Every so often, Hollywood relocates key talent to the wilds for the express purpose of chucking millions of dollars over a cliff. Here’s one such occasion: a 3D mock-epic in which beard-and-scenery-chewing witch-hunter Jeff Bridges mentors third-choice chosen one Ben Barnes to slay shape-shifting dragon lady Julianne Moore. Director Sergey Bodrov opts for mindless overkill, stocking every Dante Ferretti-designed set with kung fu Tartars and vengeful Vishnus, and hoping we’ll be too psyched or numbed to notice the dubious white-blando-puts-minorities-to-the-sword subtext. It’s lively and daft, and you find yourself wondering: all this expertise, and the best anybody could think to do with it was this?
