Snow White and the Huntsman ☆☆☆

I had reasonably low expectations of this film when I went to see it. I imagined a darker version of the fairytale which was light on story and generous with the special effects.

I pretty much got what I expected.

The 'change' to the story then is that the kingdom has been overthrown by Ravenna, an evil sorceress desperate to retain beauty and power, who tricks a grieving King into marrying her and then kills him and takes his land. The Queen locks up the King's daughter, Snow White, who is kept away in a tower until the day comes when her precious mirror informs Ravenna that to stay young and beautiful forever she must consume the heart of Snow. A little Stardust-esque, no?

Alas Snow escapes and so a huntsman is brought in to navigate the dark forest and bring the girl back. He is enlisted on the promise he will see his dead wife again, not knowing the Queen's brother plans to kill him once he has found Snow. Inevitably the Huntsman saves Snow and agrees to take her to the rebels who escaped when Ravenna took over, led by the father of her childhood friend William.

One huge difference between the Grimm fairytale and the Disney film is the presence of two words which I am beginning to dread with regards to film and literature: Love Triangle.
Kristen Stewart must be a magnet for these roles - she has the Twilight saga, Adventureland and now Snow White under her belt and she is only 22.
This particular love triangle is composed of Snow, her childhood friend William played by Sam Claflin (Pirates of the Caribbean 4) and the Huntsman played by the simply gorgeous Chris Hemsworth. I have to admit the reason I wanted to see this film was a lot to do with the idea of seeing two hours of Thor with a Scottish accent.

Why the tale of Snow White required a love triangle I do not know. Perhaps with Twilight and The Hunger Games dominating the film and literature scene the screenwriters and first time director Rupert Sanders
felt there needed to be an extra element. What they should have done is removed the childhood friend and left Snow with only the Huntsman to fall for, rather than bewilder the viewer when it comes to waking Snow from death by poisoned apple and create a stupidly open ending.

Aside from the love triangle and the complexities it raises there are some positives to the film.
The scenery is stunning and the special effects are quite beautiful, even the battle scenes. There is an odd moment in the forest where Snow wanders off following a couple of woodland sprites where I thought "Hang on is Aslan coming?" It was not a lion she was off to see though, rather a beautiful stag which reminded me of the woodland spirit in Princess Mononoke.
The ageing of Charlize Theron's evil Queen is quite impressive too, I especially enjoyed her method of extracting the youth of Lily Cole (model turned actress who is too pretty and smart to be real), though sucking the youth out of a person is not an original idea.

I enjoyed the dwarfs even though there are eight of them in this movie, something decidedly different to the original fairytale. They are composed of Eddie Marsan, Bob Hoskins, Ian McShane, Nick Frost, Ray Winstone, Toby Jones, Johnny Harris and newcomer Brian Gleeson (son of Brendan). Quite a collection of British talent here with pretty impressive costumes and make-up. However you cannot help but think, as with Lord of the Rings, are there not some talented dwarfs out there who could make up the eight? Mirror Mirror found seven, though that was a comedy so perhaps this production required the gravitas of eight Peter Dinklage's, who have not appeared as yet.
The dwarfs play a pivotal role in Snow's uprising against the wicked Queen and provide a small amount of light relief in a film that cries out for laughter. Yes you can mold the fairytale into a dark fantasy but EVERY tragedy needs some comedy, Shakespeare taught us this and it is something Game of Thrones has adapted well.


The film never quite satisfies as a fairytale or as a fantasy epic, although the latter is clearly what the makers were intending. With a plethora of fairytale adaptations occurring this one feels a little weak, visually stunning but lacks a certain depth. I think that is partly due to direction and the rest is the fault of the script.
It is quite clear this is a first movie for Sanders, whose filmography includes television commercials for video games and then this epic fantasy. A little naive I feel of the producers to allow such a novice behind the wheel of such a film, beautiful though it turned out. A better director would have tightened the reigns on the script and forced the story to take a definite direction. They would too, I'd hope, have scrapped the love triangle and given the film a concrete ending akin to the fairytale rather than the half-baked affair that is offered up.

The lack of an ending greatly confused me until I got home where I discovered that Snow White and the Huntsman 2 is being planned as I type...I can only hope it does not go ahead as what else could be done with the story except to drag out the needless love triangle?
That is what really bothers me about the film, the weak story. The performances outweigh the material, except perhaps Kristen Stewart who remains underwhelming. I have to say though full credit to her accent as it didn't annoy me once, there was nothing forced about it which was refreshing to hear. Hemsworth too does a convincing Scots accent, his deep voice lending itself well to the gruff persona of the Huntsman. Theron is beautiful but also vicious as Queen Ravenna, though I was never frightened of her as her actions were quite predictable.

I did enjoy the film but I wasn't enamoured by it. It tried too hard to not be Disney and this affected the way the story was told. With one simple act and two incredibly annoying words the producers of this film turned a potentially dark and twisty fantasy into yet another Love Triangle.

Bring on Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. Thats a film that might just live up to its potential.