Rating
PLOT70%ACTING84%
DIRECTING75%
CINEMATOGRAPHY70%
COSTUME80%
SCORE80%
TOTAL SCORE77%
What We Thought
Genre: Action, Drama Director: Rupert Sanders Actors: Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Stewart MPAA: PG-13What We Liked :
Charlize Theron is perfect as the Queen, Takes the classic tale into darker territoryWhat We Disliked:
Borrows scenes from other films, Doesn't do enough to justify new take on Snow White Bottom LineSnow White and the Huntsman is a satisfying, but empty summer movie excursion.
by MaxFULL ARTICLE
Mirror, Mirror on the wall who’s the fairest of them all? This year saw the release of two new Snow White films. Snow White and The Huntsman takes the story in a decidedly more mature direction focusing on the war and death from the hands of the evil queen. Does this new take on the classic franchise justify it’s existence or does it fail to live up to expectations?
The evil Queen, Ravenna (Charlize Theron), has killed the king and has locked the young Snow White (Kristen Stewart) into a tower for the foreseeable future. After fooling the entire kingdom in believing she was beautiful and pure, The Queen brings sorrow and darkness on the land. In order to keep her youth she must suck the youth out of young maidens. She is told that she only needs to capture one more girl in order to stay young forever and that girl is Snow White.
Snow White isn’t going to just sit there and accept what’s coming to her. She manages to escape the castle and with the help of an all too convenient horse, heads into the dark forest where The Queen’s evil magic cannot reach. Ravenna hires a young widowed Hunstman (Chris Hemsworth) in order to traverse the dangerous forest. Ravenna promises the Huntsman that she will return his wife to the land of the living. Once The Huntsman finds Snow White he realizes there is a bigger plan in store for this girl.
Snow White and The Huntsman is yet another adaptation of the classic fairy tale. This particular installment invokes a medieval time period where there exists a struggle to overthrow the wicked Queen. The unfortunate aspect of adapting a classic means there’s little surprise. The addition of the dwarfs feels needlessly tacked on. There’s the understanding that they exist within the Snow White fairy tale, but it would’ve been interesting to see them not so highly involved.
Snow White has unfortunate comparisons to the epic medieval fantasy Lord of the Rings. There’s a few scenes in the movie that seem to have been borrowed from that story as well as other signature shots. Arguments can be made that Snow White existed far before any of these movies saw the light of day, but there’s a feeling that it could have been handled in a slightly different fashion.
Charlize Theron completely dominates Snow White and The Huntsman. Her mannerisms and constant shrieking would send terror down the spine of anyone. There’s a gravity for her struggle to capture Snow White’s heart. She’s even given a brief back-st0ry in the course of the film to understand her plight. The less said about Kristen Stewart the better. She seems to have mastered the art of staring since she even scares trolls away with it. There never feels like a reason to get behind her cause. Finally, Chris Hemsworth seems trimmed down from his role as Thor, but he still acts as though he has a hammer to throw.
Snow White and The Huntsman manages to tread new ground in a very tired fairy tale. The battles are epic in scope and although they feel borrowed from other great films, they work here just as well. Charlize Theron is the glue that holds the entire film together and brings the story into dark territory. Snow White and the Huntsman is a satisfying, but empty summer movie excursion.
