Kyle Culver

Snow White and the Huntsman Review

A movie review! I know! You’re so excited to hear what I think of movies! If you follow anything of mine you know I love movies.

[Very few spoilers, but you’ve been warned…]

Anywho. Tonight I went and saw one of the newer incarnations of Snow White (The other one with Julia Roberts that I can’t even remember the name of because it was completely overrun by this version that appeals to a larger audience) and didn’t really expect much. And, well… that’s what I got. Not much.

The beginning of the story seemed to focus on the dark queen, Ravenna (Charlize Theron). After Snow White (Kristen Stewart) is introduced, we then get up-to-speed with the new queen and her ploy on taking over the kingdom which is rightfully Snow White’s. The dark queen enters the scene as a prisoner of the king’s enemy army. A good tactic on the dark queen’s part as the king had just lost his wife, taking advantage of his broken heart and need for war. He has pity on her and marries her the next day. Ravenna does a bit of dialog right after she weds the king, leading up to his murder and her life-absorbing power. The king’s character wasn’t developed at all so we don’t care that he dies.

The mirror now enters. A very creative way to characterize the mirror, I must say! One of the better creative ideas in the film. And the voice is equally as awesome. At this point the dialog goes by the book. “Mirror, Mirror, on the wall…” blah blah blah. And I think it’s here that the dialog of following characters becomes stale and cliche. All except the wise dwarf, Muir. He has probably the best lines in the movie and he says them so well.

Then we go back to Snow White who is now a bit older. Present time of the story taking place. Even though the film is suppose to be about Snow White, she doesn’t say much. And that really hinders the development of the character. Except for her speach near the near the end that I feel could have been written and spoken much better. By the end of the movie, I couldn’t make of who she was and what she wanted to accomplish. Defeat the queen, yes, of course. But what about HER. At least we get a glimpse into her character in Disney’s depiction. In that she’s a happy, positive, encouraging young lady who whistles while she works. This one? I can’t tell! Her character changes dramatically from knowing nothing about the outside world and being all depressed and afraid, to being a freaking warrior in the span on two scenes.

I have not seen any of the Twilight movies. So, I can honestly say, without bias, that Kristen Stewart is a terrible actress. Maybe it’s the way her character is written, but she portrays Snow White as a pathetic little girl. This bothers me. If she was written more as a heroine, like Katniss from The Hunger Games, then it might be more interesting. Then again, that might take away the “motherly” attitude she supposedly had in the Disney version. But alas, this is not the ol’ Disney version…

Ravenna and Sam Spruell (Finn, the queen’s brother) were probably the best at playing their parts. They were a little more demanding yes, but at least I cringed when Ravenna screamed, and when Finn lay his hand on Snow White… cringed so bad!!! Snow White… no emotional attachment. Ravenna’s and Finn’s characters were built up way better than Snow White’s, and that’s where I think the film should have focused; more of them and their ever constant problem of becoming immortal and being crazy as shit. Charlize was so enticing I wanted more of her! She is a freaking beauty, too.

The special effects, as always in a big-budget hollywood film, were really, really good. But nothing made my jaw drop, or say “What!?” I did that during the trailers before the movie even started. Instead I marveled at the beauty that was sampled in the forest of “Sanctuary” with the dwarves. The fairies were very different. designed closer to the atmosphere fitting for the movie. They just looked like pale miniature versions of Avatars. However, they made the most peculiar noises to communicate. I really liked that… But even that was short lived.

The love story between Snow White, William and the Huntsman was so, so, so, SO cliche. So predictable. Why did they even bother? That could have been written SO much better!! It felt like they just threw it in there so they could please some portion of the audience (teenage girls…) and it was annoying. I feel like the relationship (if there was one) between Snow White and the Huntsman didn’t develop at all. It was mentioned by one of the dwarves and I thought he was joking, until the Huntsman didn’t say anything. I seriously thought “Haha—! Wait, what?” They had maybe two [VERY] short scenes of them actually getting close, but even that seemed like they were trying to push the whole love thing in there somewhere. Again, annoying.

I seriously expected Snow White to summon chirping birds and rabbits and all sorts of animals when she entered the “Sanctuary”. I know they could have written in the fact that she has some magic of her own magic and was being suppressed in the castle, and could only use this magic once she was free. Right? That sounds satisfying. Sure. With some other details and blah blah blah.

In the end, Snow White dons armor, sword and shield in hands, to fight Ravenna and her army. I suddenly had flashbacks to Tim Burton’s “Alice In Wonderland.” Alice fighting the jabberwocky. And yes, it seemed just as stupid. They’re trying too hard to place the main character into battle, when her character should be of some innocence. Ok, so they have a different take on the story. Yea. A lot of things are changed around for the sake of continuity as a film in whole. I can understand that. But it almost seems like they completely rewrote who Snow White is. Her prince? Also completely rewritten. The seven dwarves… the only similarity is that they are dwarves… The dark queen is the only one who doesn’t really change. She’s evil, wants to conquor and be the only living beauty in all the world.

When Snow White “died” I expected some creative vision going on inside of her, seeing what the queen sees (as she mentions briefly) and what-not, and then is awaken by the Huntsman’s kiss. It’s things like this, experiencing a main character’s viewpoint, that Snow White was really missing. And since we didn’t get introduced to anything personable to the character, I didn’t care when she died. I wanted to see what Ravenna was going to do! She was much more interesting!

The score was perfect. James Newton Howard does a great job of blending a sound that captures the Disney’s version and then covers it with dark, dramatic themes. A little subtle, but gives it that innocent, but serious, play. Great stuff. I may even buy the soundtrack.

The ending is so stupid. I’m sorry. Everybody stands there. Half smiles. Yay. w00t. What can they do? It’s not like they developed these characters to the point where we should expect to see Snow White and the Huntsman frolicking through the summery fields laughing and having a grand ol’ time. The character development led to nowhere… so it ended nowhere. A better ending would have been Snow White getting the idea of having a kid from her blood dripping from something beautiful, just like the opening with her mother and the rose! It smells of sequel, yes, but at least it would be more entertaining than everybody just standing after Snow White was queened…

Oh my goodness… This sounds a lot worse than when I was going over it in my head. Haha! The cinematography was great! The sound design was incredible! Everything an action movie has, it satisfied me! lol. But the story and character development lacked pretty bad. Music was awesome!

Final assessment: Cinematography-5/5, Writing-1/5, Acting-3/5, Music-4/5

Over-all Rating: Snow White and the Huntsman - 2.5/5

How’s that for my first posted movie review? lol.

-Kyle http://kyle-culver.com

I dream of when I go… this one for sale at: http://etsy.me/ylN9Ll (Taken with instagram)

A tattoo concept I did for a good friend. She wants to get it on the back of her neck. Minus the black border, obviously. Just there to present it as a photo.