Great Movie

Rating: 10/10 (12 July 2013)

I do not normally like gore or too much violence in movies, nor do I tend to ever watch horror films but I took a chance with this one and was pleasantly surprised.
I watched it in 3D which I highly recommend. If I had seen it only in 2D I would have probably not ever wanted to watch it again as I don't like gory movies. That said, in 3D it is simply amazing because of the level of detail and beautiful direction. In fact it left me wishing for a sequel, it was that good.
I mostly like watching comedies, sci-fi and fantasy and avoid horror films completely as a general rule. The interesting thing is that the remote location where I'm at limits the availability of 3D movies, so when I saw it I bought it only out of curiosity, not because the idea of a Hansel and Gretel film seemed interesting. I honestly thought it would be something I'd only watch once and discard but it's now one of my favorite 3D films ever because of the amazing detail and direction. Beautiful forest scenes abound throughout the film and once the character of Edward appeared I was absolutely hooked.
Edward the troll was like the bad guy that was really a good guy who you really wanted to root for. I wish there was more of him in the film actually and that's one of the main reasons after watching it I right away thought this thing absolutely deserves a sequel.
The film trends away from the traditional idea of a witch riding a broom stick and uses tree branches instead, which I thought was a novel idea and quite cleverly done. The same goes for avoiding the green faced witch and using crackly zombie like faces instead but also shifting around from beautiful-woman-type-witch to more traditional ugly-type-witch. It's simply amazing all around to watch in 3D. If anyone saw the same thing in 2D I'm sure the beauty of the incredible camera work would be lost.
After a first viewing I had to go back and re-watch the scene in the forest where Gretel is overcome by the sheriff and his men and Edward steps in. That's the point in the movie where I was absolutely hooked by the story. Before that it simply meandered around the notion of killing witches but once Edward "the good" turns up it's a whole different story. That is one lovable troll right there despite what he does to the sheriff and his vigilantes.
All in all, for someone who doesn't normally watch gory movies, I highly recommend this one and if you watch it then 3D is by far the way this movie seems meant to be seen. In 2D you lose the beauty of the forest and the depth of the action.