The Huntsman: Winter's War

The ad campaign for The Huntsman: Winter's War would like you to think that this is an unnecessary prequel to 2012's Snow White and the Huntsman.  In truth, the movie serves as an unnecessary sequel to that earlier film.  Oh, the movie opens with a lengthy and exposition-heavy half hour flashback to events before the first, but it's main intention after that is to continue the story.  Too bad the story has nowhere to go.

As the film opens, we get some background information on the returning Evil Queen from the last movie, Ravenna, who is once again played with great gusto by Charlize Theron.  Given that she was one of the more popular and successful aspects of the original, you would think this movie would play up her participation.  Unfortunately, she appears for maybe the first seven minutes, and then doesn't show up again until the last 20.  Instead, the narrative focuses on her sister, Freya, played by a largely uninterested Emily Blunt.  We learn of Freya's tragic backstory, how she was constantly in the shadow of her much more cruel and dominating sister, until she found love with a local man and gave birth to a child.  Unfortunately, the man betrayed her, the child died as a result, and at that moment, Freya's latent ice magic powers were unleashed upon the world.  From here on, it's impossible not to think of Disney's Frozen for the rest of the film.  Not only does Freya's appearance mimic that of Queen Elsa (pale skin, white hair, flowing blue ice-like gown), but she goes into isolation, and builds a massive snow fortress for herself to hide away in.  It's far too similar to be coincidental, and it earns the film a lot of bad laughs.

From her frozen fortress, Freya decides to build an army by attacking all the nearby villages, and kidnapping the children from each one.  She then trains them to be her "huntsmen", who will go out and conquer even more kingdoms in her name, as well as bring her more children.  Here we get to meet our two heroes, returning huntsman Eric (Chris Hemsworth), and his lover, Sara (Jessica Chastain), who is handy with a bow and arrow.  The two fall in love during their time in Freya's army, even though they have little in common other than both Hemsworth and Chastain possess really shaky Scottish accents that seem to come and go at random in their dialogue.  Freya learns of their love, and will not accept it.  She's still upset about that whole "man she loved betrayed her" thing, and refuses to accept love in any form.  Eric and Sara are separated in battle as they attempt to escape from the frozen fortress, and Eric was led to believe that the woman he loved died in battle.  You will remember that this was part of Eric's backstory in the last movie. 

Flash forward to seven years later, with events now set after Snow White and the Huntsman.  Snow White's kingdom is at peace, but there is talk that the evil queen's Magic Mirror possesses the power to manipulate and control people's minds, and can make people kill one another for possession of the Mirror's power.  Eric is charged with the task of finding the Mirror, and taking it to a sanctuary where it will be safe from Freya's forces, who are seeking it for their queen.  Eric is accompanied in his quest by a small group of dwarfs, only one of whom (Nick Frost) is from the original movie.  The others are new, and pretty much exist to create comic relief.  The movie relies on these characters a lot, giving the film an oddly jokey tone, making me wonder who this sequel is supposed to be targeting.  The original worked as an intriguing and dark take on the Snow White story.  And while this film has its moments of darkness, this is a much lighter and goofier film all around, with a lot of forced humor from the dwarfs.  Eric is also eventually joined in his quest by his lost lover, Sara, who is not as dead as he has been led to believe. 

The whole quest to find the Magic Mirror is largely uneventful.  There's a run in with some goblins, but that's about it.  We get a lot of bad romantic dialogue from Eric and Sara, and non-stop slapstick and one liners from the dwarfs.  It doesn't take long for The Huntsman: Winter's War to resemble a long trip to nowhere in particular.  Aside from some nice visuals, nothing excites or stands out.  I never felt anything for these characters.  As romantic leads, Eric and Sara are genuine bores, and the script gives Hemsworth and Chastain little to do.  And after being set up as this film's main antagonist, Emily Blunt all but disappears until the third act of the film.  She too seems to be phoning in her performance, and sometimes doesn't even seem to be able to show much emotion.  The events leading up to the return of Charlize Theron's Queen Ravenna are perfunctory at best, and confusing.  But, at the very least, Theron seems to be enjoying herself.  Just like before, she steals every scene she is in, even if this sequel gives her much more limited screen time.

I think the only way this project could have been saved is with a complete rewrite.  Maybe make it a full on prequel, and focus entirely on the treacherous relationship between the two royal sisters.  The movie's big mistake is that it opens with a half hour block of exposition, and it starts to feel dragged out.  Maybe if this backstory had been given room to breathe and had been the focus of the film itself, it would have had more emotional impact.  As it is, it's an extended sequence of build up with no real pay off.  As for the main story itself, it plays out like a sequel where very few of the original cast wanted to return, and so the filmmakers had to make a lot of compromises in order to work around that.  There is no Snow White, although she is talked about a lot, and all but one of the original dwarfs are missing.  This leaves Hemsworth alone to carry this film, and while he does have some charm, his bad accent and occasional mugging for the camera gets tiresome.

The Huntsman: Winter's War ends up coming across as a total corporate product, combining fantasy cliches we have seen too many times, with elements of a certain popular Disney animated musical.  It was created less by a need to continue the story, and more by executives wanting to blend a bunch of stuff together that has worked in the past.  The end result is a completely hollow entertainment that looks pretty, but offers nothing of substance whatsoever.

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