Movie Review: Snow White and the Huntsman

Snow White and the Huntsman

Release: 01 June 2012
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron
Director: Rupert Sanders
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Length: 127 min.
Rating: PG-13

Basic Premise:
The Evil Queen wants Snow White’s heart and she’ll kill anyone who stands in her way to get it.

Review:
It’s another remake of the Snow White story. I saw the teaser for this and said pass. I saw the full trailer and changed my mind. There’s an old saying — the first impression is usually the correct one. I should have stuck to my original opinion and skipped this movie.

Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth did fantastic. Their performance and the beautiful special effects made this movie palatable. There’s a reason Charlize is the major focus in all the trailers. If they showed Kristen Stewart’s parts of the movie, no one would have shown up. She must have graduated valedictorian with top honors from the Keanu Reeves school of acting, because she does deadpan so well.

If you need an actress to play hurt, scared, and dying then Kristen Stewart is exactly who you want. If you played a drinking game in this movie where you take a shot every time she smiles (or shows any emotion at all), you’ll leave sober. The rousing speech meant to rally fighters to her side came across as a whiny two-year-old’s temper tantrum.

But it takes more than a lackluster performance to tank a movie in my mind. It takes a director who doesn’t know how to tell a story. The pacing of this movie was horrible. It was like reading a book with one chapter of action followed by three chapters of boring character introspection and drawn out description before you get to another chapter of action.

There was also a lack of time in the beginning of the movie. I couldn’t tell if one day had passed or one hour. It looked like they’d been walking for a few hours but the scene played out like they were traveling long enough for the seasons to change.

Oh and let’s not forget that someone must be a Hayao Miyazaki fan because the king of the forest looked very reminiscent of an animal from Mononoke Hime (US Title: Princess Mononoke). And the way that animal dispersed when he left looked very similar to a scene in Spirited Away. But, I’ll let that pass. Movies do tend to borrow from on another.

I was so happy when the movie ended, but then I kept waiting for the deep Morgan Freeman-esque voice to come over the scene and say, “And that was how Snow White became the new Evil Queen.” Again, going back to Kristen Stewart’s acting, I was waiting for the evil magic to consumer her and massacre everyone in the room because that’s the vibe she gave off.

So, final verdict, if you are waffling about this movie just pass. If you are trying to decide between this and another movie, go to the other movie.