When Movies Attack
[Written by: The Vern from The Vern's Videovanguard]
Have you even been watching a movie and thought to yourself that this looks really familiar. It happens all the time in Hollywood, two movies are released simultaneously with almost the same identical premise. The story may be different from each other but they both involve the same theme or the same plot. Every two weeks I will be posting an article comparing two different movies that are very similar. So let’s get on to see what movies are attacking this week.
SPOILERS****** Be warned I will be discussing both movies and may give away certain plot elements.
The Challengers
Mirror Mirror
This is the tale of Snow White from what starts off as The Queen’s point of view. She is very jealous of her stepdaughter’s beauty and wishes for her to disappear just like she made her father. Everyone in her town just loves her, and when a new prince becomes interested in her. The Queen orders one of her minions to take her into the Forest where she will be eaten by the beast that lives there. While there she meets a group of dwarf bandits who want to help her take back the kingdom and stop the wicked queen.
Snow White and The Huntsman
In this version of Snow White, we see that her father the king has falling in love with a beautiful woman named Ravenna whom he rescued from an
evil force. Only to discover on his wedding night that she belonged to that same evil force he was fighting and loses his life to her. In order for
Ravenna to support her beauty she must eat the hearts of the young. When she discovers that Snow White could give her eternal life and beauty. She orders
a huntsman to kill her and bring back her heart. He does find her but refuses to turn her over just yet, and through out their journeys they start to fall in love while also finding a way to stop the evil queen.
Similarities.
- Both movies are doing different versions of the beloved tale, while at the same time still following the same plot.
- Snow White in both movies starts of kind of quiet and weak but then learns to stand up for what is right and becomes very strong and brave.
- Each of the men in these movies who are ordered to kill Snow, can’t actually go through with it and let her go.
- The Seven Dwarfs all have different names and looks from the Walt Disney version
- The Queen in either version is played by a well known celebrity while Snow White is only vaguely known among certain crowds.
Differences.
- Mirror Mirror is very light in it’s tone while Snow White and The Huntsman is very dark.
- In Mirror Mirror when the queen talks to her magic reflecting glass, it transports her to another world where she sees images of herself that give her advice. In Snow White and The Huntsman, the mirror oozes out this liquid gold that forms itself into a statue to give advice.
- Lilly Collins (Mirror Mirror) looks like fairy tale princess while Kristen Stewart (Snow White and The Huntsman) looks like a peasant even before she got locked away by the Queen.
- The dwarfs in Mirror Mirror use devices to make themselves appear taller than they actual are and are played by actors who are that size
in life. Snow White and The Huntsman casts regular size actors and just films them in a way to make them seem smaller next to everyone
else. - In Snow White and The Huntsman, Snow White falls in love with the person who was sent out to kill her while in Mirror Mirror that same person falls in love with the head cook.
- Mirror Mirror has a Bollywood style music number at the end, while Snow White and The Huntsman have a very somber song by Florence and The Machine during the end credits.
Closing Thoughts.
When it comes to box office reports Snow White and The Huntsman did way better than Mirror Mirror. $150 million for Snow White and The Huntsman compared to $64 million for Mirror Mirror. Critical reactions were split down the middle as both movies received a 50 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences were split on both movies as well.
I admired the dark tone Snow White and The Huntsman used to make it seem more like a Grimm’s brother fairy tale, but a better version of this was done back in 1997 with a movie called Snow White: A Tale of Terror. That one had Sigourney Weaver as the evil queen and was much darker and better than Snow White and The Huntsman. Mirror Mirror however was a lot of fun to watch. The visuals, set pieces and costumes were quite amazing to look at. The characters were great too because they had personalities and you care about what happens to them. Snow White and The Huntsman on the other hand had very bland visuals and the only thing that was impressive was the liquid gold metal that came out of the mirror. Even though I have already seen that same effect used better in Terminator 2. The characters were also very boring and I never once got the impression that Snow White was the fairest of them all. She never was shown doing anything nice for anyone except for a few animals. The relationship between her and the huntsman seemed to come out of left field and was almost pedophilia in a way. Julia Roberts was indeed campy in her performance as the queen in Mirror Mirror, but that was fine because the tone of it required that. Charlize Theron had a performance in Snow White and The Huntsman that was so over the top that it became comical, and for a movie that is suppose to be taken serious, that is not a good sign.