Vin Diesel has become an international box office star thanks to his leading role in the FAST & FURIOUS movies, but much of his work outside of the franchise has sadly been somewhat forgettable. His latest effort draws upon his own fandom for roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons, and in many ways could be considered a passion project. THE LAST WITCH HUNTER appears to be the intended first entry in a potential franchise of films, though that may be a little overly-ambitious considering the end result.

Opening with a flashback to a viking-like era, we’re introduced to the fierce Kaulder (Diesel), who battles a powerful witch in the wake of his wife and daughter’s death. The Witch Queen falls, but not before cursing him with eternal life. Cut to present day, and Kaulder is now continuing his days battling evil forces with the help of a aging assistant, the 36th Dolan (Michael Caine) – “36th” meaning this is the 36th church-assigned helper Kaulder has utilized. He’s now preparing to take on a 37th Dolan (Elijah Wood), who knows the witch hunter from a tragic event in his childhood. When Kaulder’s 36th ends up a victim of a mysterious evil attack, the new duo make it their mission to find the responsible party. Add to the mix a good witch named Chloe (Rose Leslie), and now we have a trio of heroes that must face the newest force of evil threatening the human race.

While there are some enjoyable moments in this dark fantasy/action piece, THE LAST WITCH HUNTER fails to feel like anything all that special. Fans of roleplaying games will certainly see the allure of material like this to someone like Diesel, but most of it just feels very by the numbers and mundane. It’s also unfortunate that Vin plays this role pretty much like all roles he handles these days, in an almost cookie-cutter fashion. This is not a character that stretches his acting ability, nor is one that will stand out on among his credits. The most interesting characters are those played by Elijah Wood and Rose Leslie, both of which seem a little underwritten in the end. There’s an interesting subplot of a sort of witch council who sentences evildoers to mystical holding, but even that element comes and goes pretty quick. I wanted to know more about these characters (led by the wonderful Rena Owen), but we only get one decent scene with them before it’s on to the next thing.

The movie is directed by Breck Eisner (THE CRAZIES), who tries his best to make the proceedings exciting and engaging, but the script by Cory Goodman, Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (yes, it took three people to write this) just never quite picks up steam. I actually started dozing off in the action scenes, I’m not kidding. There are some cool visuals throughout the production, like Vin holding a flaming sword to do battle with the Witch Queen, but other moments feel quirky and ineffective, such as a large spider-like sentinel creature (that looks like a reject Transformer) that drags off judged baddies. It’s very obvious the ending of the movie is trying to set things up for a sequel, but I can’t imagine audiences actually wanting to revisit these characters. Films like these are always a risky gamble, and while I wish I could recommend giving it a shot, there just isn’t much here to motivate me in that direction. I’m sure Diesel will be fine, as he’s already working on the next FURIOUS opus and another xXx film, but his outside efforts like this continue to be a little lacking.

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