The Hunters (2013)

Touches You

Good movie but grossly overrated

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I knew I was in trouble when the DVD opened up with previews for "Space Camp." This is the story of a family of Indian Jones types who hunt artifacts from fairy tales, legends, and history. In this story they introduce the characters as they search for the shards to the broken mirror from "Snow White." The film had promise in the beginning with exotic scenery, but then quickly switches to exotic places like Boston. The plot was a bit confusing as the shards were hidden so they couldn't be found, so they go find them before the bad guys can find them...making it easier for the "Krugen."There is one scene where we see a bathtub Porsche filled with blue Walmart reusable bags which had me shaking my head. Does Walmart really need the product placement? The film was an "Eh-Okay" production, most likely a company composed of Amazon reviewers. Who gives themselves a title of mediocrity? Oh, they're Canadians. My bad.I haven't figured out why no one used a real gun. They used single shot arrow-guns instead, which are bulkier. The acting was so-so. Alexa Vega, the eye candy wasn't convincing as the best lines were written for Tripp (Keenan Tracey) something parents name their kids when they conceive on acid.Kids might like it. This is similar to "The Librarian" series which I thought was infinitely better.

The Hunters did have good potential. The cast was decent, and the basic story could have been really interesting if executed well and with nice ideas, regardless of how original or not it is. The big problem however with The Hunters is how it had all this potential, and didn't do anything with any of it.It has a couple of things that it did do right. The scenery is very nice and exotic. Michelle Forbes brings command and winning energy to her role, the only person in the cast to scrape by with any kind of dignity.On the other hand, aside from the scenery it does agreed look like it was intended to be a very low-budget TV pilot, and it also feels it. It's drably shot and choppily edited in the action, while the special effects looked unfinished, props were sparse or inappropriate (a lot of the weapons in the action come out of nowhere) and costumes failed to give a sense of time and place. The rest of the acting, despite the talent is poor, especially with the annoyingly amateur performances from the children, while Victor Garber has seldom been more wooden. The movie is flatly directed, generically scored and the action suffers from choppy editing, pedestrian and far from fun or suspenseful choreography and unmotivated performing of it.The script and story are the biggest failures with The Hunters. The script is paper-thin, and some of the one-liners from particularly Tripp are out of place and irritate more than they amuse. The story structurally is every bit as thin with some very dull pacing as a result of trying to stretch out the running time, and even worse it is disjointed from trying to take on too many elements and doing little with any of them ( especially with the fairy-tale elements). There's no tension, suspense or fun as a result of playing the adventure and suspense too safe and by-the-numbers, which makes the adventure parts as far from thrilling and entertaining as you could go. The characters are stereotypically cardboard, and very hard to care or root for.All in all, a dull, disjointed mess apart from the scenery and Forbes. 2/10 Bethany Cox

This film takes what used to be an interesting idea and makes it sooo boring.First, the three main ideas have been more than done beforefairy tales are real - Once Upon a Time anyone?relic hunters that discover items with magical properties... Come on! Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, the TV series Relic Hunter etc... teenagers with issues finding themselves on their quest to save the worldThe whole plot line is silly: Some group of bad guys might be after this powerful item broken into 5 pieces (4 shards and the mirror) so the good guys go and find it for them?! Then, hot-chick-who-can-kick-ass-but-can't-use-products-until- Pantene-saves-her-from-split-ends appears just at the perfect moment. The hunters left clues and maps to find the shards in the first place! The boys discover the 'big' family secret and then go and spill the beans to their family friend. Know the meaning of SECRET?The impressive hunter, the Mum, can't think of how to make a sound when her children are in the other room? And she manages to untie herself only hours later in what seems a very strange move.I stopped watching at the incredibly boring and silly 'cat' fight in the hanger ...

Well you can't blame the failure of this film to take off on the cast, because they were a capable and experienced cast, even the younger actors. However, they are given absolutely nothing to sink their teeth into. Everything about the flick is just watered down and meandering. If this had been a Disney or Hub flick it would have worked, or even if upgraded to a full blown fantasy flick, it would have worked, but it feels completely like this is a first draft and not a full fleshed film. The script is thin with stick figure characters, clotted with toss off explanations to move the story and beyond cliché plot points (the Asian assassin was almost painful to watch). Everything it had going for it is wasted.Complete and total lack of backstory. It would have been great to know how Tripp's techie skills and Pax's fighting skills had previously reared their heads, it was screaming for some actual examples of the fairytale items in modern times, and someone with a much cleverer wit to punch up the one liners. It seems like the money ran out somewhere, but there was no going back to get a good finished product. The cast did what they could with what they had.