Snow White and the Huntsman - Review

A creative take on one of the Brothers Grimm's favorite Fairytales.

Snow White and the Huntsman

PG-13 

Run time: 127 minutes

Director: 

    Rupert Sanders

Writers: 

    Evan Daugherty (screenplay and screen story),
    John Lee Hancock (screenplay),
    Hossein Amini (screenplay) 

Rating: B-

 In this revisionist twist on the well known fairy tale, the Huntsman originally ordered to take Snow White into the woods to be killed, is sent into the woods to retrieve the escaped princess and winds up becoming her protector and mentor in a quest to vanquish the Evil Queen.

If you are looking for a sweet fairy tale adaptation, this one is definitely not for you and don’t take your tiny tots or young children. If you don’t mind some action, dark magic, beautiful scenery and costumes or some ominous twists to the original tale, Snow White And The Huntsman just might be your cup of tea.  

The Grimms collected and published 211 stories, but most of us remember tales like "Hansel and Gretel", "Rapunzel", "Cinderella", and "Rumpelstiltskin" that were glorified by making them into cartoons.  Some that are not so popular with children include "The Girl Without Hands" that deals with making a deal with the Devil and "Godfather Death" involving cheating Death, both of which are even today not conducive to reciting to youngsters.

Once upon a time in a land far away... a young Snow White (Raffey Cassidy) is nearing her teens when one day a strange army threatens the kingdom  of her father, King Magnus (Noah Huntley). The intruders are quickly defeated but a female slave, Ravenna (Charlize Theron), is found shackled in chains on the battlefield and taken back to the castle.  King Magnus falls instantly in love with the woman and they marry the very next day.

Snow White is orphaned early after the death of her father by the hands of her new step-mother. Queen Ravenna , the dark witch who devours all the beauty in the world and destroys one kingdom after another, spells doom on Snow White’s kingdom as well. Young Snow White's childhood friend Prince William (Sam Claflin) and his father escape while is made a prisoner in her own castle and the queen who indulges in sucking out the youth and beauty from all the beautiful girls and the strength from the hearts of the boys.

“Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all…” One day, the Queen asks the mirror this same old question; only this time, the answer is not the “Queen”, but “Snow White”. Shocked, scared and outraged, she orders her brother Finn, (Sam Spruell, more like her lackey), to bring Snow White to her instantly so she can insure her immortality by taking Snow White's beating heart. Now a young woman, Snow White (Kristen Stewart), guided by a bird that she rescued as a child, escapes his clutches and a frantic chase to capture her follows as she flees into the dark forest.

The only person who can retrieve her is the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) but when he discovers he has been betrayed reluctantly switches his loyalty to Snow White. Will Snow White ever be able to vanquish the darkness? Can she defeat the Queen? Will the kingdom rejoice again? Well, of course you know the answers to these questions, yet, watch the movie to see how it all happens; it is indeed a visual treat.

The film's major problem is that it lacks focus. The recent Mirror Mirror, a disappointing adaptation, was at least consistent in its approach. Critics have enthusiastically praised Snow White and the Huntsman's visuals and fairy-tale atmosphere, while condemning its length and lack of dramatic cohesiveness. It is director Rupert Sanders first foray into feature-films, his previous directing experience has been primarily in commercials.

This Brothers Grimm fairytale is a patchwork of fantasy fare new and old. There's a little Lord Of The Rings here (sweeping shots of people walking over mountain vistas); a little Narnia there (fantastical creatures frolicking and gamboling in the woods); a little John Carter/Wrath of the Titans (mythical monster trolls); ( a lot of stern-faced Shakespearean style thespian-ing (Sire this and my liege that); not to mention a little Joan of Arc. The one thing that it doesn't have is an identity of its own: is it a Fairy Tale of magic, a Gothic romance, action, sword and sorcery or Hammer horror film, everything about it feels lifted from some other and often superior product.

When the mirror tells the queen she is no longer the fairest of them all, you know he is just picking a fight. Kristen Stewart is more beautiful than Charlize Theron, Really?
Didn't her critics in the Twilight series say it was implausible that the Edward and Jacob could find any reason to fight over such a dull and 'plain Jane' Bella? The comparisons of her Snow White and Bella were inevitable. 

Forrest Spirit necklace

The movie never skimps on visual effects, from monsters made of glass shards to an hallucinatory and foreboding dark forest (although one moment featuring a multi-antlered white stag is said to be such a rip-off of the Forest Spirit from Hayao Miyazaki’s animated film Princess Mononoke that Studio Ghibli should sue) but the characterizations are almost never as interesting as Colleen Atwood’s costumes, which are amazing to the point of distraction.

Charlize Theron is the anchor in this film. She is perfectly evil and as the re-envisioning nemesis of Snow White, a shape-changing queen loosely inspired on Elizabeth Báthory, the 16th-17th-century Hungarian aristocrat known as the “Blood Countess” for bathing in the blood of virginal young women as a means of preserving her youth. Ravenna bathes in a milk-like substance and not blood like her real-world analogue, but she does the next worst thing: A vampire in all but name, Ravenna sucks the life-force out of her female victims to retain her youthful appearance.

 The castle though impressive is way out of scale for stone construction.

There are 8 dwarfs, not 7 but 8 (none of which are actually dwarfs, or little people), among which are some very well known actors - Ian McShane (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), Bob Hoskins (Who Framed Roger Rabbit?), Ray Winstone (The Departed), Toby Jones (Captain America: The First Avenger), Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead) and Eddie Marsan (Sherlock Holmes).

For reference, Frost is on the far left, Jones is the shortest and 3rd from the left, McShane is 4th from left, Hoskins if 3rd from the right and Marsan is the 2nd from the right.

I really wanted to love this film but alas, the flaws are too many. It is very ambitious and succeeds at times but it seems so uneven and sluggish at times. The best I can say it that it is OK. I think it deserves bonus points for it's sometimes successful originality and often stunning special effects and visuals.