Went to see The Last Witchhunter today. It's a pretty entertaining movie. Of course, regardless of the quality of storytelling on the whole, it gets major bonus points from me for being low on verbal exposition and high on material or incidental exposition. These things that the characters interact with are
fact, and they don't feel the need to describe them to the viewer in the simplest possible terms. There are a few instances where significant verbal exposition is necessary, but they're handled well and fluidly, and frequently don't get in the viewer's way.
Colder, as a character, was particularly interesting to me because we see him in two different states during the movie, and a lot of the development from one state to the other happened over the course of hundreds of (off-screen) years. We see Colder the father, Colder the husband, and Colder the avenger in his first state. In his second, we see Colder the experienced, Colder the protector, and Colder the weapon. This is a man who has lived a very, very long time. He knows exactly what is going on and what to do in response to those goings on, but he also reacts to these things as rote. Life is a routine. Death is impossible. Danger is largely absent. His sense of urgency and his own physical vulnerability hinges on people around him being vulnerable.
The really fascinating part is how that vulnerability, so obviously long absent from his life, changes him. For the first time in literally centuries, he has something to lose. It's a character development that's neither surprising nor particularly subtle, but it's still one not handled often in Hollywood, and it was handled fairly well.
