Snow White and the Huntsman: Review By Vamp

So while I was in Minneapolis waiting for the showing of "The Devil's Carnival" to take place that night, I took in a couple of the movies I've been meaning to see but haven't gotten around to yet. The first of these was "Snow White and the Huntsman." Despite severely mixed reviews on the topic, I've still really wanted to see it. Not just to see how Kristen Stewart does her job playing Snow White, but because they've cast Charlize Theron as The Evil Queen for the movie, and to me that is a golden casting choice. After seeing the movie, I stand by my statement. She was a fantastic queen, and very easily my favorite part of the entire movie. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and don't see what everyone is making such a fuss about. I mean, sure. It's not "Gone with the Wind" or "Ten Commandments," but it doesn't have to be. It's a fun film that adds a newer, darker twist on of the oldest and most-loved fairy-tales of the world. And I for one enjoyed what they did with the movie, and have very few complaints about it. I knew straight from the trailers, though, that it was something I'd very much enjoy. It had the dark and beautiful imagery that I really enjoy seeing in movies. Something again to what Tim Burton brings to the table with every movie. Or what Guillermo Del Toro brings us with movies like the "Hellboy" series or "Pan's Labyrinth." Dark and beautiful is the only way I have to describe it, and that's surely the way this film was put together. I loved that about it.

Anyhow, the director of this film is Rupert Sanders, and it is also his first foray into the directing world. Him and his writers took the old Snow White story, and vamped it up, giving it more action, and more gritty aspects, and making it a really good medieval battle-type movie. In fact, were it not for the fact that the girl's name was Snow-White, you'd barely know that you were watching a Snow White movie at all, and that's one of the biggest things I liked about it. Despite loving "Snow White" in general, it's a story that's been done quite a lot recently. What with Julia Roberts in "Mirror Mirror," or the TV show "Once Upon a Time" (which is actually a fantastic show), it seems like the character of Snow White and the character of the Evil Queen are two characters that are being vastly overused lately. So it was nice to see a new take on it, and have more action added in. I especially loved that they even still included the dwarfs. They added comedic effect and were fun to see on screen battling, and joking around, and basically just being the band of dwarfs that we all know Snow White to team up with no matter how they tell the old tale. Also, as I was saying earlier, I really enjoyed all the creature and visual effects. The creatures were something of a Del Toro film, I thought. Between the forest creatures, and the troll, it was all something beautiful and stunning, then there's the scenery itself, which as I mentioned was very dark and beautiful and artsy, much akin to something you might see in a Tim Burton film. Overall I'm very happy with what the director and the writers put together for this film, and am glad I got a chance to catch it on the big screen.

The story starts out with The Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) narrating the birth of Snow White (Kristen Stewart), and the rise of Queen Revenna (Charlize Theron) came about. Snow was born to a mother who had wished her daughter to be the fairest of the kingdom, and low and behold her wish had come true. However, Snow's mother died in a very harsh winter, and the king was left alone. Soon, however a terrible shadow army appeared, seemingly from nowhere, and the king went into the heart of battle. After having won, he claimed his prize. A prisoner of such beauty that the king fell in love and married her the very next day. However, it was soon realized that Revenna was not the perfect, well-behaved woman that everyone thought she was. The night after the wedding, Revenna kills the king and takes over the kingdom by force. Everything living begins to wither, and the people are plunged into filth and poverty. Jump forward many years to Snow's 18th birthday. Revenna takes a trip to her magic mirror to make sure that she is still the fairest of all the kingdom. Her magic keeps her young and beautiful, as long as she feeds on the youth and innocence of others throughout the kingdom. However, when the mirror tells her that Snow White is now the fairest in all the kingdom, the Queen realizes that this is the reason her powers were beginning to fade. Before the Queen can worry, though, the mirror tells her that were she to consume Snow's heart, she would never again have to feed on the youth and innocence of others, and she would remain youthful and immortal for eternity. Revenna sends her loyal servant, and brother, Finn (Sam Spruell) to fetch her Snow White, whom she's kept imprisoned in the tower all these years, so that she can finally gain the immortality she has so longed for her whole life. However, when Snow White makes a daring escape, scaring Finn in the process, the Queen slowly begins to break apart and lose her composure. Finding that she has escaped into the Dark Forest, Revenna hires The Huntsman to track her down. However, upon finding out what she wants to do with Snow, The Huntsman turns on Revenna and aides Snow in getting to the Duke's castle, since the Duke is a friend of hers from her childhood. Along the way, Snow and the Huntsman meet up with a band of mismatched dwarfs who do not trust either of them, but agree to help Snow, as they learned that she is the one destined to bring down Revenna's evil rain. Snow's journey is a long one, as she fights to bring down the evil Queen and return peace and life to the kingdom that is rightfully hers.

Overall the cast of this movie was pretty good. Kristen Stewart's acting is still a little bland. She has very little emotion at all in the film, and when she does try and show it, she ends up just crying a thousand times throughout. She wasn't an awful Snow White, but my main thought is that they could easily have cast someone more deserving of the role. At any rate, Kristen's bland portrayal of Snow White is easily overshadowed by Charlize Theron's fantastic performance as Queen Revenna. She plays such a convincing and wicked bad guy, that I was instantly in love from the first moment i saw her on the screen. She is evil down to the core, and there is no saving this one, even though there's an air of tragedy about her that makes you feel sorry for her. Throughout the movie she begins to lose her cue and everyone is a threat to her. She begins to become paranoid and bent on Snow White's destruction so that she can live forever in her kingdom and never again have to worry about aging or anything. I loved her in this role, and she played it out perfectly. Christ Hemsworth, who many know of as Thor these days, did a great joba at playing the Huntsman, though I find it hilarious that Hemsworth's characters seem to have to swing giant weapons of destruction. Just an observation. Anyway, his character starts out as one set to kill Snow White, but ends up on her team, and slowly but surely falls in love with her, though every fiber of his being tells him that that is a very bad idea. I enjoyed the cast in this movie looking back overall, but my qualm with Kristen Stewart will continue to remain. She's not bad looking, she just needs to learn how to emote more, and she can be taken as a more serious actress.

All in all, this movie was not the utter flop that most of the people I talk to say it was. I truly enjoyed it as a whole, and despite Kristen's casting, everything else was put together splendidly. I do not know if any of you who have not seen this movie yet will take my advice or not, but I really hope you do 'cause I think quite a few people will enjoy the movie. It's nothing spectacular or Oscar-worthy, mind you, but it definitely isn't an utter sh*t-fest as many want to believe. In fact, I'm going to go so far as to say that the only reason people aren't enjoying it is because they immediately saw Kristen Stewart and it's the cool thing to hate her because she's in "The Twilight Saga," so they just immediately write the movie off and when they go see it, they've already decided it sucks and won't enjoy it. So I tell you, do not do this. Go into the movie and have fun!