“Snow White and the Huntsman” comes out of nowhere and entertains. I can’t believe I’m writing this. I fully expected to walk into that theater and be forced to consume some tripe about Snow White being some inexplicable badass, and the Huntsman being an oafish waste of time as a character. In my opinion, when you see a studio put out a movie that is a re-imagining a classic fairytale, it’s a huge gamble, and one that usually doesn’t work out (let’s try not to remember “Hook”).@@WHAT? YOU DIDN’T LIKE HOOK? HAVE YOU NO SOUL!?@@
The film is a darker, edgier take on the Snow White tale. And aside from a few hangups, there’s very little to complain about. But it’s my job to complain about it, and I especially like complaining about films that come from Hollywood. For Hollywood it’s all about money. But film should be about story. Thankfully, we see very few Hollywood cliches. And this is a good thing.
After being imprisoned by the Evil Queen for years after she brutally murders the king, Snow White’s father (and it is brutal; no wimpy-ass cutaways), Snow White escapes and flees into some dark woods. The Queen enlists the aid of a drunken Thor, er … Huntsman to go and retrieve her. In return, the queen promises to resurrect the Huntsman’s dead wife. The deception doesn’t last long, and the Huntsman and Snow White are racing away from the Queen’s minions.
The Queen has an interesting quality to her that I wanted to enjoy but it just fell a little short. Her deeper character was a tad muddled in meaning, and I never really grasped why she hated men the way she did, or her deeper relationship with her brother. They tried to show some of her life as a child and how she got her powers from her mother as her little village was being raided in a flashback, but it wasn’t explicit enough. It left me wanting more of her story, which was not delivered. Because, let’s face it, villains are more interesting. There’s an appeal in villains that the heroes have a hard time living up to. The villain’s desires are always front and center, and when they become reflected in us only darkly, a depth in character is achieved.
Going with the villains, the Queen’s brother could have been fleshed out more. What did they go through together? I don’t know, really. It was mentioned, but only just. We weren’t really shown. In most movies (especially ones like this) you can get away with the villain being just fabulously evil and leave it at that. But here, they tried to humanize the characters and failed at it. They just tease with an understanding of the antagonists as people without delivering, and that’s a shame. At least they tried! That really says a lot.
There’s a big problem with the second act in the “fairy sanctuary” part of the film in that it just derails the whole feel of it. The art direction is one of dark fantasy. With muted colors and heroes with grey motivations, the Disney-esque color palette of this 20-minute section feels all wrong. Nor does it advance the story all that much (aside from giving you some depth into the seven dwarfs, which is done wonderfully). But that is done while they were camping at night, so it could have been anywhere. It is revealed that Snow White is the embodiment of life, but this is a mistake since in the third act she advocates for war. It seems counter-intuitive for an embodiment of life to advocate for an act of death.
Here’s the meat of it, and why I was dreading seeing this film: I totally expected some waif-fu from Snow White, and some sword-wielding badassery from her through the whole thing. That was not at all the case, thank goodness. Sure, we see her in armor and wielding a sword in the trailer, but that ends up to be just to protect her from harm, more than her ability as a warrior. She kills a few trained soldiers almost as an aside, but it only happened two or three times and it wasn’t a huge deal. She shouldn’t be badass. She’s been trapped in a tower since she was little. Where would she have gotten the time to practice swordplay, or study the tactics used in battle? Where would she build the body to put up with the constant physical exertion of combat? Nowhere. She isn’t helpless, but she is out of her league when it comes to people who fight for a living. And this makes sense! For once somebody gets it!
The dwarfs are the best part, and the fullest of all the characters. Using the same method for dwarfs as Lord of the Rings, normal-sized actors are changed with film magic to look shorter. Many of the dwarfs are huge acting talents (like Bob Hoskins, Ian McShane, Ray Winstone, Eddie Marsan, Toby Jones, Nick Frost) and they’re wonderful whenever they’re on screen. @@http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1735898/fullcredits@@
If you want to see this movie, then do it. If you are like me and couldn’t be dragged to this for love or money, maybe reconsider. I promise that it was actually enjoyable.
Grade: B-