Not too surprising considering how awful the reviews have been for this feature. I just posted that I'll pass on purchasing the first film of The Hobbit Series in another thread and now I confess that I might have to rent this to see the lovely Gemma Arterton. - Walter.
Word of mouth has this as a good movie. Despite the professional reviews my wife and I went to see this. I'm big on a good fairy tale movie, TV show or cartoon (Fractured Fairy Tales) so this was a gimmee. I'm glad to say that we both liked it. User reviews on RT are very good as well. My only grip is that the actress who played the big bad witch (XMen Jean Grey lady) might as well had phoned in her part. There was no life to her as she appeared to be going through the motions. Even her facial expressions were off the mark. The underling witches were more interesting than her. Otherwise, great story and action and the icing is witches hopping on brooms and taking flight. I got a kick out of that and the troll Edward.
I saw this yesterday and also enjoyed it for the action and FX, though the story is kind of flimsy. The film was very short, too. I felt like the thing just got started, then it was over. Famke Janssen played the lead witch. She's been quoted in articles as saying she really only took the role for the paycheck (she's trying to finance and direct her own personal film project) and didn't really understand the character very well. Though I'm not sure how "deep" a wicked witch is, to begin with.