Tuesday 5 June 2012

Kiwi Film Review: Snow White and the Huntsman



IMDB: 6.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 48%
Roger Ebert: 3.5/4


Stars: Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron.
Written by: Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock, Hossein Amini
Directed By: Rupert Sanders



Release Date: June 1st 2012

Described by IMDB as "Snow White is the only person in the land fairer than the evil queen. Unable to tolerate the insult to her vanity, the evil queen decides that Snow White must die. The queen sends a huntsman to kill Snow White. However the huntsman finds himself unable to murder the innocent young woman, and instead ends up training her to become a warrior capable of threatening the queen's reign."



Well, I walk away from this movie with very mixed feelings. There were things a loved and things I absolutely hated. I'll start first with the things I loved. This film was visually beautiful, and the special effects were great. I thought it was super impressive that they managed to make full grown actors to look like dwarves. Although, I have to say that I don't really understand their reasoning for that one. Its hard enough for little people(is that the politically correct terminology?) to get good jobs, especially ones where they aren't wearing stupid costumes where you can't even see their faces; they can't even get jobs of the 7 dwarves? Its definitely possible to find 7 funny, good actors who are born for the part, so to speak. Besides all of that, I did think the effects were impressive and I enjoyed all of the actors. Also, Chris Hemsworth was cast PERFECTLY. He is so damn attractive! I could've watched him all day.


Now for the bad. As much as I love Charlize Theron and her acting abilities, she was crazy in this movie. Well, I guess that's a little harsh. She was good through most of it, and I thought her accent was good. She looked and sounded super strong, but every now and then she'd go completely over the top, like way too much. Her shrieking was unbearable, and she was just too intense over all. However, her bad acting was nothing compared to Kristen Stewart's. She was the exact same as she is in every role; dull. I'll give her credit that she did seem to be improving a bit, but she's just not believable as Snow White. They made her as beautiful as she could me, and she really was pretty, but "fairer" than Charlize? I don't think so. I think the casting on this one was very much off, and I don't understand the rationalization for her. The fact that she meets the physical description doesn't mean she should get the job. I'm not British so I can't make this statement knowing I'm 100% right, but from what I could tell, her accent was awful. Also, I just didn't find her strong enough as a character. In this re-telling she's supposed to be strong enough to rise up and take back the kingdom, but I found her only partially believable in the scenes where she was trying to be that person. Again, bad casting on that part.


Also, even though I enjoyed the story, there were SO many far fetched ideas. I know its a movie, but even if you accept the dark magic and the ability for the Queen to suck the souls out of young girls, or the fairies and the enchanted forest, the amount of luck that Snow White(Stewart) has is completely ridiculous. Really, you come out of a sewer and find a perfect, gentle, white horse? AND you know how to write it perfectly despite the fact that you've been locked in a tower for the last 10(ish) years? Thats super great for you. I can accept all of the rules and situations that are set up in the film but thats just one example of something thats a little far-fetched even in the world it takes place in.


Overall I feel like I generally enjoyed this film, but as I stated above it had some pretty core problems. I think the beauty of the film made up for the problems quite a bit. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't buy this film, or go see it again in theatres, but I didn't regret seeing it, so I'd recomend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy/adventure films. I think I'll give it a 6.5/10, that seems fair.

No comments:

Post a Comment