Snow White and the Huntsman nails and REVIEW!
Visually, this film is amazing. The sets, the costumes, and the CGI are incredibly appealing and beautiful, making it almost enough to watch the film for alone. I am incredibly shallow, and this was just so much pretty for the eyes. SO MUCH PRETTY.
Surprisingly, each actor plays their part convincingly enough, but it does have to be said that the film benefits from Snow White’s silences.
SNOW WHITE: When she does speak, it is a hit or miss, and when it is a miss, the scene feels stilted and awkward. They definitely utilized Stewart’s silences well. Luckily, she’s often being chased, running away, or gazing upon her surroundings in awe, so that’s okay. But sometimes, you expect her to speak, AND THEN SHE DOESN’T. This is also awkward. I do wish she had smiled more because that’s when I think she is prettiest, not the constantly open-mouthed shock or half smile that she seems to do. All in all though, she wasn't that bad considering I was cringing at the thought of Twilight haha
QUEEN RAVENNA: Perfect Evil Queen. The only downside is that sometimes it feels overacted and out of place. I think she shines brightest when she speaks in her quiet and menacing tone, with red rimmed eyes, glimmering with tears of anger? Frustration? Despair? It’s hard to determine, which is why I love her so much. The queen’s character was unexpectedly sympathetic at times; she was more three dimensional and they show us how she becomes the mad and desperate woman she is. I thought Charlize Theron played the part beautifully. Also, there was a brother thrown in there, and I was like, what? But their relationship was definitely one of the highlights if only because it’s so strong and slightly creepy?
CHRIS HEMSWORTH! as the Huntman is interesting because we know basically nothing about him. In this film, however, he obviously becomes a main character because he shares the title of the film with the main character herself, totally foreshadowing, dead giveaway. The Huntsman is also given a back story, and you know what, Hemsworth plays the reluctant hero well. It’s just too bad that every time I saw him and his long hair, swinging his axe (that I think is totes named Mjolnir) I was like, THOR!
THE WEIRD: The image of Snow White leading an army to battle clad in armor, as you can already see in the trailers, is incredibly reminiscent of Alice in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, which I thought was kind of unoriginal? Especially since they keep harping on about how the producer of this movie also worked on Alice, but I’m not really sure if it’s just me being picky xD
ALSO! There seem to be 8 dwarves? @_@ none of them really get names or personalities. AND! There IS a prince! Sort of.
To be honest, the prince and Snow White weren’t very likable to me? I think I automatically rooted for her because she’s freakin’ Snow White and she was locked up in a tower for most of her life (hello, Tangled!), but other than that and her magical destiny and gorgeousness and kindness, she seemed kind of…flat. Same with the “prince.”
[Spoiler (click to open)]
SPOILERY BIT: when they meet up again, mannnnn, awkwardddd...there was no real connection between them and they didn't seem to try to convince you that this is who she would end up with
While this is mostly an action and fantasy film, there were a few laughs thrown in here and there, which I appreciated. I felt like it tries to be real and serious and because of this, moments with magic (mostly the destiny bits) and cheesiness tend to be very jarring. The pitfall of this movie is that suspension of disbelief is incredibly difficult to maintain while watching, and it’s hard to keep reminding yourself that this is a fairytale, especially when it feels like it tries not to be. Also, the ending was a bit lackluster because everyone in the theater was like, IS THAT IT? You also say WTF a couple of times to yourself because reason is kind of thrown out the window at some points xD
I don’t want to make it sound like I hated this movie because I didn’t! But I didn’t love it. The things I did like:
- THE QUEEN. She’s just so creepy and desperate and I love that. Also, I love how they show her aging and de-aging. It’s kind of chilling. and mesmerizing. She is just fascinating.
- ALSO HER NAME AS RAVENNA. I thought that the birds she can turn into were crows (because they mention something about not wanting to be picked apart by the scavenging crows) and I thought, HOW PERFECT BECAUSE SHE IS ALSO LIKE A CROW, SCAVENGING FOR YOUTH AND BEAUTY BLAHBLAH AWESOME. But Ravenna? Raven? Hmm. Still like the connection tho.
- CHRIS HEMSWORTH. nuff said.
- ALL THE PRETTY. Also see Chris Hemsworth.
- (kind of spoilery? Maybe?) How they brought the story back full circle at the end with the parallel images and blah stuff
- The “mirror” unexpected and argh the thing I love about it is TOTES SPOILERY ;___;
[ANOTHER ONE, CLICK IF U DARE!]
but the fact that only the queen can see that strange gold body and only she can hear it is a very interesting choice. I wonder what her brother was thinking. - The dark forest omg so awesome
- How they worked the apple into the story xD DARN SPOILS..
TL;DR, While I didn't love this movie and probably wouldn't pay to see it again, I really like certain aspects of this film a lot. CREEPY BADASS QUEEN, THOR!, KRISTEN STEWART NOT AS BAD AS I THOUGHT, ALL THE PRETTY IN THE WORLD, OMG, SO MUCH PRETTY, I COULD STARE FOREVER, BUT THEN IT ALSO MAKES ME GO WTF IDGI, THIS MAKES NO SENSE, O WAIT THIS IS A FAIRYTALE, RIGHT, WAIT WHAAAAAAT SO CHEESE!
3.5 OUT OF 5 STARS, I THINK!