SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN

SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN is a flawed film but I ended up liking it quite a bit. The previews impressed me by how dark and gritty they were presenting the Snow White fairy tale. I normally would pass on something like this but from what I was seeing a lot of it reminded me of the fantasy movies from my youth especially LEGEND. Charlize Theron looking smoldering as the Evil Queen helped my decision too.

It is said that SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN is a closer adaptation to the Grimm fairy tale than Disney's SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS but I wouldn't know or do I care to do research on that matter. I'll just take this new film as a re imagining of the classic fairy tale.

When Snow White was a young girl her mother the Queen passed away leaving it very difficult for her father the King to raise her and a kingdom. One day after battling a mysterious army the king's men discover a beautiful female prisoner. The king immediately falls in love with her and they get married. On their wedding night the newly crowned queen murders her husband, takes the throne, and reveals her true self as the witch and now queen Ravenna.

The evil queen Ravenna is obsessed with vanity and keeps herself beautiful by eating the hearts of birds and sucking the age out of young women. One day her mirror tells her that Snow White is the fairest of them all and the key to becoming immortal is taking her heart. Snow White escapes the clutches of Ravenna and escapes. The evil queen's brother and master tracker the Huntsman are sent to find Snow White and bring her back. The Huntsman feels sympathy for Snow White so he fends of the pursuers and the two team up. They soon gather a nice group (including the dwarfs) to try and overthrow Ravenna and restore the kingdom.

SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN seems off too me. It starts off great as being a real dark and gritty fairy tale. Theron is amazing (at least I thought she was) as the evil queen Ravenna. She goes over the top a few times but overall I liked the performance a lot. Kristen Stewart as Snow White played very well against Charlize Theron's Ravenna.

The excitement of this dark fantasy starts to fall off the rails once our heroes enter the Dark Forest. Just when any fantasy element gets interesting the movie cuts to another scene. In a film filled with eaten bird hearts and soul sucked virgins it seems messed up to have bloodless sword fights in your movie? In fact a lot of the action seems done in a matter-of-fact fashion?

When the dwarfs show up things start to get a little better again. The fairy sanctuary scene ended up being my favorite part of SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN. Probably some of the best fairy tale stuff I've seen in this sequence since LEGEND!

Overall I liked SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN but expected more and I'd bet those expectations ended up on the editing room floor.