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On the good side of things, I really liked Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, Bob Hoskins, the costumes and production design. The FX both practical and CGI were pretty good.

So why the frown? Why the anger?

Because...

Kristen Stewart is a good actess BUT it is obvious her direction here was to emote to her Twi-hard fanbase and phone it in. There is a point late in the film where she gives this "motivational" pep speech and what she really needs something to unvlock the nasal passages. I don't know if she flubbed her lines, I don't know if it was poorly written, but royal blood or not, a character mumbles like that...you'd turn White over to the evil stepmother for free. I liked Stewart in a few un-related Twilight roles in the past. I've seen Runaways. She has acting chops.

Duct tape her piehole just the same.
Independent strong willed lass my ass.
Film has got so many cooked up contrived dues ex machina I lost count.
And yes, an un-needed Love Triangle that goes unresolved.
While that junk could be spared for a sequel, I wonder what possible sequel they could pull out, If they do, it's bullshit because class structure would play a part.


Characters come and go. A cool creature makes an apparance. It never shows up again. A funky looking magical horse shows up. Never seen again.

Dwarves are interchangable; only Bob Hoskins and Toby Jones stand out. Hoskins actually steals the film away from Stewart, who needs a lot of closeups.

Eric The Huntsman, "hired" by Evil Queen to find Snow white who is lost in a dark forest where Evil Queen (and her oddball Black Sheep brother) "Cannot go", finds Snow White in less than a minute. Bro talks smack and if he had a moustache he'd twirl it.

Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock, Martin Solibakke and Hossein Amini are credited with the script. I'm sure there were others who lost on arbitration.

Go matinee. You'll like Theron, I'm sure. Her and Hoskins are the best actors in the film. Hemsworth is okay. I think Stewart was miscast more I think back on it. It's not a horrible film, it's watchable. Just cover your ears when Stweart speaks, or wait until the show Theron one more time.

-DjS

I enjoyed it...thought the effects were great. Of course I went for matinee prices

Been a while since I stirred things up here. I've been slacking. Let's see if this does the trick.

This was excellent!

Perfect, no. But if one thinks this is just some typical Hollywood special effects affair and avoids it for that reason, they are missing out. And as a writer, I really appreciate the choices these scriptors made. These guys are true pros. They hit their mark more often than not with a well crafted script.

We first meet Snow White as a little princess living in an idyllic castle, the fairy tale beginning. Her mother is kind as is her loving father. And we meet her playmate, William(son of the duke), modeled on Prince Charming, but some interesting seeds are laid here, as William climbs to get Snow an apple, takes a bite, then mischievously tosses it to the ground. Right away we are led to suspect his loyalty to her.

Things happen quick, as we all know Hollywood now demands we arrive at our inciting incident right on time, so we have little sense of young snow, her family, or the happiness of the kingdom. But, that's life in the cookie cutter world.

The mother dies tragically, and the father is distraught. Not too distraught, though. An army appears out of nowhere. The king rides to meet it, discovers it is a magical glass army, and finds an irresistibly beautiful prisoner. The king falls for her and takes her for his new wife. This was clever story telling, and captures the essence of fairy tale type twists. This whole ploy was a "trojan" princess tactic for the prinsoner, Revena, who soon takes over the kingdom, killing the king on their wedding night, and opening the gates for her real army.

William escapes with his uncle the Duke, but Snow does not make it, ends up in the tower. We jump forward to the princess grown up, still a prisoner in the tower. The dreaded Queen is in control and obsessed with her beauty, which is magically maintained. She is aided by her brother. The famous mirror informs the Queen that she is no longer fairest in the land, and to make sure we get the motivation part, it tells her that if she takes the heart of Snow White, the Queen will live forever in youthful beauty and power. I guess the writers wanted to ramp up the stakes a little. I can live with it.

But Snow White escapes. And part of her charm is that she's not a 1940s Snow White. She is capable of taking action on her own, and she overpowers the Queen's brother to escape, then avoids capture by fleeing into the Dark Forest. The Queen hires the Huntsman to track her down, offering to bring back his beloved wife from the dead. This part of the story is sufficient, but also lacking. The first appearance of the Huntsman comes in act two, and his character is not really introduced in such a way that we really understand why the Queen hires him. His motivations and character are quickly force fed to us, as the strict adherence to current 3 act parameters did not allow any time for his development earlier in the story.

As expected, the Huntsman ends up becoming Snow's protector, though he has no idea she is the princess(he's not very bright).

William learns she is alive, sets out to rescue her, though we're kept unsure if he is really friend or foe. This was an effective idea, though not always carried out well, as he ends up unconvincingly with the Queen's troops hunting for Miss White.

The Huntsman and Snow end up in the hands of the dwarfs. The dwarfs are a strength of the story, providing most of the laughs, and much of the heart. Also, they are drawn quite in a way that is very distinct from the old fairy tale image we have, which enhances the originality of the story.

Soon the Queen comes to Snow in the guise of William, who has joined the team. This is where the misleading of the audience about William's intentions has its pay off. Snow is poisoned and ends up in a death like state. She is rescued by a couple of kisses, first from William, then by Huntsman. So don't give up easy boys!

