Snow White and the Huntsman
Before I go too far into this review, I feel the need to stress how I described this movie as a "dark fantasy adventure for adults". In other words, parents, heed the PG-13 rating this time. This movie's tone is closer to that of Game of Thrones, than a children's fairy tale. The story is set in a bleak, dying world where life has pretty much given up all hope, and an evil queen retains her eternal beauty by killing virginal women, and stealing their life essence. Yes, you will recognize a lot of elements from the story you're familiar with. There's Snow White, the jealous queen, a poison apple, the magic mirror, and the dwarves. Oh, about those dwarves - There's eight of them when they're first introduced, instead of the traditional seven. And yes, due to the film's darker tone, we do get to find out how there came to be seven of them.
As the film opens, we get the story of how a little girl named Snow White lived happily in a castle with her mother and father, a loving King and Queen of a prosperous kingdom. But then, her mother fell ill, and her father had the misfortune of taking the lovely and vain Ravella (Charlize Theron) as his second wife. Ravella murders the King on their wedding night, then overthrows the entire kingdom with her army and her loyal brother, Finn (Sam Spruell), who serves as her right-hand man. As she takes control of the kingdom, she locks young Snow White away in the north tower, where she remains until she is a ragged but beautiful young woman played by Kristen Stewart. One day, she manages to escape from her tower prison, and she flees into the Dark Forest that borders the castle, which is home to various spirits, demons, and trolls.
Queen Ravella cannot have Snow White running around free, as the entity that lives within her magical mirror has warned her that the young girl could bring about the end of her reign. Ravella orders her men to seek out someone who knows their way through the Dark Forest, and her solders bring back the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth), a drunken wreck still grieving over the death of his wife. Yet, he is the only one who knows his way through the Forest, so the Queen must hire him. When the Huntsman does eventually track down Snow White, he takes pity on her and changes sides, agreeing to take her to a rebel Duke who is protecting and hiding people from Ravella's cruelty. During their journey, they befriend the Dwarves, and Snow White realizes that her destiny must be to face her former captor in combat if the people of her rightful kingdom are ever to be free again.
I did not walk into Snow White and the Huntsman with very high expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised by how engaging I found it to be on multiple levels. Let's start with the visuals. The Queen's castle is a dark, gothic creation, with narrow tunnels, and a chamber for Ravella to consult the entity in the magic mirror. The entity, by the way, manifests itself as a cloaked figure that materializes from a pool of metallic-looking liquid that pours out from the surface of the mirror when the Queen calls. Ravella actually possesses numerous dark supernatural powers throughout the film, including the ability to suck the life out of her victims, and summon flocks of crows that form demonic warriors. In one or two scenes, we even see glimpses into her past and her childhood, and the tragic events that led her to the monster she eventually became, and her hatred of men, except for her brother. I would have liked to have seen more of this, but the fact that we don't is not a hindrance to the film.
When Snow White escapes into the Dark Forest, we are treated to arresting dark visuals of a dead forest that seems to be eerily alive in a foreboding way, with trees that almost seem to be reaching out with skeletal hands, and massive trolls roaming the land. The film's real visual highlight, however, is when the Dwarves lead Snow White and the Huntsman to an enchanted forest, which is one of the few places in the world still living. The effects work here is breathtaking, creating something that looks like a fantasy painting brought to life through CG, with tiny sprites riding on the backs of squirrels and birds, and grass snakes that leave behind moss as they slither peacefully along the trunks of trees. The ruler of this landscape is a great white animal with massive horns, that may look familiar to anyone who has seen the Studio Ghibli anime movie, Princess Mononoke. Even if its design is not wholly original, it's impressive.
I could talk a lot more about the visuals, but I'll seize the moment, and stop now. Let's look at the characters. While they're not exactly complex, they are deeper than I initially imagined them to be. The three main characters are all tragic in their own way, with various emotional and past demons that they must face. How they choose to face them determines their personality. Snow White decides to leave behind her past as a helpless prisoner, don a suit of armor (making her look like Joan of Arc, just a little), and lead an uprising against the Queen. Despite this, she manages to be the least interesting character in the movie. She has little dialogue, and despite a game effort by Stewart, she has little impact on the story until the end. Of more interest is the Huntsman, a once proud man who has largely given up hope, and Queen Ravella, whose icy and cruel demeanor hides a lot of personal pain. Both Hemsworth and Theron are good in their respective roles, especially Theron, who makes Ravella into the first truly noteworthy villain in a summer movie this year.
I guess what really impressed me is how the performances, storytelling, and effects all manage to come together. The filmmakers have given us a wondrous fantasy world, and have also inhabited it with some fairly interesting characters, and dramatic story arcs. I was completely engaged, which is something I didn't expect walking in. While it's not entirely perfect, there is enough dramatic weight to make this movie stand out amongst the fluff we usually get from May to August. There's also a surprising amount of intensity to the action and battle sequences. They certainly add to the film's overall dark tone. I've heard some people complain that the movie is too dark, and relatively joyless. I couldn't disagree more. The movie finds the right tone with its bleak setting, and there is more wonder to find here than most movies of its kind.
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