Spoilers Alert. Please come back after you have watched the movie to rave and rant with me!
VISUAL EYE CANDY
If you like beautiful films you need to watch this one. The scenery was beautiful, the props and settings believable, and the special effects were breathtaking. Even the creatures and monsters were beautiful. When I was watching the scene with the troll I thought damn, that is the prettiest troll I have ever seen.
I’m not joking. This movie has raised the bar for trolls. Why are trolls always depicted as green, slow, dull-witted, slobbering, ugly monsters? Then there was the magnificent white stag and the adorable turtle that was covered in such rich moss that I could feel off of the screen. When is the dvd coming out? I must have it.
THE ACTING
I must say that there were a few strange parts here and there because of the lines but for the most part the script seemed ok. What really got me though was the acting. Chris Hemsworth played a good huntsman and I enjoyed his acting in this movie better than in Thor. That may be due to the fact that I didn’t really enjoy Thor a great deal (he was a dumb brute!). Charlize Theron looked perfect for the evil queen, but I felt she was screaming far too often. Her facial expressions were marvelous and she had the air of an evil queen and the acting was great. It was just that she had too many yelling scenes that it kind of made my reactions go numb. Having a cold poised evil queen yell at a crucial moment is far more effective than having one that is constantly yelling throughout the movie, right? Still, no biggie. My greatest complaint is that Snow White was played by Kristen Stewart. Was her acting better in this movie than it was in Twilight? Yes. Was it good enough for the Snow White? I don’t think so.
Chris Hemsworth made such a natural huntsman and Charlize Theron such a strong queen that it made Kristen Stewart’s acting fall flat into the snow. It seems like what’s missing is the middle ground. Her expression goes from neutral to “extreme pain/twisted sadness” and then back to neutral. I felt like there was no variety in the middle. Her expression when she is thinking isn’t very different from her expression when she’s in pain or when she’s in sorrow. I thought her acting was a little better towards the end, but it was also a little jarring because she just changed 180% after coming back from the dead. Was the huntsman kiss good enough to bring out the hero in her?
While it may be unfair to say this, I didn’t feel like Kristen Stewart looked like a Snow White. Kristen Stewart is certainly pale, but she doesn’t look beautiful. She always looks tired with that crease below her eyes and with her constant agonized expressions. While she might make a pretty girl for a high school character, she didn’t feel like Snow White to me whereas Charlize Theron fit the evil but beautiful queen look perfectly.
THE STORY
While it felt like they tried to make sure they tied all the loose ends together there were a few jarring moments in the film. I liked that they had their own twist to the fairytale with the huntsman, but I didn’t feel like it delivered enough satisfaction. His character had a decent amount of complexity until he kissed Snow White. It seems they decided that’s all he was good for and just kind of stuck him in here and there at the end. Come on, he’s the one that saves her and goes through so much change!
Then there’s the part where the huntsman is teaching Snow White some self-defense and when to stab an opponent. She tells him that she couldn’t possibly do such a thing. This is the same Snow White who has already stabbed the queen’s brother with a nail to escape from prison. If some evil *itch had killed my father and ruined my kingdom and was sending armies to kill me, the last thing I would say is oh I couldn’t possibly do a mean thing like that and stab someone in the gut. Give me those lessons dear huntsman, for I’d be eager to learn all I could to stay alive.
The duke isn’t very bright or honorable. When the child-Snow White is captured he does more than hesitate. He just waits there in front of the gate until it’s impossible to save her and sais, too bad. Then later in the film he tells his son that she’s alive and forbids him to go after her. If your son will obviously want to save his childhood sweetheart from a wicked witch and you don’t want him to get in danger, why. tell him. hmm?
There were some pretty neat ideas that made the film stand out from the Disney movie (I haven’t seen Mirror Mirror yet so I can’t say anything about that). The way that the evil queen pretended to be the duke’s son and how she doesn’t die but flies off as a flurry of crows when shot was an interesting approach. The way she sucks the beauty and life out of young girls reminded me of HocusPocus(1993) an old Halloween movie. To my pleasant surprise the dwarves weren’t cheesy or silly but fit in pretty nicely.
★★★★☆
Overall, I thought it was a pretty good movie for its scale. It has its minute flaws but it’s well worth seeing. I wish Snow White had been played by a more experienced and natural actor that looked the part. Regardless, I highly recommend watching the movie because it really was quite splendid visually.
