Reviewed by Alicia Glass
Review Rating: 7
Warning! Spoiler Review!
A re-telling of the classic Snow White tale, with a golden killer Queen, a brave and stalwart Snow White, and the Huntsman turned Hero!
I wish I could say, that’s actually what the film was. Despite it starring Kristen Stewart as Snow White, I thought I’d give Charlize Theron as the evil Queen and Chris Hemsworth as the Huntsman, at least a try. The film starts off being narrated by Hemsworth and that marvelous accent of his, telling the story of Snow White’s mother, her own birth and then the death of the Queen awhile later, in tears and lamentations. The King gets goaded into war with this magical army, and just happens to find this most beautiful woman as a prisoner in one of their wagons, whom he carts home and promptly marries. And that night, she kills him as he’s trying to make love to his new bride. The magical army is replaced by a very real one, led by Ravenna’s weird brother, and she takes over the kingdom and locks Snow in a tower. Fast forward several years and right around the time *gasp* Snow comes of age, the golden mirror creature tells the Queen she can stop eating the young and beautiful somewhat constantly, by just outright consuming Snow’s heart. “By fairest blood”, and all that.
Ravenna sends her brother to do the deed and he just can’t resist trying to taste Snow, and gets a sharpened stake round his head for his trouble. By this point, Snow is older, determined, willing to do almost anything to escape, and did I mention she’s a Christian? You can hear her doing muttered prayers in her tower prison. Normally it wouldn’t matter, but we will come back to this point as it has relevancy in my rants for later. So Snow indeed escapes her tower prison (there’s a whole scene with a random white horse) and falls right into the dank forest, where the Queen’s men’s horses refuse to follow, and the Queen in her wrath demands that her brother find a Huntsman to track Snow down. Que the Huntsman, who never actually got a name apparently, in a drunken stupor trying to forget the death of his wife, as being the best man for the job. They never did say why he’s the only one who could be the Huntsman, either, but did make a point of saying only HE could do it. On we go.
So Snow’s being chased through the dark forest by the Huntsman, the Queen’s brother and his men, and did I mention that Snow’s former childhood companion William, who upon discovering she was still alive just had to go and join the hunting party but on the wrong side, was with them? Confrontations ensue, and the Huntsman more or less joins Snow’s side of the fence, only to be caught in a trap by, you guessed it, the dwarves. Who are, in this movie, thieves but all with hearts of gold, okay fine. Eventually the dwarves lead the way to their home, which just happens to be in…faerie land. Where Snow has a visually lovely scene with…the King of the Faeries, in his guise as the White Stag. Not so okay, but yes, it looks really grand and pretty to watch.
Snow and her Huntsman now begin to gather the loyalties of those they meet on their wild flight adventure, and she is eventually convinced to rally the troops of her dead father’s brother and anyone else who will come fight, to take down Ravenna! There’s even a rousing speech from Stewart as Snow towards the end, hurrah!
But wait, I have another complaint. Most fairy tale stories say that your innocence is gone when you do bloodshed and violence and death by your own hand, and yes Snow did just that to regain her throne.Ravenna got a slice of a backstory that actually allowed a glimpse into her reasonings, but this curse fated to be undone by “fairest blood” just doesn’t sit well with me. The movie also strongly points to the Huntsman being Snow’s true love, it was his kiss that woke her from the poison apple after all, not William the would-be Hero-Prince. So, take it for what you will. I did still enjoy listening to Charlize Theron as Queen Ravenna rant at her brother at the top of her lungs, it’s rather insane. Oh and yes, in case you’re wondering or dreading, they left it open at the end for a sequel.