I'm thrilled to say I finally saw a movie early enough in it's release to actually review before it's way too late and no one cares anymore. Although I did see Cabin in the Woods and The Avengers and highly recommend seeing them both. I also saw Mirror Mirror and highly recommend never seeing that.
Snow White and the Huntsman is an interesting take on our classic Snow White tale. It has that Batman Begins quality of taking something we consider fantastical or imaginary and examining it under a realistic gritty lens. Most the Grimm Fairy Tales have potential for this type of exploration since the original written stories tend to be on the gruesome side and have mostly been white washed by Disney.
I like that Kirsten Stewart (it's fine, go ahead and judge me, I'm not alone, other people like her too ok?) I also LOVE Charlize Theron (a huge dog activist, go Charlize!) and Chris Hemsworth is just stupid handsome. I mean, it's just ridiculous. My heart has beaten for him ever since loving Thor.
This dark movie is filled with stunning visuals. The way the queen's magic and the 'dark army' is manifested on screen is incredibly creative and beautiful, it's definitely the highlight of the film. I would even say the images are so striking that's it's actually worth seeing on the big screen.
However, some of the attempt to make this movie less of an annoying fairy tale falls short. There is an effort to blend extreme seriousness with a few jokes that doesn't quite work. It's too bad because if they'd managed to meld those energies this would have been a great movie. Instead it's just good, with a few laugh lines seeming awkwardly out of place and some serious moments coming off as ridiculously over handed.
Despite our heroine being a pants wearing leader of men it's hard to tell this tale as a feminist one since ultimately it's a story about one woman trying to kill another woman because she might be prettier. In this version that drive is portrayed by a mirror which we are led to believe might not be magic but is perhaps the evil queen's own hallucination, demonstrating even further the pressure women feel to look perfect forever, and how far our own insecurities can drive us.
It's an interesting exploration to give the queen such dark magical power and yet show that the iconic mirror may be nothing more than a useless piece of metal which she has imagined into driving her to destroy all young and beautiful women, due to her own self doubt and a desire to stay young and beautiful (and the power that comes with it). They also hint at a rape/kidnap story which originally planted this demon inside the queen who hates men and feels the need to punish them all for the one who originally destroyed her. It's fun and I enjoy seeing the softer side of villans, it's always compelling to humanize the bad guy and I was entertained by how they did it in this. Theron's performance pushes it over the top, she is so sympathetic as our antagonist that I actually felt sorry for her until they showed her wearing fur. (Then I was like, EVIL LADY! EVIL LADY!)
It seems that one of the goals here was to make Snow White something more than a useless princess and they do that, although it's limited realistically. When one has spent their entire life locked up in a tower, it's hard to imagine she's had much hand to hand combat training. This is something the ridiculously sexy Huntsman notices and teaches her one move, naturally it ends up being very important and ultimately what saves her. (Thank goodness there was a man around otherwise WHAT would've happened??)
Of course there's also the incessant story line of the appropriate nice guy she should probably be with verses the oh so bad boy who must be wrong, but naturally he would change his ways for the right woman. AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! I CAN'T TAKE IT! Stop it, stop it! AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!
I am thrilled to say that she does put her hair back in the final battle sequence. If I have to sit through one more action movie where the apparently badass woman has her hair in her face I will just vomit. As if! I can't even read a book with my hair in my face much less fight in an ancient war or take down an alien invasion. Come on, Hollywood!
There are too many horses falling down for me to truly enjoy this movie and there's even one scene where they are all trotting in that insane high stepping gait. From what I understand the horses have to be tortured to learn how to do because it is so unnatural. I found that upsetting and I am probably going to write a letter. There are also a lot of bird feathers and animal fur decorating sets but I'm just going to imagine it was all fake for peace of mind.
Again, this movie is entertaining, and extremely visual so it's definitely a fun watch, but don't forget to bring some salt. It is a fairy tale after all.
