The Hexer is a fix-up of a Polish TV show that adapts some of Andrzej Sapkowski's stories and novels about the witcher (as the English translations of the books and the videogame call it now) Geralt of Rivia (played by Michal Zebrowski). Sapkowski's books are modern Sword & Sorcery, in part quite cynical, but also very much possessed of a dry humor I'd call typical Eastern European.
Unfortunately the film doesn't keep much of this humor, but it's not often that one gets to see much Sword & Sorcery on the screen at all, especially the non-terrible version of the genre, so the exclusion of this aspect of the books isn't as bad as it may sound.
Witchers are magic-using fighters who work as monster hunters, though it's part of their codex to kill only creatures out to harm people. Nonetheless we will see Geralt not using a lot of magic, nor killing many monsters. After I had seen some of the monsters that do appear on screen, I wasn't surprised about that anymore - the effects are either bad CGI or equally dubious physical effects, very incongruous with the dark and earnest tone the film strives for.
The fights against human enemies are pretty fine, although there is a lot more talking than fighting in the film. Surprisingly enough, that's not an issue for me. Geralt's world has a more medieval slant than we are used to in much fantasy, while still being clearly fantastic, and it's quite a joy to see more of it than just the fighting.
More troubling is the way the episodes of the TV show are cut together to build a film - there are obviously some very important scenes and exposition missing. At least the movie draws heavily on one of the already translated books, so it wasn't difficult for me to understand what was missing. Other viewer's mileage will of course vary.
Also, don't expect lavish sets or costumes. Polish TV budgets aren't all that high and it shows. Fortunately a lot of what we see is shot on location in some very beautiful landscapes and some very authentic ruins, so there's enough visual splendor for the patient.
All this doesn't let the movie sound all that good I suppose. In truth, I enjoyed the film thoroughly as it uses slightly different traditions and - more importantly - slightly different ways to look at these traditions and is not ashamed to be not like its Hollywood brethren.
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2 comments:
Been awhile since I've seen any swords & sorcery, and it'd be nice to add something from Poland to my list. Sounds kind of interesting.
The only thing I can recall seeing set in Poland was Avalon. I didn't care for the film all that much (the end was just stupid, in my opinion), but the setting was great.
Yeah, there's too little Sword & Sorcery on screen anyway and even in its movie heyday those were mostly the cheesy barbarian movies (which I like) and not much that had the quality of the better books. I have a little hope for the Solomon Kane film as historical S&S, but wouldn't be surprised when it ends up as an atrocity like Van Helsing.
"Kind of interesting" is a good way to describe The Hexer I think. It's good for what it is. And now I'd really like to see the TV show.
I agree, Avalon has a lot of interesting ideas but doesn't know what to do with it. Typical of Mamoru Oshii, if you ask me.
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