It is very rare when two movies come
out the same year and both are based off of the same material. Such
is the case with the two films this year based off of Snow White, the
1812 German fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm. Earlier this year in
March, Relativity Media released 'Mirror, Mirror' directed by Tarsem
Singh, a more family-friendly take on the story. Meanwhile, over at
Universal, first-time director Rupert Sanders takes a different
approach with 'Snow White and the Huntsman', which is considerably
much darker and more action-oriented than Singh's version. How does
this adaptation of 'Snow White' hold up? Well overall,the film
actually does work pretty well because not only does the film look
amazing visually, but the writers did a really solid job with the
story, staying close to the original tale while still doing enough to
offer a new take on it as well.
For years, England has been under the
sadistic rule of Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron), a powerful
sorceress who drains other women of their youth in order to stay
beautiful. She soon learns that Snow White (Kristen Stewart), the
daughter of the King she murdered to take the throne and whom she
imprisoned when she was very young, is set to surpass her as 'fairest
of them all' but that if she consumes her heart, she will become
immortal. When Snow White escapes, Ravenna enlists help of Eric the
Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth), to whom she promises to resurrect his
dead wife if he finds Snow White. However, once the Huntsman locates
Snow White, she warns him that Ravenna will betray him and together
the two join forces with Snow White's childhood friend Prince William
(Sam Claflin) in order to take on the evil queen.
What makes the whole film work is the
way it goes telling the story because this is a tale that has been
done countless times already. While the cliché is very overused,
this is truly not the same Snow White you grew up with. This is not
the Disney version and it certainly isn't like 'Mirror, Mirror'. It's
dark, gritty, and violent; almost like if Snow White mixed with Lord
of the Rings while also adding a bit of Pan's Labyrinth in there with
all of the mystical creatures Snow White encounters during her
journey. Don't expect the dwarfs in this movie to be singing a merry
tune. These dwarfs are fierce warriors, and yet they do still bring
some humor into a film that is very serious in tone. It does also
help that the dwarves here are played by a great group of actors,
including Bob Hoskins, Ian McShane, and Nick Frost.
While going very over-the-top at times,
Charlize Theron superbly nails the role of the Evil Witch. On the
other side of the spectrum, we have more serious performances from
Chris Hemsworth and Sam Claflin, and both do a rock-solid job in
their roles as the Huntsman and Prince William, who I can best
describe as a 'medieval Hawkeye' here. Even Kristen Stewart does a
good job as Snow White, and a lot of that comes from the fact that
the writing for her character is far superior to Bella from Twilight
by not making her male-dependent and a strong female character like
Katniss from 'The Hunger Games'. However, I am rather worried that if
a sequel is made, the writers will hopefully not make her choose
between Eric and William and the reason I say this is because without
me spoiling anything, they kind of make it a bit obvious who she is
going to go with.
Snow White and the Huntsman is a fresh
new take on the classic tale of Snow White and as a result, it is a
really entertaining film. It is backed up by a solid cast and the
visuals are second to none. I'm not entirely supportive of the idea
to give every major fantasy story a dark twist like Hollywood is
apparently all about now, but the writers did a good job of handling
it here, even if it draws many similarities to Lord of the Rings and
Pan's Labyrinth. It will be interesting to see how they would do a
sequel without Charlize Theron as the Queen, but all I'm hoping for
is that they won't pull a 'Twilight' and make it painstakingly
obvious who Snow White is going to end up with. Kristen Stewart is
doing a far better job here than in Twilight so going that path would
just ruin it.
Rating: 4/5
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