Snow White and the Huntsman
One of two recent adaptations of the Snow White fairy tale, Snow White and the Huntsman is a darker
action-adventure as opposed to the comedy-centric nature of Mirrior, Mirrior. Kristen Stewart plays
the titular character, Charlize Theron her wicked step-mother, the evil Queen
Ravenna, and Chris Hemsworth the Huntsman. I love my dark re-imagining of fairy
tales (anyone who hasn’t checked out Zenescope’s Grimm Fairy Tales should do so
– don’t be put off by the scantily clad ladies on the covers and inside, as the
story telling itself is fantastic), so I was far more keen to see this than Mirror, Mirror now it's on DVD, but I’ve come away
pretty underwhelmed.
If it were based on look and sound alone then this would be pushing
a 10, because both are fantastic. The scene where Snow White enters the fairy
land is a wondrous creation, and everything you would expect to find in a fairy
tales, her hallucination through the forest is great, and the music that plays
throughout the film is brilliantly atmospheric. Unfortunately, this is the
films’ greatest strength, and sadly I can’t help but feel that the actual story
telling part of it lets it down.
Snow White herself suffers from what I perceive to be a huge
gap in logic as the film goes on. The really big issue I have is that, throughout
the film, Snow is a fairly quiet character, with no passion about her (despite
what the characters around her claim), who all of a sudden becomes a warrior
princess after she comes back to life (or the spell is broken on her being
asleep following the apple-eating incident). She has one brief lesson (no
practical) from the Huntsman early on about how to use a knife, and yet she
kills two or three people towards the end of the film with a sword who would presumably
have been fully trained in combat. You’d need a hugely willing suspension of
disbelief to buy that transformation. I could believe Kristen Stewart as a
sword-swinging action-heroine, if there’d been a training montage at some
point, but instead all her training seems to have been in being just as moody as
Bella in the Twilight films, which is a shame as I believe I’m supposed to be
rooting for Snow White, not wishing she’d just cheer up. The one place I did
start to feel some sort of hope in the character was when she showed her wonderment
at seeing the fairy land for the first time. After that though it was back to the
old Snow. I also feel sorry for Kristen Stewart in that she’s given possibly
the least rousing and inspiring speech in the history of cinema, when she addresses
a crowd of her supporters, following her ‘resurrection’. It’s such a shame that, in a film where I
should be rooting for the main character to stand up and take her revenge, I
can’t help but think she lacks the fire and passion to actually succeed.
Charlize Theron as Queen Ravenna however is the embodiment
of fairy tale evil, coming across as completely unhinged in most scenes,
desperate to keep her youth and beauty no matter what the cost. If Snow White
had the same passion that Ravenna had, she would have been able to take on the
Queen’s magic diamond guards single handed. Her relationship with her brother is creepy
and sinister, the way the darker side of a fairy tale should be, and I liked
the way the mirror came to life, rather than just remaining static on the wall.
Chris Hemsworth is likeable and believable as the Huntsman,
although it seems like he is being asked to basically try and play Thor again
but slightly toned down, just as Kristen Stewart is bringing along Bella. That’s
not necessarily a bad thing, as it’s well suited to the role he’s asked to
play, but the Huntsman is never really fleshed out besides having a wife who
died, and it’s hinted that the Queen’s brother is the one who killed her.
Perhaps most disappointing of all for me was the use of the
dwarves. I can’t help but feel like they were added almost as an afterthought,
as if someone had forgotten that there should be dwarves in a Snow White story.
They interacted well with each other, and Nick Frost was particularly good, but
aside from that they just don’t really add anything to the story. Having so
many of them and then relegating them to minor supporting roles means they’re
easily forgotten, and with several other big players such as the Huntsman and
William, they’re more forgettable still.
There were some decent fight scenes, particularly the first
where Ravenna is ‘rescued’, but otherwise I felt that it was strangely lacking
for an action-adventure. Maybe I’m used to having lots of epic Lord of the
Rings-esque battles now, but it all felt a bit small scale. The Huntsman fought
the Queen’s brother a couple of times, which were quite well choreographed, but
it was definitely missing Snow getting trained in sword fighting, if they were
trying to interpret her as a warrior princess.
Overall, it’s not a terribly bad film, and visually it’s
fantastic, but it’s all very underwhelming. When you don’t believe the lead
character’s transformation into a kick-ass heroine, and you there’s a lack of
action and adventure in an action-adventure, you can’t help but feel that
somewhere, something has gone a little wrong.
5/10
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