SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN

SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN (2012)
US
Directed by Rupert Sanders

CAST:
Kristen Stewart - Snow White
Chris Hemsworth - The Huntsman
Charlize Theron - Ravenna

PLOT:
     In a twist to the fairy tale, the Huntsman ordered to take Snow White into the woods to be killed winds up becoming her protector and mentor in a quest to vanquish the Evil Queen.

REVIEW:
     I've always had a fondness for fairly tales when I was growing up. Yet I also knew that some how there was something missing from them. A sense of too happy of an ending that always nagged at me. It wasn't until I got to read a book called Grimm's Grimmest that I understood why something seemed missing from those tales and Disney animated movies. It was the violence and the mean spiritedness that was scrubbed from the stories to make them more kid friendly and have a wider audience once they were collected. The original Grimm versions, which were collected from various villages around Germany, are much more adult oriented and when told were meant to frighten children into behaving or else such and such monster would come for them as the story told. This version of Snow White while it isn't a version for younger children, it isn't a a direct translation onto the screen of the Grimm story either.

     There are three main performances in the film and two of them both fail at different times. I'm going to go ahead and say that I have never been the biggest Kristen Stewart fan. I think it might be because it seems as if she never shows full emotion. This might be bad to say, but I always seen her as Mandy from  The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy, and I always wondered if she actually smiled if the world would end like it did in that show. Well, as you can tell we are all still here even after Stewart was smiling in the movie. And I will cut her slack now based on this movie as she is decent in it. The drawback to her performance is after she awakens from her poisoned sleep Stewart has to give a speech to rally the troops. I know that she was supposed to inspire, but to me the whole scene made me want to cringe. Charlize Theron, whom this is the first of two reviews I'll be doing this month with her in it, could have made her role something truly evil instead she went overboard. Yes, it is okay to yell and scream, but when every other three words becomes her screaming it gets old very quick. Theron could have made her something truly menacing but we get what seems like a evil queen that can't hear herself talking. If Theron could have just talked normally to a soft whisper and saved the yelling to one or two times in the whole movie, her Queen would have seemed  to me a lot more evil.  The best performance in Snow White was from Chris Hemsworth as the Huntsman. Hemsworth you could tell has fun in his role for most of it, probably due to the fact that he gets to play drunk for half of it. The other aspect of his character is that he's a roguish type character that has flaws but doesn't try to hide them which adds to his charm.

     The movie is well shot in most scenes that don't have action , I cannot lie about that. Yet the film becomes beautiful once the characters enter Sanctuary. If there is one reason to see this movie it would be for these 15 minutes as the world we are viewing becomes bigger and the true fairy tale aspect comes front and center in a way I wasn't expecting. These scenes are just a thing of beauty as while we see animals we all know they are changed in a way that makes perfect sense. From the original look of the fairies, even though they almost all look alike except for different hair styles and slight facial differences, to the white stag which is an amalgam of different animals. This stag though has a majestic presence that radiates from the screen and is completely believable as a part of the world we're visiting. Another stand out area in the world is the Black Forest. Even though there isn't any real creatures in this area, thanks to a hallucinogenic spore, the poor souls that inhale it are treated to a very vivid waking nightmare filled with beasts. While the effect is going on we are giving to the world that person is viewing and it is a world of fear and desperation. The trees seem to come alive and their branches and twigs are seen to reach out. The more a person fears here the stronger the reaction the Black Forest has. Other than these two places the rest of the world is one we as viewers have seen multiple times. Run down villages and dark castles.

     For a first time director Rupert Sanders knows the shots he wants and most of the time pulls it off wonderfully as he has a eye for what can work. But once it comes to heavy action scenes he falls into the Michael Bay routine of cutting shots to quick which in return makes viewing these scenes a chore instead of a pleasure. The story in places can also be a chore to sit through as well. Two scenes in the movie illustrate this all too well. The first is the Huntsman's speech about his part life. Hemsworth does his best with this but it just seems as if it was tacked on as to give him back story, yet it turns that this almost ruins the character instead. The other scene I mentioned a little bit earlier in the review. It's when Stewart has to give a speech to a group of down and out soldiers to get them ready to fight. This scene made me cringe. Mostly due to that it seems like in these movies there has to be some big scene that has to reach the viewers heart and I get tired of listening to half-hearted speeches that are supposed to inspire. The other reason why this scene fails is Stewart's delivery  of said speech. One of the biggest misses in the film though is with the dwarves. At first when we see them they all have bad attitudes and terrible dispositions, but after one minute with Snow it seems as if the whole group is nutured by some invisible magic scissors and turns them into the comic relief. With the talent they had within that group of eight, it is a shame to see it all go to waste. While the film is amazing to watch it leaves you feeling empty as it doesn't pull off what it sets out to do.And with a film with this much potential that is the real fault with this movie.

BEST DEATH:
     Sorry, nothing really stuck out to me so here's a possible deleted scene instead.

BEST LINE:
     That looks like one of mine!

FUN FACTS:
     Charlize Theron dropped out of the film J. Edgar to star in the film.

     Lilly Collins auditioned for the role of Snow White and lost out to Stewart. She then went and got the roll of Snow White in Mirror, Mirror.

     Both Viggo Mortensen and Hugh Jackman passed on the chance to play The Huntsman.