Lotte Verbeek – Movies of the Soul

Vampire Owl :: This could really be a movie about the Lich Queen.

Vampire Bat :: What? No, there is no lich here; only the common witches are in this movie.

Vampire Owl :: Well, you are underestimating her; she is everywhere.

Vampire Bat :: Dude, her definition of everywhere doesn’t include the movies.

Vampire Owl :: Okay, that guess didn’t work that well.

Vampire Bat :: And making a witch movie is always easier than making a lich movie.

Vampire Owl :: Just like making Season of the Witch.

Vampire Bat :: Do you know that the easiest thing to do with a witch story is to link it to the plague?

Vampire Owl :: How can I know? I wasn’t there at that time of the plague.

Vampire Bat :: Just watch the movie, will you?

[Gets three cups of tea with banana chips].

What is it about? :: Kaulder (Vin Diesel) is a witch hunter from the medieval age who is known to have slain a Witch Queen (Julie Engelbrecht) – a remorseless creature from the dark side which was responsible for spreading a plague in an attempt to destroy the whole humanity. Cursed with eternal life after losing his family, centuries later, he works as a veteran witch hunter for a secret group known as the Axe and Cross, which aims to keep the order at the right place concerning witches and humans. Any use of magic against humans is forbidden, and the witches will be imprisoned in that case. He is feared by all witches around the globe, and is aided by a man appointed as the 36th Dolan (Michael Caine) in his work against evil.

So what happens next? :: But as his old friend Dolan 36 is murdered and a new partner Dolan 37 (Elijah Wood) is appointed, Kaulder goes on the search for the strange dark magic which is responsible for the fate of his old friend who is caught in a curse rather than the suspected death. He attempts to use the help of a witch, Chloe (Rose Leslie) to restore his memories about his death and return to life, but is attacked by Ketola (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), a powerful witch. Both escape and gets back to the mission together, only to find that all these were planned by the Witch Queen and her minions to make sure that she can return to this land many years later and finish what she had started – the annihilation of all humans for a better world.

And then to the present :: They try to create new potions with resources from Miranda (Aimee Carrero), but she is also murdered as the witches seem to be one step ahead of them all the time. They seek help from another witch Danique (Dawn Olivieri), but she only tries to finish him off, but Chloe who is a dream walker, saves him from the side-effects of the drug which he has. With the use of ancient dark magic, the witches seems to get stronger, and the return of the powerful Witch Queen is only supposed to make things terrible and beyond control. The future of humanity rests on the last witch hunter. With such enormous evil ready to return, can Kaulder stand ground and defeat the returning witch?

The defence of The Last Witch Hunter :: The basic idea of this movie might be predictable, but is nicely worked out with Vin Diesel stealing the show as the immortal hunter of witches. There are signs of some smart ideas here and there as we go through the movie. The special effects are nice, and there are some fine visuals for sure. There are some nice detail with the creature known as Sentinel, and also with the Witch Queen as well as her lair. The presence of Rose Leslie of Game of Thrones fame makes things better, as she is that kind of an actress who can make fine impact even the story is not really going that well. The Last Witch Hunter does try to be different even though not completely succeeding in the same – but it succesfully becomes an interesting one.

The claws of flaw :: There was always more to have done with this particular story, as it is often confused about how to make things better – the premise was so good here, but not fully utilized to its advantage. A huge battle between the witch hunter and the large number of witches was supposed to happen, but nothing like that could really get going. There was also the opportunity to show so much of magic, and the spells could have made things more enjoyable. The return of Witch Queen could have also been something that could cause more massive devastation, but here when that comes, it is just about the witch hunter, the dream walker and those restricted battles – it is more like rushed towards that end.

How it finishes :: One has to wonder if this movie could have used Rose Leslie’s character better, as she is a dream walker witch here; there could have been even more fight scenes along with the magic – we can never stop asking for more from this movie. When trying to bring a world which looks so good with the special effects, maybe if this movie had focused more on making the plot bigger and smarter with better assertion on the evil that the queen brings with a lot of magic, this one could have achieved better at the box-office as well as with the critics. But as of now, it is still an interesting movie which works as an action-fantasy flick with Vin Diesel going strong at the centre.

Release date: 23rd October 2015
Running time: 106 minutes
Directed by: Breck Eisner
Starring: Vin Diesel, Rose Leslie, Elijah Wood, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Julie Engelbrecht, Michael Caine, Rena Owen, Isaach De Bankolé, Lotte Verbeek, Dawn Olivieri, Inbar Lavi, Aimee Carrero, Bex Taylor-Klaus, Allegra Carpenter, Kurt Angle, Joe Gilgun

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Vampire Owl :: Why do you have a beard?

Vampire Bat :: Do I need a reason for that?

Vampire Owl :: I think you are having a beard because you don’t want anybody to recognize you getting tickets for bad movies.

Vampire Bat :: How bad? I can even stand a movie with a zombie falling in love with a corpse.

Vampire Owl :: They have already made that in Bollywood. I think they put it in the romantic comedy genre and people seemed to enjoy it a lot. A box-office hit. Something worse was made in Malayalam. It was called Annayum Rasoolum. Another hit there.

Vampire Bat :: But this will be good.

Vampire Owl :: If it is good, the show will be cancelled. Nobody will watch it. They only want to watch dumb romance and superstar movies. I heard you watched Pizza in 3D?

Vampire Bat :: Yes, you mean to say you actually read my Facebook status?

Vampire Owl :: Yes, I am making a list of the bad movies you watch. Now go and watch a movie. Meanwhile, I will create an evil plan to owlify and take over the universe.

Vampire Bat :: And that is the evil Vampire Owl prototype.

