Snow White and the Huntsman
First of all, may I just say that the new Brave trailer seemed to designed to make me NOT want to watch the movie, as most of the emphasis was on how Merida is Not Like Other Girls and is Super Special and doesn't get along with her mother because her mother wants her to be an icky proper lady and Doesn't Understand Her and her dad is just so much more awesome and approachable in her eyes? (I mean, I still intend to see it, but the trailers and such keep shoving that part in my face.) Also, apparently the movie got backburned for years because there was a female director who they had to fire because she kept putting in all these scenes between Merida and her mother that the Pixar dudes just didn't understand and were confident that women didn't interact that way but then eventually a dude came along and fixed all those scenes for them.
Anyway, I had not intended to watch Snow White and the Huntsman opening day, being rather allergic to crowded dark rooms full of people I don't know, but I may be doing a lot of overtime at work in the next couple weeks, making today possibly my last chance to catch a matinee showing for a while, and I didn't want to have to hide from chunks of the internet to avoid being spoiled.
In short, it lived up to my expectations and I loved it. It did several things I wanted it to do but thought it wouldn't, and fulfilled my quota for female centric heroic narratives, evil queens, costume and scenery pr0n, and "'grumpy loner x wee cute scrappy thing' MOST CONTEXTS ACCEPTABLE." The trailers and clips I watched made it pretty clear that they were going for a more mythic (as in "heroic epic") approach than a lot of fantasy movies seem to, and it really does, particularly when it comes to animal guides. I suspect some of it may be a bit too random/convenient for some (not helped much by the inclusion of a few brief bits that seem to be there mostly because they thought it'd be cool for the trailers), but it worked for me. The movie is also amusingly in love with its own epicness.
Actingwise, Charlize Theron unsurprisingly puts in the best performance. I haven't seen any other of Kristen Stewart's movies, but I thought she was pretty decent here. Not the best actress ever, but not bad either, and in terms of screen presence and appearance, I think she was an excellent choice for the role. (Let's give "No one would ever think Kristen is hotter than Charlize" a rest already. Yes, Charlize is a more conventionally attractive hot blonde. Get over it.) Thor did a pretty good job given that his character was drunk in over half his scenes. And may I just comment on his hilariously bad Scottish accent? Pretty much everyone else had a British accent, but for some reason, his was Scottish and not really good, as was immediately made obvious as he spent the first few minutes delivering a rather clunky narration. (Which would have worked better with Ravenna doing it than the huntsman, really.)
BTW, I know the huntsmans name is Eric, but I'm not sure if it's ever actually said in the movie. Also, there are fairies that somehow manage to be weird/creepy and absolutely adorable at the same time
A couple brief comments about 2 things that might be triggery.
Snow White is locked in prison when she's 7 and doesn't leave the cell for the next 10 years, as far as we know. In a very early scene, it's made clear that the queen's creepy brother has watched her sleep through the bars and probably done things while he watched. It's made very clear when it comes up that he's never actually touched her, but also that he knows she pretends to be asleep when he does it. There is creepy touching in the scene where this comes up, but Snow is deliberately letting him get close enough for her to stab him with a nail. I thought the scene was handled well in that way, but it made me pretty squeamish.
Later, there's a scene where Eric cuts off Snow White's skirt (she has sturdy leggings underneath) then uses that gross "don't flatter yourself" (as in "the threat of sexual violence means you're hot and desirable and should be flattered if men want to rape you") line when it scares her. In context, her reaction might seem a bit much (she seems to barely restrain a complete freakout) if you don't know that the only men she's interacted with in 10 years are Ravenna's creepy pedophilic brother and Eric, who she barely knows and doesn't trust (Well, I'm sure that she interacted with Ravenna's guards when they brought her food and such? But I doubt that was pleasant either), and on his part, it's very much "I am drunk and grumpy and that skirt is in the way and slowing us down I'M GETTING RID OF IT oh wait girls feel threatened when men suddenly tear off their clothes SAY SOMETHING" and there's no subtext whatsoever of sexual intent or any form of violence, so it doesn't inspire the rage it did in, say Supernatural when Dean says it to Bela, but I still wanted to hit something over it.
Spoilery comments:
-Ravenna and her creepy brother were exceptionally incesty. Like, I actually expected them to show them in bed together.
-I have always interpretted beauty in Snow White to be the queen focusing on physical beauty and the mirror referring to inner beauty, as much as Snow White is also physically beautiful, and the movie really ran with that after a bit, which I appreciated. It also makes it pretty clear that Ravenna's obsession with youth and beauty is that physical beauty and sexual desirablilty are the only form of power most women have in that culture.
-The mostly overtly romantic scene (and the only kiss where both parties are conscious) is between Ravenna and Snow when Ravenna is impersonating William. I was very "...!" there and having giddy Sinbad flashbacks. (I'm also pretty sure that Sam Claflin had more fun there than in any other part of the movie.)
-Please insert a rant here about the fact that the only POC in the movie is the voice of the mirror who only has a few lines and is never actually seen. (As shocking as it may be to realize that The Dark Ages were only the dark ages in Europe and many of those irrelevant countries not populated by white people were having their golden ages, there were also people who weren't white wandering around Europe at the time, thanks in part to this thing called the Roman Empire.)
-SNOW WHITE IS SINGLE AT THE END AND BECOMES QUEEN. Which is the ending I was hoping for , but thought wouldn't be the ending.
-As I'm sure there are people who clicked JUST for this: yes there are romantic bits and a non-rivalry triangle lurking around ,but it isn't a focus and is left somewhat unresolved, as it should be. I mean, let's look at what we have. A 17-year-old whose only known interaction with men for 10 years was with a molester, a drunkard (though he gets better about that after a bit, except for when he thinks she's dead) at least 10 years older than her who is still grieving his wife and who admits that part of his feelings for Snow are that she reminds him of his wife, and then the guy she knew when she was 7 who she has romanticized in her head because he was basically the only person she cared about who was still alive, and who for his turn had a lot of guilt fixation on because he thought his father made him leave her to die, and so he has a romanticized idea of her. All of this makes perfect sense in context and any combination could eventually evolve into a healthy relationship, but any actual romantic ending at their current stages would have been weird and forced. (But since you want to know, yes, it is implied that if she ever hooks up with one of them, it's more likely to be Eric.) BTW, while the lack of romantic resolution makes perfect sense to me, I'm pretty sure part of why it ended up that way was because it was originally proposed as a potential trilogy, despite the actors protesting otherwise.
-There were some serious shippers in my audience. Every time Snow and William and a Fraught Romanticized Hormonal Moment and Eric got his -_- face on and dragged Snow away they let out little squees. I wasn't entirely certain who they were shipping until the scene where Eric is drunk in the chamber with "dead" Snow and he confesses his feelings and kisses her and then she wakes up after he leaves. That solved that minor mystery. (While that's my shipping preference too, I did not enjoy the scene the way I might have otherwise due to the whole "also, you remind me of my dead wife" bit.)
-While I was pretty into all the major human characters except the creepy brother, I was kind of meh about the dwarves despite liking them, and I had expected to be more into them than I was. (I guess that isn't really a spoiler. Oh well.)
ETA: On discussion, I think part of my disinterest in the dwarves is that none were actually played by dwarves. One place Mirror, Mirror trumps SWATH, at least.