A Hansel and Gretel question...

[teand]

Is Hansel and Gretel, WitchHunters significantly different than the trailer?  Because I was really looking forward to it -- guns and leather and Jeremy Renner and reimagined fairy tales! -- until I saw a trailer for it.  And the trailer I saw was a misogynist piece of shit. Two and a half minutes of women being gleefully blown away -- with

Comments

[poisontaster]

I enjoyed the movie. But. There are no male witches at all, they're all women. The movie does make some effort to distinguish between "white" and "dark" witches, but it's a dichotomy that's not totally unproblematic and, yeah, as a pagan knowing the history of how men used "witchcraft" to control and/or hurt women, that was kind of uncomfortable. One of my friends on my flist thought that Gretel was too much a damsel in distress and I disagree with her quite a lot, so that seems like it's in the eye of the beholder. There are times that Gretel is in trouble/needs help, but I thought they were about equal with the number of times that Hansel needed her help and neither of them were infallible in fights, so... *shrugs*

It's a hard call. I was able to overlook the problematic aspects enough to enjoy the movie, but they are there.

[teand]

Oh... bother. I'm just not sure I can cope with ninety minutes of "let's kill women" no matter how over-the-top it is.

[musesfool]

The problems are there but they're not as overwhelmingly awful as the trailer makes them appear. Gretel is clearly the dominant sibling and Hansel needs rescuing pretty much as often as she does. The movie is bad but gleefully, entertainingly so.

[teand]

It sounds like I'd love the relationship between Hansel and Gretel (and I definitely love that Gretel is the dominant partner given that JR is twice her age). I just don't have the energy these days to cope with movies where killing women -- no matter how over the top evil they are -- is what propels the plot. They couldn't have tossed in one male witch... sigh.

[chemm80]

Try this review. I found it hilarious and I haven't seen the movie. I probably won't, but I'm glad I read the review anyway. It's spoilery, but probably not for anything you don't already know about the movie.

ETA: for coding silliness

[teand]

Well that review has definitely slid me over to a fifty/fifty chance I'll rent it. I do enjoy the definately ludicrous. I just wish the plot wasn't propelled by killing women. Especially when gender nuetral witches would have solved the whole problem. Okay, solved that problem... :)