[Begins the journey].

What is it about? :: Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) is a cancer patient who is loved and cared by her parents Michael (Sam Trammell) and Frannie (Laura Dern) who decides to send her to a support group at the local church, feeling that she is depressed and need friends. There she meets Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort) who also had cancer and had to lose one of his legs. They form an instant liking to each other, and soon their relationship develops. As it goes on, things get stuck at Hazel’s favourite novel which doesn’t seem to have a conclusion and she desires to know the ending of this story which is about a cancer-striken girl whose life parallels her. But the author of the book, Peter van Houten has moved to Amsterdam and not replying to fan mails. As Augustus tracks down Houten’s assistant, Lidewij and they finds out that the answer will be provided in Netherlands, they decide to travel to Europe together. Even as she is unhealthier, her parents and Augustus decides to make her dream come through. Through all these, a romance also develops.

The defence of The Fault in Our Stars :: There are many stupid romantic movies that are thrown at us thinking that we viewers have no brain, and this is one beautiful exception that we have here. It is not an exaggerated display of teenage romance that we have here, and it is not terribly realistic to the core, but it has kept away from exaggeration as much as possible consider the limitations of a movie which is to appeal to the viewers and more people are to know about the feelings that the patients have. The two major characters are beautifully portrayed, and Hazel is awesome. Almost every dialogue and every interaction concerning her catches our attention and we feel for her right from the beginning to the end, and when she replies “thank you” to the compliments that are given to her in a cute tone, it gives a lot of happiness to oneself considering the way she is going through her life. The beautiful young lady gives us silver lining to our life, finding hope with an extraordinary amount of faith while going through pain and being stalked by death, the certain visitor who is being delayed by prayers and medical treatment. The romance is also beautiful, and hundred percent of the soul rather than some retarded movies which only claim to be so.

Claws of flaw :: As the adaptation of the novel of the same name by John Green, the movie might have its points missing out, but I haven’t read the book yet, and so it is not up-to me to talk about that. The movie has certain coating to make sure that it doesn’t go uninteresting to the viewers, and the extra bit of sugar-coated romance added also adds to make sure that the teenagers flock to the theatres – yes, I could see a lot of them dying for more and more romance and left without the satisfaction of seeing what they needed in a stupid romantic movie, but this movie has given them more than enough in my opinion – this is not to be considered as just a romantic movie, and that much we owe to the real people who suffer from the disease. Well, how can we find fault with a wonderfully acted movie having two people trying to live their life in a beautiful manner despite having the knowledge that they are going nowhere other than the ultimate death, or “doom” or “oblivion” as the characters do call the end in a funny way? I guess there is no need to go deep down into it. Romance is actually an intruder into the seriousness, and I wonder how this would have turned out without it – got to have been better.

Performers of the soul :: Shailene Woodley as Hazel is the spirit and soul of this movie and she makes this movie even more than what is should have been. We did see her in Divergent where she matched Jennifer Lawrence – taking Beatrice Prior to the the level of Katniss Everdeen in a lesser movie, but this is an entirely different situation. We love the attitude of her character, and Hazel is not just Hazel, and as her lover calls her, she is Hazel Grace, proving herself to to be in the grace of God or the grace herself by being a wonderful person against all her thick walls of troubles. Ansel Elgort played Shailene’s brother in Divergent, and here she plays the next best character and one has to admire the way both of these characters are written, and these two have played them to perfection. They provide the viewers with some abiding sadness along with happiness and heart-break that comes. But they are within the limits of seeing the beauty of the world. There are two things that the characters do teach us, one is that “The world is not a wish-granting factory”, and the other is that “Funerals aren’t for the dead, they are for the living” – prayers are the ones for the dead, aren’t they?

Soul exploration :: The title alludes to “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.” from William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar Act I Scene II. It has human situation, either good or bad, as the result of one’s own actions rather than by the power of the divine, or that human condition itself such a flawed one that divinity can play no role in it. But it is not true on most occasions, right? There are things beyond our control, and a desire to control our own fate can only be successful up-to an extent or not close to having any success at all. No, it is not our fault that we don’t achieve something or ends up on the losing side. There is always the element of luck or fate, and the existence of God’s grace that changes things. There is indeed the fault in our stars, and there is the society and the world around us that shapes us and define our lives – just too many factors which control our lives on which we sometimes have no knowledge and at other times no control, and things to do fall apart. We are all subject to the fault in the stars, and it is just that for some people, it is less visible on the outside. In some other cases, we know. We have to live through the faults, our characters did.

How it finishes :: Even as there this released last month in the United States, it has the presence here at the right time at theatres with Planes 2: Fire and Rescue 3D not creating the usual animated impact out there – only wish remains that it had more shows. For Keralites, some memory of Akasadoothu inspired by Who Will Love My Children? will be there in this movie and there is the feeling that these movies carry far beyond its own realm of existence on a big screen. The Fault in Our Stars is nicely romantic along with being tragic and still, it creates that effect which none of the movie can really create. We can only hope that people will support beautiful movies like this instead of fake and dumb romantic movies like Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya which attracts audience so much. Unfortunately, for some people, they think that love is all about physical attraction and exaggerated fake romance – Bollywood continues to teach that very long story which it uses again and again without any shame or regret, just with the addition of something on bed. Sadly, such are the movies which come good at this part of the world.

Release date: 18th July 2014 (India); 6th June 2014 (USA)
Running time: 126 minutes
Directed by: Josh Boone
Starring: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Nat Wolff, Laura Dern, Lily Kenna, Sam Trammell, Willem Dafoe, Lotte Verbeek, Mike Birbiglia, John Green (cameo)