Actors: Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth
Synopsis: Revamped telling of the classic Snow White story.
I guess its better late than never that I get around to doing this review. But I’m just as uninspired about writing a review as the movie was. Nevertheless, I bring forth a bunch of rambling about early summer’s release Snow White & The Huntsman.
I think everyone knows the major plot points of Disney’s Snow White & The Seven Dwarves. The mirror, who’s fairest, the poisoned apple, and the kiss from the Prince. If you don’t know anything about the original story, I suggest taking a trip back to your childhood and watching a much better film. Instead of just making a live action version of the classic animated version, there were mild changes made in order to keep the story fresh for an audience that is very familiar with its cartoon counterpart. A lot of the key aspects remain. The Dwarves are there (their names are different though), the evil Queen obsessed with being the fairest in the land, her mirror, the poisoned apple, and the famous kiss are all still around. However, in order to make the story more grown up, the Queen sucks the souls out of all the fair women of the land and plans on eating Snow White’s heart in order to remain the most beautiful. There is an introduction of a new character, the Huntsman (played by Chris Hemsworth aka Thor), who is hired to capture Snow White after she flees the castle. Add a few stunning visual effects and some mediocre battle scenes and you have all the ingredients for this “update”.
Unfortunately for me I went into this film with some pretty decent expectations. I knew Kristen Stewart was going to be terrible as Snow White but the trailers left me with the impression that she, although being title character, wasn’t going to be the focal point of the film. I was misled. She definitely played the lead and once again proved that her horrendous, always open mouthed, “acting” can’t carry the weight of a film. Luckily for her she had Hemsworth and Charlize Theron to fall back on instead of the equally terrible duo of Robert Patterson and Taylor Lautner that she has to depend on in the Twilight Saga. Hemsworth does a great job of being the films “badass” but it’s clear he was casted in this role after doing a mighty fine job of portraying the God Of Thunder. Theron steals the show with her version of the evil Queen to the point that I wish they just made the movie about her. Aside from the three leading characters, the Dwarves appearance is going to be the highlight for any viewer. Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins, Nick Frost, and Brian Gleeson (just to name the major 4) were incredible casting. Their interactions are a bit disjointed but I think that was supposed to be the point. For awhile watching the film, I was almost certain they were going to skipped the Dwarves altogether. It just seemed that was the direction the film was heading. I’m glad they didn’t because up until that point, I was quickly losing interest in the film.
The visuals are the true saving grace of this film. It wasn’t quite as hokey as the Alice In Wonderland update that Tim Burton was responsible for but it did rely a lot on the more fantasy elements. Between the elements of the Dark Forrest, the enchanted land of the Dwarves, and the mirror the visual team had a lot of room to get creative with their concepts. It’s not much but with a lacking story that felt like it was just being pushed along, any little bit of good helped me get through.
I suppose it’s alright that I waited until the film was out of the theaters or atleast closed to being out of the theaters to get this review out. I would only recommend you see this on DVD or blu-ray if you absolutely feel the necessity and even then I would caution you just to Redbox or Netflix it. It’s really not worth the investment in buying a copy to own. Luckily, I saw a free advance screening or else I would have felt cheated out of the $11.
