I didn’t always know what I was watching, but I knew I wasn’t hating The Last Witch Hunter nearly as much as I thought I would.

That about sums up this witch-fighting “epic” in which Vin Diesel pretends that people care to watch him in anything other than the Fast and Furious movies. Diesel plays an immortal version of Diesel, who has spent his days bludgeoning witches into oblivion and convincing much more talented actors like Elijah Wood and Michael-what-kind-of-blackmail-do-they-have-on-you-mother-fucking-Caine to join him on this silly escapade.

Oh, and for those ginger lovers who miss Ygritte from “Game of Thrones,” Rose Leslie is in this movie, too, though she’s given almost nothing to do.

The Last Witch Hunter, set in modern day, has Diesel venturing into the seedy witch underworld--which looks like any other gothic underworld that Hollywood has cooked up in the last 20 years--to track down a truly ugly witch that, despite CGI overload, is actually somewhat intimidating. The movie serves as a brew of other, better films, though director Breck Eisner (The Crazies) at least makes things feel like more than the typical CGI orgy. The visual effects are surprisingly decent, the set design equally so. Hell, even Diesel is tolerable, even likable, in true Vin Diesel fashion.

Of course, the movie is marred by the screenplay, which ranges from strange to downright incomprehensible. In reality, though, The Last Witch Hunter’s story is simply routine, the plot both boosted and dragged down by window dressing elements. It’s a movie that thinks it is more complex and intelligent than it actually is.

The good thing: if you like these kinds of movies, you probably don’t care a whole lot about plot or screenplay.

The Last Witch Hunter is not good, per se, but it’s not the awful trainwreck the trailers made it out to be. It’s weirdly watchable, even enjoyable, and that’s considerable praise for a movie such as this.

Review by Erik Samdahl.