She then leads the Dukes troops on a charge of the Queen's castle. This might be one of the weaker parts of the story, but it works well enough for a fairy tale. Snow kills the Queen, also kind of a weak resolution as she merely stabs the all powerful queen in the heart. The princess becomes the new queen, and all live happily ever after. But who will be her prince? I was glad they did not show her marry the Huntsman, who one assumes from her look will land the gig. I thought it was better to leave us assuming and no real reason to tidy this part up.

As for the acting...good enough. Nobody was great, nobody was awful. Charlise does a more than solid job. But not great. A great portrayal is one you'll want to revisit again and again, and there is nothing here to revisit, except maybe the troll, which was pretty cool. Stewart does a decent job too. I know she gets taken apart, but I've seen plenty worse. The bottom line is that an actress has to make you care about her, and has to pull some emotion out of you, and she does. She has not the look of the sweet girl next door, or the hot honey that belongs in princess robes, but rather the girl you'd like to drink shots with and maybe get in a snowball fight.

I have to be honest, this film was much better put together than Prometheus. When Prom comes on TV, I will watch it again, but only to figure stuff out. Huntsman does a much better job of engaging the audience, not just with dazzling effects, but with a solid story. People won't admit to liking this film. It's like a guilty pleasure. It will seem more cool to attack it. But this is a well put together Hollywood film. So go see it, just don't admit you liked it!

my wife dragged me to this under the condition she'd go see something i wanted to

i had low expectations - so that helped allow me to enjoy it more for what it was....entertainment.

I saw this last night and most of the movie I loved, especially the FX, but I still left the cinema dissapointed. From the middle onwards the movie lacked in certain places where it should have been stronger. There were 5 scenes that were meant to be of great importance and that I had anticipated so much more from, but they just didn't hit the mark, IMO.
1) William meeting Snow White again after so many years - Their meeting is consumed by the dwarf's death and they stand beside each other yet don't talk at all until the next day??? I quite liked the dwarf's but the funeral fealt out of place and like it was dwelled upon too much. IMO the movie would have run better if it had have been cut from after the Queen's brother died to Snow White (and company) walking along the mountains then William talked to Snow.
2) The Kiss & 5) The Ending - I ties these two together because they both should have connected, but instead left more questions than answers. The kiss is over shadowed by Snow's speech yet is supposed to be one of the biggest moments. I have nothing wrong with the speech, I actually liked it, but the fact that Snow White and the Huntsman then don't speak until they are lined up, ready to battle baffles me. The kiss, from what I remember, was meant to mean true love that is why it broke the spell. Which brings me to the ending where we are left with not knowing who Snow chooses, but the huntsman stands at the back, looking like he is about to take off right after Snow White has just been crowned - that's the feeling I got. So what did the kiss mean if it wasn't true love. Why did his kiss break the spell and not William's? What did the kiss mean then, if not nothing?
3) This one is only a small one, but when the Queen sees Snow White riding in the battle, she turns and walks away grinning. This seemed strange because there was no sign before that indicated that the Queen knew Snow was alive, therefore a little shock on her face and maybe the words 'She's alive.' wouldn't have gone astray.
4) The Battle - my friend and I were on the edge of our seats, ready to shed a tear, eagerly anticipating the bloodshed of one of Snow Whites 'loved ones', as this is a Drama, and there we were waiting..............yet both survived. So much emotion - Snow White vs the Queen, the Huntsman and William vs the Queen's Glass Army, insignificant battle characters getting thrown around and yet the only significant character that dies in the final battle is the Queen (which we all knew was inevitable), so Snow is left in a love triangle, that in the last scene - IMO - doesn't close the movie in good taste. To be specific; my friend and I thought it would be the huntsman that dies, because he'd completed his 'quest' and he could meet his wife on the other side then Snow would be left to live happily ever after with William - after all isn't that what fairytales are about 'living happily ever after'? I could have lived with that ending. But that brings me back to the kiss and why would Snow white not live happily ever after with her one true love - gets confusing - I know.
This is how the love triangle in my mind may have worked better:
The huntsman is the first one to get to Snow when she is dying. He kisses her (cause we can already see he has feelings for her) but she doesn't wake. While the huntsman drinks himself into a stuper, William is sorrowfully kneeling at Snow's side in the castle. After proclaiming his undying love for her, William kisses Snow White and then she awakens. She gives the speech (yadda, yadda, yadda) the queen is shocked to see her alive (yadda, yadda, yadda) then the huntsman is killed in battle where he crosses over to his wife and Snow is sorrowed over the loss (she was told by the women with the scared face that the time would come) and moves on to become queen and marry William. End Movie!
I also would have liked to see a little bit more interaction between Snow and the animals - to see how she affected them and how this made the huntsman feel, after the troll scene set this up. Nothing too lenghty - just a couple of small shots would have been nice.

As for Kristen Stewart's performance; I was scared that it was going to remind me of Twilight (don't get me wrong - I love Twilight - and I'm proud to say it - I just didn't wan't to see 'Bella' in this movie), but I was pleasantly suprised. IMO - she did a good job. The other performances were also great - loved Charlize, etc.

All in all - I'm being knit picky about only a few scenes, I loved the majority of the movie, I just would have loved it a little more if the scenes ^ had have been done a little differently. Then it would have been a movie I would have raved about and wanted to see again and again. I guess that's why I'm carrying on - because it had so much potential!