I still went “awwww” :P

The moment I went “LOL”  was when Gretel used her “toy” to defibrillate Edward. Move away CPR( well you can’t imagine CPR-ing a troll can you?), her high-fi toy can be used to revive even the biggest troll!  Overall, it was a good movie outing with Talkfilm. If you are here for horror, you’ve come to the wrong place. But for a some action and medium gore minus the fairy tale, this movie could actually be entertaining for you.

My ratings:

Storyline: 6/10

Acting: 7/10

Effects: 7/10

Watched this with Rachel and her bro, blog post to follow.

ps: Big thanks to Talkfilm for the 2 tickets to Hansel and Gretel in GSC Signature Mid Valley on 29th January. They are awesome and you should check them out. :)